Sevilla and First Days of Class

This past weekend's excursion to Sevilla was really fun and I enjoyed myself a lot. We had a lot of free time, so I saw many of the city's main attractions as well as went to two different flamenco shows.

The history, culture, and feel of Sevilla were very different from that of Salamanca. It is located in the south, so it is naturally warmer and sunnier more often. That being said, it makes sense that the people were a bit friendlier (on account of the nice climate they live in) and they lived in the streets as well. There were a ton of people on the streets at all hours of the day. We saw a lot of the city with the group, which was super cool and amazing because of all the history that it does have. It has been in the hands of so many different cultures that it has become a sort of metropolitan area, accepting of various different cultures, including foreigners. I think this is where Salamanca and Sevilla were most alike. I heard a good deal of Spanish, of course, but there were so many other languages being spoken on the streets that it almost did not feel like Spain at all. We were walking around one night, looking for a place to chill out and have a beer or something, when we saw a group of men practicing for their paso of Semana Santa. I do not know what a good translation of paso would be, but I think it is basically a scene or a statue or a relic that pertains to the Church. Men carry these throughout the city, passing (hence paso) by local churches and people watching the parade on the streets. The eventually pass through the Catedral de Sevilla in front of a large, elaborate silver piece and then return to their respective churches. It is difficult for me to explain in English without knowing a whole lot about it in Spanish. When we saw it, I told Will that it was for Semana Santa and this French woman heard us speaking in English and turned around and asked what it was since we spoke English and apparently I looked like I knew what I was talking about. I tried my hardest to explain it to her in English, but with no luck. The reason for using this example is merely to show you that the city of Sevilla is much more cosmopolitan than the average Spanish city.

Also while in Sevilla, we went to the first and only flamenco museum in the world, where we toured the museum and later saw a flamenco show (espectáculo, in Spanish). The other show that I saw was with Will and one of his friends that is currently studying in Sevilla for a semester with ISA (just like us). As we toured the museum, we learned about the history of the dance and its diverse origins. If I remember and heard correctly, it started out as a gypsy dance. Gypsies, despite their name being a misnomer, are not actually from Egypt but are rather from India. Therefore, all of the hand motions in the dance are heavily influenced by Indians (and I would say more specifically Hindus). The castañuelas (castanets) were brought to Spain by the Arabs, who took them from something similar to that found on the island of Crete, near Greece. There were also influences from mainland Europe and from the native Spaniards. Given this huge mix of cultures in one dance, it is no wonder that flamenco does not discriminate based on age, race, size, gender, or country of origin. Anyone can flamenco, so long as they feel it, and that is really what flamenco is all about: passion. There are three different parts of the flamenco, the dancing which I have already mentioned is probably the most typical. There is also a guitarist strumming along to the beat of the dancer and a singer belting indiscernible words. Together these three areas make a flamenco espectáculo. It was told to us that it takes somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 hours of practice over the course of years for one to be able to put on a good flamenco show. It is also very harsh on the heels, for the dancers are really stomping their hearts out, whether their movements are quick or slow.

My overall impression of flamenco after viewing two shows is sort of mixed. I should preface this by saying that two native Spaniards I talked to (both from Salamanca) did not really like flamenco, but told me that I should go to see one nonetheless so I could make my own judgments. I think that flamenco is an incredibly pasionate experience, and that shows in all three parts of the show. The singer is belting his heart out and though you cannot understand well over half of what he is saying, you are moved nonetheless. The same goes for the dancer. I did not really understand what they were doing for the most part, as their hand gestures, facial expressions, and beat of tapping did not really coincide to make a very coherent picture for me, but I could tell that they were putting their all into this performance. The guitarist was probably my favorite part, as his strumming was really something else. I could (and definitely would) pay to go to just a flamenco guitarist show. Without a doubt or hesitation. I could definitely sit there and listen to the plucking of the guitar for a long time. There was a lot of passion behind the guitarist too, but in his playing and in his facial expressions.

Sevilla was really nice, but it was really big. There is about one million people who live in the area (which is about five times the population of Salamanca) and its sprawl is much larger as well. Salamanca is, at least for me, the perfect sized town: it is not the size of Decorah (8,500) so there is a lot of stuff to do and see and it is easily navigable, but neither is it the size of Madrid or Sevilla and therefore difficult to navigate, with an overwhelming amount of things to do. So I was happy to be back in Salamanca on Sunday night, but when I went to sleep I remembered that I started classes with locals the next day.

So this first week of classes was incredibly interesting and wholly different from the United States. Monday was the first day of classes, and my first class of the day was Geography. I went, we did the normal go over the syllabus thing, and then we moved on to a mini (non-graded, thank God) quiz about the location and names of all of the provinces of Spain. I knew some of them (I know the communities better), but I turned in my paper mostly blank. No matter, because it was not for a grade and I met a couple of British students in my class, so all was not a total loss. Later that day I went to my class about teaching Spanish as a second language. We did the same syllabus overview and I was excited during this part because it looks as if we are going to be covering a lot of interesting territory during the course of the semester. Another aspect of this class, since it is about learning how to teach Spanish as a second language, is that it is full (I would guess about 80-90%) of international students from all over the globe (Italy, Germany, Ireland, U.S., Korea, Portugal). The only weird and apparently extremely rare and unusual aspect of this course is that the schedule changes after the month of February. So until the end of the month, I have class Mondays and Tuesdays, but for the months of March and April, I have the same class on Wednesdays and Thursdays, in a different building, with a different professor. Then for the last two weeks of the course we return to the same schedule and building and professor that we have for the month of February. I talked with Sara, my intercambio, and she said that nothing like that has ever happened to her before and she has three degrees from USAL. Rufi said it was also strange, and though I do not think she has any degrees from USAL, she is Rufi and therefore knows everything about Salamanca.

