Clases begin!

Day 31 – September 28th – Sunday
Today, as are all Sundays, was filled with lots of sleeping. I woke up with the smell of chicken and potatoes, one of my favorite Teresa originals in the air. It was a delicious lunch, as Teresa dumped almost half of a chicken onto my plate and then made me eat more potatoes. I barely had room for desert. Afterwards, I did not take a siesta because I had school the next day and wanted to be able to go to bed early. I did have internet for most of the day though, so I made a few phone calls and even got to video chat with Marissa for a while. It was great to see here shining face on the other end, moving around and interacting with me. It made me feel a little closer to home. Later on in the evening, I called Nicolas and we headed out to the mall, which is just a few metro stops away. In hindsight, I should've guessed, but almost everything except a few restaurants and the movie theater was closed. It was a pretty nice mall though, kind of reminded me of Easton, though not nearly as big. So after walking around for a while and looking at all the beautiful things in the windows, but not having enough time for a movie, we headed home. At least I didn't spend any money. I got to bed early, but it only made me wake up before my alarm and lay in bed for an hour, but I wasn't too tired in the morning.

Day 32 – September 29th – Monday
First day of extended and culture classes and so far I haven't had any trouble finding my classes. The school is fully attended now, as regular Spanish students have started class as well. It is a lot more crowded, but I'm used to classes of anywhere from thirty to three hundred students and so far my largest has been a little over twenty. I had my first Catalán language class and really enjoyed it. It is taught in Spanish, but its not really that difficult. We mostly focused on the Catalán culture and talked a lot about the Mercè festival that just ended. It seems like we will also be focusing on conversational Catalán and proper pronunciation. They are trying not only to teach us more about the area in which we are staying, but also to help us be more accepted by it. My last class of the day goes from 5-7pm, which is kind of late, but it is considered afternoon until 8pm here. It was my Images of Spain in Contemporary Theater class. We are going to watch eleven movies over the course of the semester. Of the eleven, I had only heard of one and have never seen it. I think it will be a pretty interesting class. Tonight, I had actually planned to go out to the movies to see “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” but we kind of got a late start getting there and were about twenty minutes late, so we decided to wait for the next show, which I didn't realize was only on Friday and Saturday. So instead we enjoyed some tapas and wine and then went home. I stayed out later than I expected tonight, so a siesta tomorrow is a must.

Day 33 – September 30th – Tuesday
Today I only had one new class, which was my Spanish Art and Artists class. I think it is going to be very interesting. Of course there are many Spanish artists, but we are going to focus on five, of which I am sure you will have at least heard of three: Gaudí, Picasso, Dalí, Miró, and Tàpies. The last name is the only one I had not heard of and I guess he is actually still alive, though he is more than ninety years old. This class will be even more interesting because we are going to take three or four field trips to places that would normally cost money to visit. It seems pretty common for classes to take trips here, which I think is just great. Its always nice to get out of the classroom once in a while.

Day 34 – October 1st – Wednesday
More class today. Good news! I like all my classes and I feel like I'll learn a decent amount in all of them. In my language class (I should probably specify which language: Spanish) we talked about a test called the D.E.L.E. which is given by the Instituto Cervantes. It is an official recognition of proficency in the Spanish language and is really the only way that a foreigner can be recognized as knowing the language. It seems like a really good idea, especially when coming back to the States, so I am planning on taking it when it comes around in November. Then she told us it was 175€, which seems a little steep. We'll see how if I can afford it when the time comes. There's a meeting about it on Monday, so I'll learn more about it then. Today, in my other language class, I learned the Catalán alphabet. It is basically the same as the English alphabet, without the famous “Ñ” of Spanish. Then we got into the accents in the Catalán language and things started to get difficult. With O and E the accent can point either way (é or è), each one calling for a different sound. Also, when it is not accented, the “e” makes an “a” sound. I'm kind of wondering what I've gotten myself into, just as I'm learning Spanish well, but I still learn more in that class than any other so it's pretty fulfilling. We watched our first movie in Film class today, called “Viridiana,” directed by Luis Buñuel. It was made in 1961 and is in black and white, but the interesting part is that is was made during the reign of Franco and was outlawed until his death. The irony is that the Spanish director was invited by Franco himself to return to Spain after twenty years abroad to film this one movie. However, the only reason Buñuel accepted was because he knew he would make a film that would not be accepted by the harsh dictator. Throughout the movie, there were many things that I picked up on that would even be considered a little racy today. Just the fact that the main character, a nun, took off her shoes and socks would be enough for the film to be banned. It is hard for us to relate, but up until 1975, this is the way it was in Spain. i really enjoy learning about what it was like. My padre Español, Fernando, was three years old when the civil war started, eight when Franco took power, and forty-three when Franco finally died. To hear his stories about drinking champagne in the streets after the death of their dictator is one of my favorite things about living with these people. They grew up in a completely different time, when you couldn't even kiss your wife in the street or speak the Catalán language outside of your family, and I think he gives them a unique point of view on the world today.