Yesterday afternoon I went to the elementary school again to work with a class of 10 year olds who have never had an American student come to their class the whole time they have been learning English. They were really excited and fun to work with and talk to about Halloween. I am also beginning to really like the teacher of the English classes, Maria. I like her for several reasons. 1) She picks me up on her way to school so I don´t have to take the bus, and goes out of her way in other ways as well because she wants her students to work with real English speakers. She wants to learn from us too. 2) Maria is politically minded and very interesting. The class is doing this little Halloween puppet show play thing and they were listening to a tape of the dialogue. It is about a witch who turns a princess into a bird, but then a knight comes and kisses the bird and she turns into the princess. The witch falls into the river and dies and the knight says, "Now we can marry and live happily together." Maria stopped the tape and said, "what is this? The knight thinks he can just marry the princess now? Because he thinks that alllllllllll women are craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy about getting married, and craaaaaaaaaazy about handsome knights. No! The princess will say, I don´t know you! I am too young! I have to finish my studies and get a job! I don´t want to marry you!" This was how she ended the story. I was very impressed. Because most of the girls in Spain are in fact crazy about getting married and crazy for handsome guys. I am learning though that this is changing, and many women in Spain are now overwhelmed with trying to do it all-- studying, having a job, raising kids, running the house, caring for grandparents. They are trying to be more modern but the traditions have not caught up with them yet and so they are stuck being responsible for everything. Another interesting thing about school politics: after class was over we were in the teachers lounge and Maria was showing me these articles that were in there about new laws for the schools and all of these problems with them. There is actually a teacher strike scheduled for next Tuesday. (In Spain, strikes are very scheduled and usually last about 3 hours and then everyone goes back to work.) The problem is that in Spain, everyone has the right to a free education until they are 16. This includes immigrants, legal or not, and people of all classes. There are public schools, which are free and generally crappy because they dont get much money-- these schools generally have to deal with all of the non-spanish speaking immigrants. There are semi-private schools, which the government will help parents pay for, and there are private private schools which the parents have to pay for themselves. Except that the government gives lots of money to the private schools. Maria was also telling me about some pamphlet about schools in Spain that is full of pictures and examples of schools that DO NOT EXIST. Were never built, are not anywhere, but this pamphlet talks about how great and modern and wonderful they are. Also, the organization of the schools is supposed to be totally democratic, but right now the directors of the schools are being specially selected by the government. It´s very bad. The teachers are very angry. So Maria photocopied these articles for me and helped me understand parts of them that would be difficult... While in the copy room, she and another teacher were explaining the title of one of them to me. It references a quote that was used by the media after WW2 was over and generally means "Advancing towards the rear." I asked what the last word meant and Maria told the other teacher to explain it to me. He said, "What, the rear of a political group or the rear of a woman?" They laughed, and Maria said, "In the USA that would be considered sexual harrassment!" And they laughed again, and explained they were just having fun. I thought a lot about sexual harrassment laws in the US and how they seem so silly to many people here. Are they? Are they too extreme and strict? It´s weird looking at it from another culture´s perspective. I have been learning a lot about politics and stereotypes and cultural attitudes by simply comparing what different people say to me. Maria has one opinion, Paz has another, my Dos Democrácias professor (who I love) says something else, my other 5 professors all have a different take on the same subject... It is very interesting. Learning about the Spanish constitution ("you will laugh when you read that" "It is a very incomplete constitution" "Isn´t it strange?" "it lies"), knowing what it says about politics/education/religion/etc and then seeing those things in action and seeing how the law puts it into action / ignores it (I read the section on rights and responsibilites), talking about divorced parents in my Mujeres (=women´s studies) class and in Dos Democrácias and with Maria, and then talking to Paz vs. observing her and her friends. Different attitudes about different cities, about different racial and religious and historical groups, different attitudes on food. Not being able to speak as easily has taught me that you learn a lot by listening... just by being able to compare what you know and what you observe and what you hear different people say in your head without commenting. It is a good lesson for me to learn. Also, last night I went to Teatro Principal by myself to see Hello Dolly! in Spanish. It was really fun... I was REALLY excited. I would never have been able to understand what was going on if I didn´t know the show pretty damn well. Got a couple of interesting translations-- holy cabooses = jolines (similar but different than "joder", kind of like saying "oh fudge"), Ernestina Rica instead of Money... It was hard to understand the Spanish, i was too far away to see their mouths moving. They did a lot more to establish romantic connections in every case, between every couple including Dolly and Horacio, which helped to make sense of things. Added some more interesting symbolism too-- Dolly came out for "Before the Parade Passes By" wearing the hat with ribbons down her back. Great singing, great acting-- really good characterizations of everybody. Dolly was great. Ambrose was much more an "artist." Minnie was hilarious and akward and outspoken. Irene Malloy was much sexier and flirtier... Dancing was much more choreographed. All movements of the chorus in the background were very orchestrated and dramatic and graceful. Dancing waiters-- AWESOME. Parade: lame. Ours was way better. Oh, and no live orchestra, all pre-recorded music. :( Brought back lots of memories. I had lots of fun. My favorite addition: After the song with Dolly´s line about snuggling up to the cash register on those cold winter nights ("It´s a little lumpy, but it rings!"), the next scene began with a blackout and the sound of the cash register, CH-CHNG! CH-CHING! CH-CHING! CH-CHING! and the lights come up on Horace alone in the feed shop, busily and frustratedly pushing buttons and pulling the lever over and over. A good laugh. Going to Granada this weekend with the group. Whoo hoo!

