The Final Countdown

Well, unfortunately I am in my last few days of this wonderful semester. I wish it were not ending, but soon I have to get back to my other life in the states. This past week was relatively busy with schoolwork and preparing for final exams. In our education class on Monday, a speaker came to our class to talk about learning second languages. He was very interesting and had a lot of good insight about learning English. He said that many words in English only have one syllable, which makes it more difficult to recognize words. In Spanish, we often have 2 or 3 more syllables to give us more time to figure out the word, whereas in English, it may be only one syllable. This contributes to English being a difficult language to learn. On Wednesday in the same class, we took a field trip to a school called Clic, which teaches people how to teach English as a second language. We had a very interesting presentation and I enjoyed touring another school in Sevilla.
Speaking of schools, one day this week., Carmen’s granddaughter, Marina came over for lunch. She goes to the Catholic school 5 minutes away from our house. I was asking her about the school, and learned that it is public. Some public schools in Spain are catholic, which surprised me. We tried to explain to Carmen that it is not the same in the States due to the separation of church and state, but she did not seem to understand. I don’t know if we did not explain it very well or if she didn’t understand the concept. I knew Spain was a very Catholic country (although not very many people actually go to church or receive communion), but was just surprised at the continuing influence of Catholicism.
A few other interesting things I have been thinking about recently. I feel like now I can communicate pretty effectively, but when hanging out with my friends, there is still a wide gap concerning jokes. They have told some jokes-or more like played some tricks-that I do not think are the least bit funny. The same has happened when I tell a joke or story I think is funny. Either we all just have really different senses of humor, or the sense of humor is one of those very culturally dependent aspects.
While I am not ready to leave for many reasons, one is that I feel like I have made two recent strides in my Spanish. I have just become comfortable with voluntarily conversing with people in stores or people I meet. Sure I talk a lot with my friends, but when I enter a shop or want to buy a ticket for something, I used to stick to only what I needed to say. I am just now becoming comfortable commenting on my purchase or offering something for conversation. I feel like not doing this hides one’s personality, but I was just scared to speak and had some weird idea in my mind that they would start laughing or something. Being on the ‘other side’ of the language barrier gives me so much more respect for people and reminds me that they try really hard. Like we talked about in our Cultural Realities class, people sometimes experience frustration when they are living in another country because they cannot express themselves to the fullest or let their personality shine through.
In addition to this, I am now able to walk down the street and pick up on conversations. Before, it either sounded like a bunch of random words, or just noise, but now as I pass people, I can pick up on their conversations and know what they are saying. To explain a little more: before I was able to watch Spanish tv or listen to Spanish music and tune it out because it was easy to not concentrate on the words. It the tv is on in the house (in the States), it is hard to ignore it, because your brain is comprehending all the words. But I would just tune it out and kind of hear a humming in the background. This passage from noise to a real language is wonderful and makes me that much more interested in the language.
Ok, to continue with the week: Thursday I taught my third and final class. It was a good experience again, and I received good feedback from my teacher. I will be sad to leave this class, because they were so enthusiastic and incredibly nice to me. Friday, the school sponsored a trip to La Rábida and a nearby playa. La Rabida is a monastery where Christopher Columbus planned his trip and is very near the port from where he left. We got to tour the monastery and see maps of the “New World" as well as some recreations of how the monastery looked in Columbus’ time. We then walked a ways to true-to-size replications of the Niña, Pinta and the Santa María. The exhibition was very well done with lots of detail. It was neat to be able to board the boats and imagine sailing across to America. After the two tours, we headed to the playa where we stayed for 3 hours or so. It was a medium warm day and kind of windy, but still nice to relax and talk with friends. The town, Mazagón was strangely deserted and very Spanish-even the supermarket closed for a siesta.
Yesterday (Saturday), I went to some markets with my friend, and bought a pair of handmade leather earrings in the shape of leaves. They were from an art show right next to the river with beautiful artwork of Triana and Sevilla. Too bad I cant transport any big paintings home. We then headed to the local Triana food market and browsed the fruits, vegetables, meats and fish. Next stop was the book fair in Plaza Nueva with an incredible amount of books. They had everything-from children’s books to ones on jamón , fresas and Semana Santa.
This morning, I went to the church on San Jacinto (very near my house) for the first time. It is a beautiful church-smaller and simpler than the catedral. We are heading to a Novillada (bull fight) this afternoon ,which should be fun.
I think that is all for now…..hasta luego!