This week happenings:
School. i suppose I'll make this an update about classes.
My classes:
1) Literature:
Is very very difficult as it is in Spanish and most of the people in the class either speak fluently or have taken Spanish for 4 or 5 years. So far we've been studying poetry.. medieval poetry. And most of the topics are surprisingly crude, as a lot of the poems are religious based.
Example: There is a type of poetry called Cuaderno Via, and we studied a poem of this type written in the genre of Mester de Clerecia. In historical context, these poems were very important because they were a mechanism of religious scholars who wanted to educate people who were illiterate. They were spoken, written in verse, had biblical context, and were painstakingly difficult to write. (Apparently). Rhyming sequennces I guess were hard.
Anyway, our Proffesor read one of these poems aloud to us, and the story was about a Friar who was going on a Pilgrimage to Santiago... it was actually a story about a Miracal that happened to the Friar but it was such a strange, strange story. I thought I completely mishearing or mistranslating it until I sat down with the poem and a dictionary and found that I was correct. The story goes something like this: A friar wants to go to Santiago for a Pilgramage, but the day before he goes he sleeps with a woman he is not married to. So on his pilgramage the devil (or many devils) decide to play a trick on him and disguise themselves as Santiago (The saint...) and tell him he has to dismember himself if he wants to be forgiven. He does so and dies of blood loss. And then the Virgin Mary and the real Santiago decide to help the friar because he was tricked and they forgive him and he lives the rest of his life completely devoted to God. He is not tempted to commit adultary anymore as he has not the capacity for it.
Strange strange strange.
All of them are that strange.
My Professor is entertaining, though. He speaks too quickly for me to understand, but he does well at using gestures to describe what is going on. It's diverting.
We are now learning about tragedies, I think. I'm not sure. I have to use my dictionary again.
2. Language
Is just a normal grammar class. (By the way, because you don't use subjects in Spanish sentence because the verb conjugation indicates the subject.... I am inclined to drop it in English. "Is just a normal grammar class." It's weird.).
Anyway, I don't care for my Professor too much. She is very nice and patient and is amused by our horribly rowdy and disrespectful class, but she doesn't teach very well. It's ok, though, because I can figure out the rules eventually. I like grammar a lot. I can understand it, I just am bad at implementing it in my speech.
3. Translation
SO DIFFICULT. We are learning allllll of the verb forms and tenses and it's so complex and I love it. But I am definitely not able to incorporate it into my speech. It's far more advanced than my own spanish speaking level, but it's a learning class. We really aren't graded, we are just practicing translation. There is no pressure, so i'm just absorbing what I can. I'm learning more grammar there than I will learn in my actual grammar class. The professor is very hyper and crazy and dramatic. It's hard to take her seriously.
4. European Union
This class is taught in English. The Professor is an old Spanish man who is very wry and is the one Spaniard who i've encountered who has a sense of irony and sarcasm. (Doesn't exist here, normally.) His poking fun at some of the more-obnoxious members of our group is amusing to watch, especially because his comments tend to go over the heads of those he is mocking. It's very clever.
About the class, though. The European Union (27 member states) seems like a good thing. It unifies most of Europe in such a way that there is transparency amongst its member states and there is no potential for war over, say, the economy or territory because the economy and the land is shared amongst its member states. It does, however, seem to take away the sovereignty of the people within individual member states. I don't know if I value sovereignty. The EU requires that its nation states be democratic, not apply the death penalty, and generally follow what is thought in Western Civilization to be "humane rules".
It's thought provoking. Yesterday we watched videos of people protesting the EU because decisions made to make it more Federal (less sovereignty for the people) were not passed by the people directly. There was no referendum, so people feel like they have no say in the matter. It's complex.
Random facts about the EU:
12 stars of gold on a blue field simply because 12 is a historically sound number. (27 member states now.. so the number has nothing to do with the member states).
The national anthem is "Ode to Joy"
Current President of EU is from Portugal
They are about to pass a new treaty called "Lisbon Treaty" because they finally got Ireland and Poland's signatures. They are waiting on the signature from the Czech Republic.
5. Spanish Cinema:
Is very fun and diverting, and i love our Professor. He is very guapo and intelligent and makes watching movies very fun. He has a good and unique sense of humor. So far we've watched a movie called "La nino de sus Ojos" and "Bienvenido Mister Marshall".
The first movie was about Spanish film makers making two versions of the same film: One in Spanish, one in Germany. (For about 3 years in the 1930s, film makers actually filmed the same movie with two different casts in order to market it to other countries... they didn't figure out dubbing.) It was pretty funny seeing an epic Spanish love story with German voices. It was also a movie about the role of the Spaniard in the context of WWII. The main "actress" in the Spanish version of the film was played by Penelope Cruz and she was seduced by Gerbils... awkward and gross.
The second film was an old Spanish film that had the same sort of charming tone as our old movies. It was about a small Peublo whose inhabitants were preparing for the Americans to come visit and give them gifts because of the Marshall plan. It was nostalgically hilarious and had very subtle humor. My friend Justin and I decided that Blazing Saddles was heavily influenced by it.
You really should watch this: It doesn't require English because the spanish in it is Slurred because it's a dream. It's not even real Spanish. This scene is the Mayor's dream the day before of the American's visit. Thus it's supposedly in American style.
It really, in my opinion, is sort of their impression of our westerns. Anyway, enjoy.
Posts