Hooray, here are pictures of school, the Universidad de Alicante. For some information on the campus: Council´s office, where my mail comes and I get general info, is in Aulario II. Aulario III is the horrible prison-type building where everyone in Council had their classes for the first month. I spend lots of time at the library using the computers, which are in the 2nd and 3rd floor with the huge long glass windows. (A lovely view.) I am trying to get a hold of my friend´s digital camera to take some personal pictures of people and places, but there are some complications... eventually I´ll get some taken and post them here. I also found a site with someone else´s lame personal pictures of Alicante. They were on the Council program here this summer. Mostly they are pictures of drunken partying, which is what many people do here all the time, but there are a few that might be interesting, like the castle, or Armando, or Toledo, or the bar Austin´s where everyone begins their nights out. Although these are not people on my program this semester, they seem similar, so you can get an idea of the kind of students who I have been talking (complaining) about.

For Alicante pictures click here. Click on the top strip of pictures, which will open a new window thing, and then hit the "back" button on your main window to get back to my blog. Then, in the small window, use the "siguiente" or "anterior" buttons to move through the set. I´ve been to the MARQ museo arqueológico, el puerto, playa san juan, playa postiguet (in the background of one of htese is our hotel from teh first day), teatro principal (hello dolly is there tomorrow night), el ayuntamiento, el barrio (but those are definately not casas tipicas, not any that i have seen anyway), castillo de santa barbara, "como un estrella" = like a star is a sculpture right near the train station and corte ingles, a huge department store, where i meet people often adn where i transfer busses-- there are ugly buildings and traffic all around it that you can´t see, the picture is really funny actually; the Explanada, plaza luceros (another meeting place). Enjoy! Does anyone else think that the bird´s eye view looks kind of like the campus at Northwestern?

I have been thinking about my comment about food-orientation that I posted last time. I realized that food is a big focus here, because it´s something everyone needs and everyone can talk about. The students, especially the girls, end up talking about it a lot. How everything is fried and they can´t believe how much oil is in everything or how many carbs they are eating and how it´s great that we eat so much fruit and don´t they bake anything how they are gaining/losing weight. Love the food, hate the food, scared of the food. I also found out recently that one of my friends struggles with bulimia, but her attitude is no different than most of the girls here. It´s hard because I really don´t want to be pulled into that type of consciousness again, worrying about eating and gaining weight and everything, but I also want to stay healthy and exercise and it is true that basically everythign I eat is drenched in oil and fried, which I know is not good for me... A minor dilemma which I can surely handle for two more months. Speaking of food, for Paz´s birthday we went out last night to "Foster´s Hollywood," an "American Style Restaurant." It was kind of like Applebees or Ground Round. Even had peanuts to throw on the floor. Paz and I split some fajitas, which were very good, and took home dessert to eat with our champagne: a lucious piece of chocolate cake with rich fudge sauce... It reminded me of a certain Jewish grandmother who was always offering me more fudge, but it didn´t taste as good. Paloma had insisted that she didn´t like the hamburgers at Foster´s, so (since we had gone to the mall for the restaurants again, I guess this is a normal place to go out for dinner) she got her dinner at McDonald´s next door and took it into Foster´s. She did eat a piece of cheesecake at Foster´s, and then wanted to share our fajitas as well. This unfortunately turned into a very akward situation, where Paz, who has been angry with Paloma a lot lately, started talking to me about Paloma´s selfishness so that Paloma would overhear. She began talking about the gift we had gotten her together (a certificate for a manicure and pedicure because Paz likes that kind of thing and is totally stressed out lately-- I have a bad record with these but I think that this one will actually be cashed by the recipient. Note: all past certificates of this type are still valid.) and asking if Paloma was going to pay her half. We hadn´t talked about it but I assumed that I would pay for most of it. We had made the certificate together though and it truly was from both of us-- Paz started insisting that if Paloma did not pay her half, it was not really a gift from her, and that she knows Paloma has at least 10 Euro to buy a gift but that Paloma doesn´t have the sentiment of gift giving because she doesn´t want to give up her money. Talking about how Paloma is very selfish with her money and with everything, such as the food that night, and about other children that she knows who save up their money to give gifts to their parents for their birthdays. I told Paz that Paloma did have the sentiment of gift giving, that this was a different situation because she is only NINE and we are like sisters, that this was a gift to Paz and she should not be concerned or intervening with the money involved, and moreover that Paloma was sitting right there. Paz continued to rant and complain and specifically bash Paloma´s character