Wednesday evening, we had a flamenco class. It wasn't as fun as I'd imagined. While fun to watch, flamenco is a traditional dance with certain steps, so classes are all about learning the proper steps and hand motions rather than being able to get creative and dance fluidly.
On Thursday, we had our first day of classes. The first two hours are language and the second two are culture (more like history). I underestimated how draining it would be to take 4 hours of classes with a half hour break in between. Luckily the profs are both pretty cool. The first class was mostly introductions, but in language, we started asking assorted questions and ended up getting a bit of Spanish Politics 101. There are two parties, the PP (Partido Popular, right-wing) and the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrera Espan~ol, socialist/left wing). Right now the PSOE is in control, but they're being blamed for the current economic crisis. As a sidenote, the king is a figurehead who pisses a lot of people off because even in the midst of economic crisis, taxes pay for things like his yachts and his family's clothes. He has the power to step in when he wants to and has made a few important political decisions, such as the relegalization of all the political parties after dictator Francisco Franco's death in 1975. So he is heralded as having brought democracy back to Spain.
After class, I spent the siesta on the beach. While the water isn't tropically warm, it's a very pleasant temperature. That evening, we went to play beach soccer (that is I sat and watched) and took a second dip in the ocean. Life's hard, right? ;)
On Fridays we have cultural field trips, and yesterday's was to an Islamic castle in the nearby city of Jerez. A history professor from the University of Cordoba came with us and taught us a bit about its history. Afterward, we went to the neighboring bodega de jerez, or sherry winery. So sherry is named after the city, where the liquor originated. After some more beach time came Harry Potter en espan~ol! Apparently in the bigger cities, you can find movies dubbed or subbed, but in the small towns, all you get are dubs. It was surprisingly not that distracting: it was funny at first and I cracked up with every pronunciation of Snape as "e-snayp-e," but the voice actors were all well matched to the originals. After that, I went out for my first real Spanish party night, first to the bars, then to a smaller club-bar. It was tons of fun, but I don't think I'll be doing that very often, even with the siesta. Didn't feel so hot today.
When I finally went out today, I ran into my friend Jen at the cathedral talking with her intercambio, a Spanish woman around 30. I began to talk to both of them and shortly after that a hobo came up to us and started yelling at Jen in both Spanish and English to go back to Japan and asked why her people made bombs and did nothing but obsess over technology (She's Korean, as it happens.) I got incredibly mad on Jen's behalf and told the woman to fuck off. After a while, after ripping on gays and lesbians, then asking why Clint Eastwood, president of California, doesn't like gays and lesbians, she finally went away for a bit. (And much more, all just as absurd.) Jen's intercambio got kind of annoyed with me for saying anything to her, and told me that you shouldn't argue with crazy people and that I shouldn't have said anything. She was absolutely right. Alas, my emotions got the best of me.
On a random note, it gets dark at like 10 here. It's 9 now and completely light. Pretty great.
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