Classtime!

A couple things before the real post.

First off, you probably heard on the news about the train accident on the outskirts of the city a few days ago. According to the news, over 150 people were killed or injured in the accident, which was caused by too much speed going around a curve. I'm not going to make any speculations or accusations, I just want to say that I'm fine and every one I know here is fine, but there are a lot of people who aren't fine, and it's a tragedy that this happened.

Secondly, a continuation of the theme from a couple posts ago--dealing with bureaucracy. I just found this little video that was originally for a short film contest that depicts really well the struggle in dealing with bureaucracy, not only in Spain but anywhere. 

Fun times.

And speaking of fun times, this time without the sarcasm, the summer course at USC. Not University of Southern California, the other one. 

We took a little trip to Padrón, the hometown of
 Rosalía de Castro, the mother of Galician literature.

The course was intensive, but short. Three and a half weeks total. Classes started at 9:30 every morning and ended at 11:30, followed by a half hour for coffee and socializing, then some kind of cultural or linguistic presentation by a guest speaker, or a film in Galician. (There's some pretty good Galician films out there, and Spanish films in general. If you have the chance, check out O Apóstolo, a spooky and beautiful stop motion film.) This part of the day usually lasted until around 1:30, 2:00. Just in time for lunch. In the afternoons/evenings there were extra optional activities, such as seeing a dance recital, or a poetry reading, or a visit to the cultural museum. 

I was in the Elemental 1 class, which had about 13 students including myself, from all over the world--Argentina, Germany, Iran... We were the only students who had not previously studied Galician in a classroom setting, which at first I found surprising, but the realized it made sense for students who had studied Galician at college would jump at the chance to study for a month in the Galician capital. Most of these students were filología students, or language/comparative literature students with an emphasis in Romance or Western Romance languages. In Europe, these students are required to study at least three languages (if I remember correctly), so it would make sense to choose three that are quite closely related. 

At first I was disappointed in my placement (level 1! But I've been in Galicia for months!) but by the end I was happy with it. Even though I may have picked up a few words and a good level of understanding, I had (heck, still have) only a shaky grip on the grammar and was really only Galician-izing my Spanish.

It was nice being in such a small class, with students who actually wanted to learn to speak the language. This compared to my Spanish classes in college, where even in the 300+ level courses very few people voluntarily spoke the language, except maybe those who had just returned from study abroad. "I'll just pick it up when I go to a Spanish-speaking country" they said. "But you're in Spanish class right now" I said, "con gente que sí habla un poco y que debe practicar ahora cuando estén en una situación tranquila y sin riesgos" Or something along those lines in a much more broken fashion. 

But I'm getting off topic. Here are a few highlights of some of the extracurricular activities.

A staircase in the cultural museum

This is the Castro de Baroña, much better preserved than the one in Vilardonga, but without the snazzy museum

Taken from a bridge in a riverside park where we had a group lunch with all the students and teachers

I went on a little hike with some of my classmates to this church in Pontedeume

Proof I was there, I guess.

At the end of the course, there was a mini graduation ceremony, where the President of the Real Academia Galego gave a little talk and we all got certificates of completion. There was of course free wine and empanada afterwords. 

As a whole, the course was a lot of fun, and probably the most multicultural experience I've ever had. It was hilarious listening to non-American non-Spaniards make the same complaints and compliments that me and my American/English-speaking friends have made, and learning about how things are done in other parts of the world. Fried eggplant for breakfast in Romania? Supermarkets open Sundays in Argentina? How to say "cheers" in German? (Prost!)

But now that my time as a student is over, I have to return again to "real life" and start doing some grown-up things, like looking for an apartment come fall, and getting a public library card. I guess it can all wait til Monday though, once things are open again.