without looking at her or addressing her directly. The whole situation made me terribly uncomfortable. I was sitting across from the two of them and could watch Paloma withdrawing and finally beginning to cry, at which point Paz turned to her and said, "Why are you crying? Don´t cry." Paloma said, "I don´t want to be selfish." Paz: "But you are selfish. It´s the truth. Are you going to pay 10 Euro for the gift? Look at your food from McDonalds. Look at that cake. You just ate my dinner. It´s true, you are selfish." Then Paz turns to me and says, "Lindsay, what is your opinion? Don´t you think she is selfish?" I tried to explain that, while there is truth in what Paz was saying, I think that if you are going to hold Paloma responsible for her money and her food and whatever, you ought to give her the respect of talking to her directly and including her in the conversation instead of talking about her as if she wasn´t there. Paz said that she was there the whole time and could have said something but instead she just sat there coloring. I thought the whole thing was totally rude and mean.... Paz does this kind of often too. Paloma will want something out of the ordinary (ie McDonalds) and Paz will say no, no, no, but then give in, and then later use it against her to make her feel guilty. I told her later that it made me really uncomfortable to be in that situation, only being there as a sounding board for Paz to bounce her complaints off of and onto Paloma indirectly. Paz apologized but said that she was worried about Paloma´s selfishness and did not know how to talk to her about it. All in all, on the way home in the car I just sat and thought about how totally grateful I am for the family I have and the respect that is given to children in my family. Thank you and a big hug to everyone reading this who is related to me. The other exciting part of the evening was the hugest most disgusting cockroach I have ever seen on the wall of the living room. It was probably an inch wide and 3 and a half inches long, and could fly. Paz killed it with a spray while she was talking on the phone to her 80 year old aunt who had called to wish happy birthday-- "Thanks for calling!" SPRAYYYYYYYYY "I´m doing well, good to hear from you" STAMP STAMP STAMP "Thank you, thank you." STAMP STAMP STAMP. What´s more, Paz wouldn´t let us open the windows because that is how they get in, so we had to just turn on the fan and open little tiny vents in the shades and live on whatever oxygen happened to be left in the atmosphere. Had my first dream in Spanish last night. Who knows if it was proper grammar or whatever, but it was definately Español. In the dream Mom and I were in a store and the womean there started speaking spanish to us and we did our best to speak back to her. Craziness! But a good sign... i am not as frustrated with the language anymore in waking life either... Hooray!

Weekend was pretty good... Here is a summary. If boring, lo siento. On Friday night, ended up going to the mall with Ellie and Amy just for something to do and then to a little restaurant for wine and tasty garlic mushrooms. Saturday morning I had the kind of Saturday morning I was hoping for. Sunny, not too hot, lots of people out. Slept enough, had a good breakfast, went out walking. Got a new watch, went to the mercado, wrote in my journal in a little park. For lunch we had some "spaghetti," that is spaghetti noodles with "tomato sauce" on it, which comes out of a box and tastes like spaghettios, and chorizo and jamon sprinkled throughout. Siesta and then Paz and Paloma left. Read Bridget Jones´ Diary, got a call from home... Couldn´t decide what I wanted to do later, called Ben for a while, decided I ought to force myself to go out. Showered, made dinner (fried frozen jamon y queso crepe, bocadillo sandwich with fish in tomato sauce from a can, cerveza), called around. Wasn´t having luck till I got ahold of Lauren, who wasn´t going out but who was watching a movie with her sister and sister´s fiancé. She invited me over-- it was exactly what I wanted to do that night. We watched Amor Ciego - translation: blind love - which was the movie Shallow Hal dubbed over in Spanish. A good evening. Sunday I woke up alone again, Paz and Paloma had never come home after going to Gema´s house. Had a tranquilo breakfast, started some homework-- reading the constitución de españa! They came home with Sophia, 5 year old daughter of Gema and friend of Paloma. Those two were obnoxious and put Paz in a very bad mood for most of the day, but I got lots of work done. We ate a good meal of chicken fillets, tomato salad, french fries, a fried egg and bread. Took Sophia home, talked to Jessica, the student at their house. (I realized for the first time this weekend that the names of the three students staying with Paz and her two best friends are Lindsay, Jessica and Julie = Lindsay, Jesse, Julia...) Ran some errands... At home I ate the most delicious frozen pizza ever. (Can you tell that I was focused on food this weekend?) It was spinach, feta cheese adn walnuts, no sauce, and I cannot believe that I ate the entrie thing except for once slice by myself. I was totally stuffed. But it was too good to throw anything away... Today has been good except that I got totally and completely lost on my way home, i tried to take a different way because I had gone to this used CD shop (got an "Amaral" CD), and I was lost and sweating in the sun for an hour, but eventually I made it home. I should never have taken the map out of my bag. Going to choir now... time to bust out the ol´ Handel. Paz´s birthday tomorrow. Not sure of plans. Two more months!