The title of this entry, “quiero conocerte,” means, “I want to get to know you.” A nice way of  saying I like you, I think I’ll hang around! It’s nice when new friends say this, and I love that this is exactly how I feel about Spain 🙂

Walking home, along the river:

My huge apartment building:

Starting Intensive Grammar

Every day from 3-6pm, I have class at the CIEE study center. That means leaving from the square near where we live at least a half hour before class to get there on time. It sort of eats our day, having a 3 hour class in the middle of it, but we’ve still been having some interesting experiences nonetheless. Randa was a little sick for a few days, but I have class with Hannah, so we’ve been sticking together most days. Taking another Spanish grammar class is especially boring for me, and grading is pretty tough! There’s no leeway for forgetting to add a certain part of an assignment, or special treatment, even if your Spanish is great. From what I’ve heard though, this is what to expect of any academic setting in Spain. There’s no eating, challenging the professor, or second chances in class here. I’m getting a good bit out of it though, looking up a lot of words in the pocket diccionario that I brought, and enjoying the moments between activities and lessons that we spend listening to rockola.com, which is like a Spanish Pandora.com. Hopefully having that at my disposal will help my comprehension.

Adjusting to My New Linguistic Identity

I mentioned this briefly in a former post, and am finding it more and more prevalent, the more I interact with native Spanish speakers. Wanting to express a certain part of my personality, but not being able to, is one of the most intimidating, and difficult things about making new such friends. I’ve been going out and spending time with a couple of people who only speak Spanish, and though it’s cool that they consider me bilingual for being able to communicate with them, and speak English, it’s beyond frustrating at some times. When I can’t made a funny remark, explain something in detail, or understand a story being told, I feel like I need to just start over learning Spanish all over again, and that’s discouraging. Luckily, people are patient for the most part. Willing to rephrase, or say things again slower, or emphasized differently. The accent, much as I can mimmic pretty well, still throws me off some times. Today, I made my friend Carlos repeat himself more than 3 times, when what I heard coming out of his mouth was “pixa,” and didn’t seem to make any sense, before I realized he was talking “pizza.” When I finally got it, I just rolled my eyes and made fun of his accent. I felt a little stupid for having needed to ask for so many repetitions, but sometimes there’s nothing more to do, and I’d rather understand than not know!

Spain in Action

On Tuesday we were leaving the study center to head for a caf� in town that we like, walking on the main road, when we ran into an enormous crowd of people. As we got closer, we could hear shouts and then chanting, and noticed that a bunch of people had signs and matching t-shirts on. Both bore the photo of a girl who didn’t look older than 14, and had her name – Marta del Castillo. According to an article that Hannah found and read to me, it was an anniversary of her disappearance. The true controversy of the matter is that though her boyfriend came forward saying that he murdered and threw her in the river (the one I cross over every day to walk into town :/ kinda scary when Hannah and I realized that), there has not been justice. Because they could not confirm that the boyfriend was culpable, or find a body, it seems the police and justice system at large left the mystery unsolved. Tens of thousands of people across the country have joined the city of Sevilla, and Marta’s parents in a desperate cry for justice. Apart from the unbelievable story that is headliner, I found it amazing that the people of Spain united in this way to speak out against silence. Hannah did too, and said she didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, “This happens all the time in America, but people in the States don’t do that,” she remarked. I agreed that it was really incredible to see people making such a big to-do, because they really believe that together they can change things. I hope they do.

The Way People Are

Spending time in caf�s after class is a good way not only to get homework done, but also an opportunity to see how else Spanish natives function when they are together. Hannah and I sat at a table across from each other, while other students did the same throughout the tiny establishment. At one point, 5 middle-aged Spanish friends walked in together, and upon failing to drag to tables together because of the huge weight on the bottom of them, and the lack of space, they simply resigned to all sitting around one tiny table. In Europe, it seems, it’s not unusual for people who know each other well to be in close quarters if need be. The group was sitting almost shoulder to shoulder and they didn’t seem to be complaining about it!

In our apartment, we watch a lot of TV. Everything from “telenovelas” (soaps), game-shows (which are the hardest for me to follow, because of all of the cultural references and often, quick paced interaction), “noticias” (news), and movies are concerned with the state of “El Pa�s” (“The Country,” a common reference to Spain, and also the name of a main news source here). Most everything we watch, even the likes of the Spanish version of “How It’s Made,” talks about the bad economy. Tonight however, the message really started to hit home. Apparently SpanAir just went bankrupt, so newscasters were talking to people waiting in the airport to get different flights or go home. There was also a segment about the people who worked for them, who were all saying they didn’t know what they were going to do next, or how they would find work again. One woman said she’d  been a flight assistant since she left high school. These kinds of stories really bring to light the meaning of common terms used here, such as “crisis,” which is on the lips of Spaniards everywhere, and plastered on walls in the form of posters and graffiti (I know it’s looks like English, but the Spanish word, [KREE-SEES] carries a lot more meaning lately).

On top of the economic hardship, and the lack of jobs, it’s clear there are other problems in Europe that might slip under the international radar, but do not go unnoticed by natives, or the news. The other day when we were watching the news, there was a(nother) story about a woman who was murdered by her husband, due to extreme domestic violence. The people here seem so calm and with it, I wouldn’t have thought of Spain as a place where that’s something to worry about, and Loli seemed to think it was out of the ordinary how many tragic occurances there have been like this in the past few years.

Art in Town 🙂

There’s a lot of random graffiti, street art, and other forms of expression going on in Seville. Everywhere you walk, there are either big murals on walls, pictures of saints on tile, or flamenco dresses in windows. The buildings themselves are mostly old, stone or brick structures that have maintained their form, and either wear an antiquated layer of dark dust and grime, or have been cleaned to show the bright grey color of their walls. There are also memorials, statues, and free-standing structures in plazas and parks all over the place. When I went for a run with Hannah and Randa yesterday morning, there were murals and graffiti the whooole way down the place where we ran, which was a good 3 kilometer stretch along the river (and absolutely awesome, not to mention). We even saw some kids with sketch pads and brushes, painting away over some older work.

Some of my own art, this is the main bridge that goes across the river to the “Mainland” of Sevilla:

and a view of some palm trees in Triana, from the other side of the rio:

Mmmh I love the Food!

I’ve pretty quickly come to learn why they say that the mediterranean diet is among the healthiest. Some days, Loli serves me whole plates of steamed greens, like spinach – which is usually mixed with chick peas – or cooked beans; sometimes potatoes and cauliflower with a fried egg; and almost always bread with the meal to sop up oils and juices, and oranges or yogurt at the end of the meal. I love it! The food is always fresh, and lately it’s been really interesting too. We had seafood for a few days, which included whitefish and shrimp with melt-in-your-mouth soft, chopped potatoes in a light broth for dinner one night, and a seafood macaroni and cheese the next day for lunch when Loli’s daughter, her husband, and their baby came to town. Today we had fried potatoes with egg, it was good but I feel like I need to go for another run after all the carbs!! Dinner though, was all protein – garlic-lemon chicken from last night, and mushrooms in olive oil – yum!

Stay tuned! I’ve got a trop to C�rdoba with my program in two weekends, and the week after that, Carnaval in C�diz, with We Love Spain.

Location: Triana. Sevilla, Spain.