Some observations.

Hello again,
I realize it's only been a few days since my last blog when I normally post entries once a week, but I was thinking that I usually end up talking about what I've done and less about my observations about things around me and even my classes. So this is a different kind of blog about those latter things. Next blog: I'll be writing about my time in Lisboa, Portugal! Seven ISU students bought bus tickets yesterday, so we leave Friday afternoon, get back Monday night (Spain's national holiday is Monday, so no school!). I'm stoked!
Anyway, back to my notes...

--Commercials and TV: Spaniards watch a LOT of TV, my host family included. It's on during lunch and supper in the kitchen, definitely during siesta, and most of the evening. This is not something I have enjoyed because I tire quickly of TV but I'm learning not to let it bother me. I have mostly watched game shows, a young adult soap-drama show, a little world news and celebrity inteviews so far. I got to thinking about what the most common commercial are here, compared to the US, in terms of category (i.e. cars, a clothing store, etc.). Here is my unofficial list of the Most Common Commercial Categories: Cars. Cell Phone companies. Perfume. Household products. American beauty products, dubbed. Local cheese. More perfume. Noteably absent are movie trailers.

--Food: I mentioned that my host mother is a very good and generous cook. I think my favorite dish so far at home has been Isabel's tortilla española (potato omelette with garlic). Our suppers often feature a main (heaping!) course of a cooked green vegetable, with cold meat and cheese on the side. (For example, I ate a bowl of cooked spinach garnished with garlic and a little potato the other day, and knew my biological mother would be surprised but very proud of me!) Strangest thing I have had yet definitely has to be what I tried as a tapa one time in a Cáceres restaurant: Orejas. Yes, ears. As in, pig's ears. Chopped up and marinated in brown garlic sauce on a slice of bread. Um... never again. The cartilage-chewy fattiness just isn't for me!

--Clothing. One of the Iowa State directors said that Spain is a couple years ahead of the US in terms of fashion, which makes me both excited and scared. (Mullets will never be cool!!) Jeans are actually a different cut for once: low waist, baggy crotch, slightly billowed through the legs, and closing tight at the ankles. Strange, but not quite as bad as it sounds. Can't find a picture to show you, or else I would. Punk glam is definitely the season style, as are the colors a grayish-plum purple, navy blue, dark turquoise and gray. Yes, I already have a turquoise sweater and a purple shirt :-)

--And, my classes! I do attend school, after all. I have three classes at the university, all in the same room, which can get kind of dull at times, all taught by Spanish professors, only with other ISU students. One class is actually split into two hours: one is Spanish History (by far my most boring class, mostly because of the professor) and the other is Spanish Art. We study one painter a week, and write a paper about it for the next week. So far we've studied El Greco, Diego Velázquez and Franciso de Goya--so we're going straight for the big-timers. Our official excurions relate to this class, and our professor may go with us on those trips. I will also be more educated for when I go to the Prado in Madrid sometime this semester!
My other two classes are Spain Today and Spanish Literature. Spain Today has been pretty useful in learning about odds and ends of Spanish culture, from famous religious festivals to current Spanish cinema. All this said, I have NO books. None. How odd. I get handouts in class, but that's it.

-- I have my first classes today at the Official School of Languages (EOI, in Spanish) where I will give a presentation about where I am from in English and then answer questions from the students, who are all at least college age. A typical class is two hours long, but I only go for one hour for any one. Starting next week, I will student teach that one hour for nine different classes, of various levels, with various teachers. The week after that, I will have nine different classes. In all, I will work with 18 different groups of students, in 3 different skill levels (no English to advanced), plus a distance course and a "monograph" course! Whew! But really this means I'll only have 5 different hours to prepare for in a two-week window, and I'll see some of the same teachers. I'll tell ya how it goes... The school is a 10-minute brisk walk from my house, so that's not bad. I am allowed in the English department's teacher's lounge/office, which is really odd after so many years of seeing school offices but never being a teacher.

I'll leave it there for now. Apparently I'm incapable of being succinct. :-)
'Ta luego! *Ellen*