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Monday was again a typical day of classes, although we did some sort of review in almost every one of them in order to prepare for finals. One of my professors, Jesús, was not there that day because he had just had a baby over the weekend! Her name is Roesa, which is a name in Catalán/Valenciano that’s similar to the Spanish name Rosa, though with a distinct pronunciation. It’s really interesting that almost everyone here is natively bilingual, and can understand both languages perfectly, usually along with a few other European languages and at least a few phrases in English. I think it’s just because we’re in a touristy city though, from what Augustín (another prof) says, we could ride the metro for a half hour north or south and end up in small towns where no one speaks a word of English and all would be happy to talk to us even with our broken Spanish, since tourists rarely venture off of the beaten path.
Anyway, after class I hung around and reviewed my economics with the prof since I knew that would be my toughest exam, and then I headed home for la cena. We had ensalada and polloguesas (salad and chicken burgers) again, but we were also treated to some of the delicious baked cauliflower dish with cheese and spice that Lucía makes sometimes. It’s definitely a treat to eat things like that. I also had another pleasant surprise waiting for me at home…a Valentine’s Day card from Grandma and Grandpa Pierce! It was really nice to get snail mail from the US, and I’m glad to know that the address I gave to people actually works, since I was a little bit worried about it before. After dinner Alicia and I studied a lot until bedtime, even though we really wanted to be watching the political debate between Zapatero (the current president for PSOE, their liberal party, who’s running again) and Rahoy, the challenger from Partido Popular (PP, their conservative party). Lucía loves to watch political debates, so we got an overview of it the next day, not to mention that everyone here, when not talking about Javier Bardem, the first Spaniard actor that won an Oscar, was analyzing the debate.
The periódicos (newspapers) were full of articles about the debate, though it’s clear that unbiased journalism hasn’t quite caught on here yet. It’s really interesting to read the differences in some of the headlines between, for example El País which is their main liberal newspaper, and ABC, the main Catholic, conservative newspaper. El País announces in the headlines that Zapatero, according to public opinion won the debate, while ABC says that Rahoy attacked Zapatero on points like terrorism, (ETA is a terrorist group in Spain for the País Vasco that wants to declare independence from Spain and Zapatero held negotiations with them) gay marriage, (Zapatero passed a law legalizing gay marriage and gay adoption of children) and economic stability (according to the opposition the economy is in crisis and the current government hasn’t done anything to prepare for it). It’s incredible how much opinion is reflected just in the headlines, not to mention the stories that come after them. Unless you’re working for a specifically politically motivated paper, or for a tabloid that just wouldn’t fly in the US.
End of rambling, and of this entry.
Anyway, after class I hung around and reviewed my economics with the prof since I knew that would be my toughest exam, and then I headed home for la cena. We had ensalada and polloguesas (salad and chicken burgers) again, but we were also treated to some of the delicious baked cauliflower dish with cheese and spice that Lucía makes sometimes. It’s definitely a treat to eat things like that. I also had another pleasant surprise waiting for me at home…a Valentine’s Day card from Grandma and Grandpa Pierce! It was really nice to get snail mail from the US, and I’m glad to know that the address I gave to people actually works, since I was a little bit worried about it before. After dinner Alicia and I studied a lot until bedtime, even though we really wanted to be watching the political debate between Zapatero (the current president for PSOE, their liberal party, who’s running again) and Rahoy, the challenger from Partido Popular (PP, their conservative party). Lucía loves to watch political debates, so we got an overview of it the next day, not to mention that everyone here, when not talking about Javier Bardem, the first Spaniard actor that won an Oscar, was analyzing the debate.
The periódicos (newspapers) were full of articles about the debate, though it’s clear that unbiased journalism hasn’t quite caught on here yet. It’s really interesting to read the differences in some of the headlines between, for example El País which is their main liberal newspaper, and ABC, the main Catholic, conservative newspaper. El País announces in the headlines that Zapatero, according to public opinion won the debate, while ABC says that Rahoy attacked Zapatero on points like terrorism, (ETA is a terrorist group in Spain for the País Vasco that wants to declare independence from Spain and Zapatero held negotiations with them) gay marriage, (Zapatero passed a law legalizing gay marriage and gay adoption of children) and economic stability (according to the opposition the economy is in crisis and the current government hasn’t done anything to prepare for it). It’s incredible how much opinion is reflected just in the headlines, not to mention the stories that come after them. Unless you’re working for a specifically politically motivated paper, or for a tabloid that just wouldn’t fly in the US.
End of rambling, and of this entry.
