jueves, 11 julio

Today when I woke up, Alfonso was in the living room watching San Fermín and the running of the bulls so that made breakfast a lot more interesting. In class today we did more work with imperfect and read some urban legends. Some of the stories really didn't make sense at first, but then we realized you had to match the imperfecto sentences with their spot in the story and then the stories made sense. We then had conversations with our partners about an event in our life that was either happy, sad, embarrassing or otherwise relevant. After that we did a pass-the-story game. My favorite story created by my group was about a gato that was found outside and then brought home and given food and a bath. During the bath, the kitty fell asleep so when she woke up she was super fluffy, and then got the name Fluffy. After the 11am break we finished our stories and then began to talk about professions in preparation for tomorrow's class. We played a matching game that had weird instructions so we ended up making up new rules. And the last 45 minutes or so of class revolved around the song and dance for the final fiesta.

During lunch today the conversation continued along the lines of Alba wanting a tattoo, although it quickly transitioned into Sandra saying how no matter what she says, Alba will do the opposite. Alfonso then said that Sandra was like that as a child so karma is coming back around. For lunch today we had rice with spaghetti sauce, hot dog-like sausages, and fried eggs. I'm really starting to like fried eggs- which is ridiculously weird since I'm normally very picky about eggs. During siesta I listened to a spanish music playlist on youtube and worked on memorizing my speech for tomorrow.

I needed a break from repeating my speech about my weekend in Madrid so I decided to meet the group of studiers at Malquerida. We got a little distracted and started talking about classes here and the T.A.s and differences between UNL and UCLM (Uni. of Castilla-La Mancha). We also talked about the good, and the not-so-good classes, at UNL. Since Chris and Heather, our UNL faculty here to help us if needed, were also at Malquerida they were able to give us insights into the teachers' side of UNL and UCLM. I thought it was really interesting when we started to talk about host families, because we began to compare families in the different Hispanic cultures we are familiar with: Spain, Mexico, immigrants to the US, and Chris's three year experience in Panama. We talked about how it is rude to ask a guest "what do you want (to drink)" in some cultures and how us Nebraskans have a hard time being rude. For example, I instinctually make eye contact and smile when I walk down the street, but here it instantly labels me as an American. [So to everyone back home: when I return to the States, I'm not being rude, it's just going to be a reverse culture shock adjustment period.] Also, when at restaurants, the Nebraska instinct is to say "Could I have café? or I would like café" with a couple pleases and thank yous every other sentence but here you just "Café... or give me (as a command) café"  


At home I had lasagna that had just the right amount of creamy cheese, also known as a plate full of creamy cheese with a couple lasagna noodles. I also had somewhat good plain yogurt but I put (what I think is) a peach into it so that made it better. When I was biting my peach it sprayed everywhere and there was more juice on my hands and the table than into my yogurt cup. Thank goodness for washcloths! During and after cena we watched two movies- "Apunta, dispara y corre" (Running Scared; 1986) with really bad dubbed voice and moving mouths compatibility; and "Abierto hasta al amanecer" (From Dawn until Dust; 1996), where George Clooney's dub over voice was hilarious. I will definitely still want to watch dubbed over movies in the future since they are super funny to try to lip read. I also made the not-thought-through decision to sit by the light and got attacked by a couple of bugs- the first time it happened I "eep'd" which is basically the crazy sound I make when freaked out; but thankfully the scared expression and motions of getting bugs out of your personal space is not constrained by language. 

Tomorrow I will be getting sunburned in Valencia, so I won't be posting anything until Saturday night Spain time. 

Love y'all!