Study Abroad
Day 57
March 15th, 2006
7:54PM

My culture class is proving challenging, not because of the actual workload (which is incredibly minimal, almost to the point of being a waste of time) but because of the discussions we have in class on Wednesdays. Every week there is a topic, for example the adolescent, the woman, immigration. We are assigned to read an article about the topic and we discuss it in class.

And every week I get frustrated with the topics we discuss because they feel like old news--"Kids these days..." or "Women have to balance working outside the home and in the home. Ah!" I can only think of one comment to make in the discussions: duh.

But then I remember that this is not the U.S.--this is Spain. And Spain has spent the last century struggling to catch up from being a backward country, a civil war and decades of being under Franco. And that puts them about 20 years behind in social issues. Which is hard to keep in mind, to the point where too many of our class discussions consist of person after person saying "Well, in the United States..." It must be interesting for Spaniards to look at the United States and think "Behold our future." But they're not there yet.

I had Japanese class again yesterday, and it was so much fun. We learned colors (we learned that Midori's name means green!) and how to ask for things in a store. Then they gave us a big bowl of beans and let us practice picking up things with pretty chopsticks which they let us keep. I told them about my dad, who loves chopsticks and won't eat Chinese food with a fork, and they were very impressed. At the end we sang the pretty song, which I learned is called Skiyaki but I still can't find it on iTunes.

The weather today was beautiful. At least 75 degrees and sunny. Some classes (none of mine) held classes outside today, sitting at the tables at Enebro. I got to enjoy the weather while running my errands, though. But I probably shouldn't get sunburned twice in one week.

Note to Spain: Yogurt is yummy, but it is not dessert. Nor is fruit.
Note to England: Thank you for inventing chocolate-covered digestives. And thank you for shipping them to Spain.

This weekend: Valencia.

We're going to be there for Las Fallas; here's an article about it if you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallas