Spain on Strike!

Welcome to Calle Bailen #62! I decided instead of adorning the blog with pictures I'd add shaky videos taken from my bicycle so you can see a little bit of Sevilla! This first one ends at the door of my apartment! Yesterday (9/29/10) Spain was on strike! Basically the people here are very upset with the government and the pay cuts that the government implemented. Spain has a 20% unemployment rate...so people are PISSED. While everyone in Spain was mad about the strike, I was actually thrilled. Not about the unemployment, pay cuts, etc.... but yesterday all classes at the University were CANCELLED!! So after my 9:00 AM Flamenco class I was free for the day! Although there wasn't too much to do seeing as most things were closed. Last night we tried to go back to the Carboneria... but it was closed because of the strike. Que lastimita. But it was a nice day full of relaxing and I got the chance to get some stuff done.

Yesterday, I switched around my classes a bit because I wasn't too thrilled about two of them. I dropped Inter-American relations and added a class that my friend Kesley told me about called "The Image of the United States in Spain: 100 Years of Myths and Stereotypes." Seems like it's gonna be so interesting. We look at Spain's image of the US and vice-versa...myths...stereotypes...just like the class sounds. I had my first day of that class today and I'm very excited about it. PLUS, unlike my other class, I can understand the teacher! I think I'm gonna love the Flamenco class. Despite the teacher coming dressed as "Aladdin" as Allison so lovingly put it, it seems like the class is right up my ally. Its a lot about studying the history of the art form but it looks at it through melodic themes, rhythms, and dance movements. I get the chance to be artistic and relate things that I'm learning at Elon to my experience in the Flamenco class. Speaking of being artistic... it's been hard to be away from performing especially knowing that everyone at Elon is dancing, singing, and acting their hearts out. I keep reminding myself what Brenna and Richard have told me...and that anything that you do for yourself as a person will be wonderful for you as an artist. Even so, I get my fill with this class, ballet, and Chema (my Cello playing suite mate) talking to me about Bernstein and showing me his cool videos. Check this one out.... it's long but watch it the whole way through if you have time. It's really interesting and has a beautiful message.

But then there are times, when I think, THIS IS MY LIFE. Like today, for example, I only had one class which started at 11:00 AM and ended at 12:40 PM. Since we don't have classes on Fridays I was done with class for the week! So naturally Quin and I took advantage of this glorious opportunity and beautiful day. We went back to the hotel that we had our program orientation at, walked in like we were guests, took the elevator up to the roof, and suntanned on the roof and hung out by the hotel pool for a couple of hourse. (Video below) It was a perfect way to start the weekend after our first week of real classes. Right before we went to the pool Paige, Quin and I booked our trip to Barcelona for the weekend of the 14th-17th. I was gonna try to visit Charlie in Scotland that weekend but it didn't work out time-wise and prices shot up. Sorry Sir Charles...But I'm really excited to visit Barcelona! I hear its amazing.

On Saturday morning we leave for a weekend trip to Granada...I'll blog about more about that Sunday when I get back. I'm very excited for the coming weeks! Trips to Granada, Barcelona, Madrid with Mom, Julie and Mimi, Morocco, Italy, Paris and I'm attempting to add a ski trip in between!

Tomorrow we have our first interest group excursion! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but a couple of weeks ago we all picked interest groups through CIEE. Each interest group has a different theme such as sports of Spain, the countries that border Spain, art and culture of Sevilla...etc. Given my love for food and given my detest for the food at the Resedencia I chose the "Grupo de Interés de Gastronomía." Tomorrow we go to a cooking school, the following mini-trip is to the mountains to pick and cook mushrooms, then a cooking class, a beer factory (one of the largest in Europe), then to Valencia! I hope to become a top Sevillan chef and make Paella and food back at school that Leela wont complain about and to extend my repertoire beyond Chicken Parmesan! Here's to hoping!

Hasta que volvamos a ver!