25.Enero.2009.
Also, attendance to class is not mandatory so many do not go. There is no limit to how many classes you can take in a semester, so many overload their schedules. They are allowed to retake their exams FOUR times. Basically, they work very little for what they get. The controversy with Plan Bolonia is that it would completely change the way the students view school. They claim with the rising cost of education here too, that it would only make it possible for the rich to attend school. The protests involve marches and sit-ins called encierros. Teachers are involved as well because it would require much more input on their part. Everywhere you see spray painted “No a Bolonia!”. Here education is a right, not a privilege. Ángeles, one of the program directors and my teacher for the Language portion of my introductory class, says that if you want a cultural experience, go to a Bolonia protest. They will be starting at the University again in February. Maybe I will go and shout with the students.
Friday we had an interesting visit to the Reales Alcázares de Sevilla which was the palace for the Muslims who occupied the Península Ibérica. It was built in the tenth century and contains a series of gardens as well. They recommended that if we have time later in the semester to come back when all of the flowers are in bloom. We get in free with our student ID card. The architecture is astounding! They paid incredible attention to detail and many of the walls are completely covered with paintings, carvings or sculptures. An interesting fact to note is that none of the art covering the walls depicts human figures. Instead, they chose geometrical patterns that could be repeated over and over again. You will see in the pictures that I post where I can explain a bit more.
Thankfully, it did not rain like it was predicted to because the palace is very open and would have been a nightmare to walk through. However, we did run a bit over and had to race back to EUSA to make it to class on time. I do like the group outings they have planned for us, but I don’t like how they tend to rush us. Many of us like to dillydally and take pictures and others want to simply wander. I would like to plan trips with a smaller group of the students from UNC to go on a couple of trips with where we can take however long we want. There is one day trip I want to take next weekend if I can find a bus to take us there and it would be to the Gruta de las Maravillas which is the biggest cave in Spain. It is also located very close to Sevilla as well and I think it would be a great idea to go see it some Saturday early and be able to come back late in the afternoon. There is also Rhonda, a city that is a 10 euro bus ride away. It is one of the pueblos blancos, the white towns and sits perched on a cliff. Anna has been and said it was a lot of fun.
Friday night I stayed in because we had to catch the bus for Córdoba at 8:30 in the morning and it is at least a twenty minute walk there. The city is located about 2 hours by bus from Sevilla and is known for its mezquita or mosque. The interesting feature about it though is that a cathedral/chapel was built inside of it during the 1500s. The mosque itself was erected on the site of an earlier church in the tenth century and there is a spot cut into the floor where you can still see the previous mosaics.
The light was very dark inside and made it difficult to take pictures. I had to use a high sensitivity on my camera so some of the pictures have a grainy texture to them but they at least convey a decent sense of the architecture. The mosque is designed to allow the air to flow through it and so it was dark and cool inside. You are asked to be respectful and keep your voices low because it is a holy place. You only had to sit on the pews of the cathedral inside and look at the magnificent altar to feel that. I don’t know if you can tell by my pictures (which I will post as soon as possible) but the building is large and open inside. The vaulted ceilings soar and are covered in gold and other materials. The contrast between the Islamic/Arabic architecture of the mosque and the Renaissance details of the cathedral contained within is astounding. Along the outer edges are gated alcoves which are private capillas or chapels. You can’t anymore, but you used to be able to buy a space to entomb your family if you were very rich. For example, King Ferdinand IV and Alfonso XI have their remains buried in a private capilla. Each is richly decorated with gold altars and paintings of the Crucifixion.
Outside there is the Patio de los Naranjos (Orange tree courtyard) along with the tower which actually is built over a previous tower. In the courtyard, there is a fountain. This fountain is said to have supernatural abilities and if a young girl comes to drink from it, she will find a boyfriend waiting for her outside the mosque’s walls. There is a funny video of all of us (our group only has three or four guys, so it is an estrogen based crowd) drinking from the fountain and crossing our fingers. We went out last night to a bar and then to a discoteca or night club, but no Spanish novios (boyfriends). I have been told, though, dating a Spaniard is the best way to learn the language.
Some funny things I have noticed about Spanish: discoteca means a night club here. Club actually means a strip club, so they had to warn us about that so we would not get confused. The word retirement here is jubilación (literally, jubilation). I thought that was clever.
I have learned some interesting facts about Spain I did not know before. Spain is divided into seventeen autonomous bodies, almost like states. Each has its own capital. Andalucia is southern Spain and Sevilla is its capital. In each region, the Spanish is different. By the way, the official language can be called Español or Castellano. They are the same. The difference is political. People will call it different things. The three other most spoken languages in Spain are Catalán, spoken in Cataluña, Gallego, spoken in Galicia, and Vasco, spoken in Pais Vasco. Actually in English, it would be Basque. Each region of Spain has a different dialect of Español, like how Southerners and Yankees talk in the States. The accent here is called Andaluz and everyone who is not from Andalucia will tell you that the Andaluces speak the worst. Here, they overdo the lisp, so all c’s, s’s, and z’s sound nearly the same. Most of the time, s’s are dropped off. They also mix up pronouns and tenses. For example, they will mix up the second person plural (the “ya’ll” tense, as I like to think of it) with the third person plural (a more formal “You” tense). It can be confusing. Also, they are known for speaking the fastest. So, hopefully if I can master Andaluz, I can speak any type of Spanish.
I did not go to the Mercadillo (gypsy market) today. We meant to but did not get up and ready early enough. It is from 9 am to 3 pm but it is a 30 minute walk away and once you go in, you can’t go back and have to go through the whole thing because it is very crowded. I was up and about around 11 but Anna was not until noon. We were out last night until 4 am. That is another thing: the hours here. I think because people eat dinner so late, the night life starts much later. We did not leave for calle Betis (a street whose bars cater to the younger crowd) until 12:30 am last night. The walk is about 45 minutes. Even when we were walking home last night, the streets were still buzzing with people. It is not uncommon for places to stay open the entire night. One of the girls in the UNC group said she had made a list of things to do and one was to stay up all night and eat churros while watching the sun rise. They did that last weekend. Churros are a fried dough dessert. In Mexico, they are covered with cinnamon and sugar. Here, the late night churro stands serve them without anything on them but they come with a dipping chocolate sauce. I have yet to get one but I have heard they are wonderful.
Anna and I have been talking and we are going tomorrow to find out about getting internet at the apartment. There is a box you can buy with a contract for 30 euro a month, which is not bad, but there is a 150 euro cancellation fee. That is why Anna did not get it before. However, we both talked and agreed that not having internet here is very frustrating because it severely limits our time to talk with our families and also to do homework. Some of the homework requires us to look things up and we have to rush writing up our compositions because we only get internet when at EUSA. There are internet cafes nearby but I do not want to have to spend 2 and a half euros every hour I am online. Hopefully, there will be other options now for getting wireless. About half the home stays have internet access and we feel we are at a disadvantage. That is another thing we talked about. Not all the home stays are equal which makes it unfair because it is the luck of the draw. Some señoras do not cook dinner for their students, there is one that has a car while the others don’t, and then there is the internet thing. You would think that a program like the Sevilla program at UNC (it is the longest running and most popular study abroad program at UNC) would have better organization and more equal distribution, but it does not. Oh well. We will make suggestions during our evaluations.
I posted some of the pictures from the Reales Alcázares de Sevilla and am uploading more, so take a look at my webshots albums. Also, if you have any questions, I think you can comment below or just send me an email.
Love you all
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