Flamenco Fiend

This has been a very busy week. So PLEASE forgive me for not posting sooner. This week has been full of grammar grammar grammar and so today I have the day off to do what? ...Study Grammar! AHHH!! Anyway... this morning I had to wake up early in order to go to the University of Seville (picture on left) for an orientation. At CIEE we have the option to take "Cursos Para Extranjeros" which are courses for foreigners at the University of Seville. They are in Spanish and similar to CIEE courses but they are taught at the University by their faculty and it is a mix of students from many different programs. Starting Monday I'm taking two "Cursos Para Extranjeros" and two CIEE courses. At the University I'm taking "Inter-American Relations" which looks at United States politics from a Spaniard point of view and "Contemporary Spanish Theatre." I've heard the theatre here is a little odd, but I'm looking forward to having some performing arts classes while I'm here... PLUS it fulfills my Elon literature requirement!

At CIEE I'm taking "Creation of the European Union" and "Flamenco: The Art, Music and Dance of Andalucia." Speaking of flamenco... Last night was so much fun. Paige, Scott, Quin and I went to "La Carboneria." Emily had told me about this place and so had a friend of Paige. We wanted to do something different. Let me tell you, if you were not looking for this place you would never find it (picture on right). It's a little hole in the wall type place but once you walk inside there is a man sitting at a piano, a man singing and someone else playing the guitar and people just hanging out listening to free music. There were maybe ten people there. (I got there first to try to get a table because I heard that it usually gets packed.) I thought, "crowded my ass!" Well, some people walked past me and went into the next room and I saw what they meant! It opens up into a big bar with people hanging out, sitting, talking, and rows and rows of tables. It was packed!! Ok, so the deal with this place is that everyone comes here to see free flamenco. There is a little stage with four chairs and at 11:00 the flamenco starts.

Well, my friends got lost on the way and they didn't live close to the "bar" so I went and got a table. At the table next to me were 3 girls and 1 guy. They looked to be around my age and so I started talking to them about where they were from...what they were doing here...etc, etc. Well they were from Holland! Three just graduated high school and one just graduated college and were here through a language immersion program. They didn't speak a word of Spanish before they came here... I thought I had it rough. But their English was perfect and they said everyone in Holland speaks English. They were so friendly and must have thought for 45 minutes that I was some poor sap whose friend's had ditched him! But eventually they showed up and my new friends from Holland yelled at them for making me wait! The flamenco was so cool. It was a much different atmosphere than the previous show I had seen. It was much more laid back. Also, the performers at La Carboneria don't get paid! They come here to just do their thing and show off their talents. Flamenco certainly is an acquired taste, but I think I'm starting to get the passion and feel of it. Here's a video that I took with my phone so you can get the idea...

On a different note... I booked my trip to Morocco!! I can't wait to go and our trip sounds like its gonna be unreal, so I'll blog about that in a couple of weeks! Next weekend I'm off to Granada! OH! Our apartment is now full! Manuel moved in a couple of days ago. He's from Cádiz....you know, the beach where I went last weekend and seems like a really cool guy. Its very funny though. David and I will be doing our homework and Manuel will just come in the room and sit on one of our beds and just talk. The Spaniards are so eager to meet people. Manuel speaks Spanish...duh... but he prefers to speak English so he can practice, but we're attempting to talk to him in Spanish as much as we can. He helped me with my paper today so I'm glad he's around :) Our other apartment mate is a mystery. David met him once when he first moved in but I was in class. Since then he has not seen him once... I have yet to meet this mysterious, cello playing, Spaniard but David said he seemed really nice and ONLY spoke Spanish! We might need Manuel to translate if we ever can't figure out what he's saying or what we're trying to say...that is if I ever meet him!

I'm trying to think if there's anything else I should blog about... this is why I need to blog more often! Well I guess if there's anything else I can think of I'll post about it next time. I'm very excited for the regular University session to start! I have my grammar final tomorrow...I was studying yesterday in one of the many courtyards of the Museo de Bellas Artes, which is now my favorite place to do work. It is so quiet, beautiful and it has WIFI! In Sevilla they pronounce it "Wee-fee." It took me a while to figure out what the hell they were saying. We might go back to Cádiz or a different beach on Sunday...or maybe a vineyard. Sometimes I'll be walking down the street looking around or trying to make plans for some trip and think: Literally, my life is not real. I'm so f'n lucky!

Hasta que volvamos a ver!