10/10/11

What I've been doing:

--Going on my second wind. I didn't post for a little while because I was on a bit of a low and didn't have much to say, but I'm in love with life here all over again. All of it. From my walk up the hill to class, to my stop at the fruteria to get some veggies for dinner, to the October weather in the high 80s, to laughing-until-I-cry conversations with my roommates or coming home to find that one of them made fresh-baked crepes, or pasta, or lentils...all the daily routines are wonderful, not to mention the extraordinary, the day trips, the longer excursions. It's all a dream.

--Checking out Camborio for the first time, and shortly, the second. It's a discoteca in the hills of the Sacromonte, and like all the homes of the neighborhood, the club is built into a cave and the terrace is right across from the Alhambra, which is lit up beautifully at night. This gives it a very, very cool ambiance.

--Going on a really neat hike in the Sierra Nevadas out of a town called Monachil with my roommates and a whole load of my French roommate's friends. The hike went over a bunch of hanging bridges over the river, then to an area where we had to walk along a narrow ledge above the river while rock formations stuck out, minimizing the ledge-space to occasionally scary levels, then up to some amazing views of the Sierras. I was pleasantly surprised by the group's willingness to scramble up sketchy ass slopes and peaks for random summitventures. We also passed an absolutely killer rock climbing area replete with anchors suitable for both lead and top rope climbing, and with walls that looked doable for a beginner but entertaining enough for more advanced climbers. MUST...FIND...CLIMBING PARTNER! We also had a hysterical conversation with an eccentric Spanish grandma who asked me in slightly more vulgar terms if I was of the heterosexual persuasion, after being told that I didn't get it on with either of my male roommates.

--Going to class. As of today, I've finally had all my classes! I'm super excited for sociology of education because I get to do my presentation on problems facing teachers today and can draw upon my international experience. In anthro of religion, my group will present on Hinduism. The Power in the Modern Age has a professor with some very obnoxious postmodern-type ideas, such as that there are no errors in history and that I only think there are because I'm from the US. Still, I like the people in the class and the discussion-based style breaks up the monotony of lecture. That alone might make me stay in that class over intro to traditional music, which has so much potential but is made awful by an hour and a half of theoretical lecture per class before we actually get to see/hear anything.

--Workin' out. Gym membership, spin class, wassup?

--Learning that the Modern Age is not our current, very modern age, but in fact the time from the end of the 15th century to the 18th. Dammit, history, stop making me look dumb.

What I've noticed recently: it's becoming hard to back-translate situations, phrases, and words into English when recounting stories, and that Spaniards' relaxed attitudes about class also manifests itself in a lack of self-consciousness about speaking up, answering professors' questions or asking their own, and giving a lengthy, genuine response if that's what they feel like doing at the moment.