Tuesday was my busier day, and I had my other two classes that day: modern history of Spain and Hispano-Arabic culture. The former is with this rather older professor (I would wager around mid-sixties to Rufi's age) who is just a hoot. He fits into the same mold that all other older American professors I have had. I am excited for this class because it seems like it should be fairly easy and it also should be interesting, covering a territory that would definitely not be taught at Luther but which fascinates me a lot. My culture class is in a large room in this old building on campus, and is full of students. This is also a very mixed class, as there are students taking the course as an elective, others as part of their studies (Humanities or Arab-Islamic Studies), and students like me who are from foreign universities. Like I said, it is a fairly large class and so that is very different from what I am used to at Luther. It is definitely something I am going to have to adjust to...and quickly! Later that day I had my SSL (Spanish as a Second Language) class, and then I was done for the day. I read some stuff for my geography class and I met with Sara for a bit to do some intercambio.

Today (Wednesday) was another busy day, with four hours of class (Oof da!) and followed the same schedule as yesterday with an additional hour between history and culture that is geography. And now I am done with class for the week. It is a really weird feeling to be done so soon in the week, because it seems as if the week is just getting started. At Luther, the earliest one can hope to be done is Thursday, but this is difficult to do and is usually fairly painful on the buttocks with all of the sitting you do without a large amount of time for recuperation. Anyhow, I got through the week just fine, but when I came home today I was a little angry so when Rufi asked me how my classes were today, I went off ranting in Spanish (which I think I did pretty good at, cuz Rufi seemed to understand me well enough to comment on my rant and offer advice or tell me about her similar experiences).

I will try to briefly share the reason for my ranting and why I was so frustrated with my classes so far. First, I think that some of my initial observations about my classes should be in order. I noted these on the first few days and they got worse today. In my first class of the week, geography, I noticed that the Spaniards in that class are extremely smelly. I sat down and there was a rank stench of B.O. (but this has nothing to do with my angst with my courses, I just thought I would share with you). I noticed that before class started, they talked really loudly and rapidly with one another. They were trying to get their word in in whatever way they could and then had to speak over the other students around them trying to have their own conversations. When they do these conversations in the classroom, it is interesting to note that they sit on top of the desks, they stand at the front of the room, on the sides of the aisles, wherever they please pretty much. When the teacher walks in, they immediately get to their seats and become silent. However, the moment that there is a pause in the lecture, they begin yapping to one another again and the noise elevates quickly. It is not a typical and gradual elevation from whispering to yelling as is common in the states, they start out talking in a normal voice and then move quickly to yelling. Then when the teacher has figured out the computer issue or has resolved their disorganization, it takes a good while to get everyone to simmer down and be quiet again. They absolutely monopolize every single silent moment and fill it with words.

Today (Wednesday) they did not even wait for a malfunction or a disorganization. Rather, they talked over the professor. The same phenomenon happened in my culture lecture as well. In the geography classroom, which is relatively smaller, it was easier to block out the noise, but it still bugged me a lot. It was worse in the large lecture hall that my culture class is in because the professor there uses a microphone so that all can hear her. On top of that, she does not speak particularly loudly either, so it becomes really difficult to hear her really quickly. In my geography class, the teacher (and surprisingly the students) manage to keep the volume to a minimum, but that is only a temporary patch. They “chh, chh, chh” the students, but it takes a while for them to quiet down. It reminded me of an elementary school classroom when we had to establish the raised hand policy to get people to be quiet. I did not understand why these students were talking. Did they not care about the class? Did they not respect the teacher? A combination of these? I do not know, but all I know is that it was very frustrating for a non-native speaker to understand what the professor was trying to say with all of the background noise going on. It amazed me that the students here could not manage to shut their mouths and listen for an hour-long class that is not even an hour because all classes here start ten or fifteen minutes late (that is to say, if the class you sign up for goes from 1pm until 2pm, it starts at 1:10 or 1:15pm instead of 1pm on the dot). When I told Rufi this, she agreed with me and told me to tell them to shut up. We also agreed that it was a matter of respect for both the professor and the students in the class that are there to learn. Rufi and my older history professor said, and I whole-heartedly agree, that if you want to talk during class, do not even come to class at all! If you want to talk, do it in the streets, not in the classroom! I do not know if this generalization can be made about Spaniards or about USAL, but I would be inclined to believe that it is more a Spanish phenomenon than anything.

So the first week of class is over, thank the Lord, because if I had to deal with these kids again, I would probably rip my hair out because of how disrespectful and loud they are. I will probably rant on here again about how disrespectful and loud Spanish university students are, but I simply cannot get over the fact that they think that talking while the professor is talking is a good or polite idea. Until next time.