10 Ways in Which Spanish Culture Differs from Ours:
1) Political campaigning is far more in your face here: their posters are not just the names and slogans of the candidates, but a big head-shot of them plastered across the walls over and over again. During election times, you walk down the street receiving creepy grins from the same ten men and women a million times over. Additionally, they inform you of upcoming rallies over loudspeakers mounted on the top of cars that inch along the roads and blast their message to you, accompanied by music, ten times a day.
2) Recycling is big here. If you don’t recycle, then you are an exception. Every street boasts a line of huge bins for glass, paper, and every type of plastic.
3) Water is a precious commodity here, since we are essentially living in the middle of a desert. Most people know that they need to use their water wisely, so we all turn off the shower while lathering our bodies or brushing our teeth. And not just for money reasons either, but also for environmental reasons.
4) Here they have language schools where you can go for a month or two every day and study a language. At the end of that time, they test and certify you in that language and this opens up job opportunities. These schools are private, but very common.
5) The people here drive so fast that it is unnerving. However, they are also some of the best drivers around because they have to go through a lot of work to get their licenses. But I still wouldn’t want to drive on the same roads as them!
6) Personal hygiene is not as emphasized here: showering is not necessarily a daily thing, and certainly not something you do more than once a day. They don’t always wash their hands before eating, and it appears that they don’t always do so before leaving the bathroom either. Of course, this is a generalization as I don’t follow every Spaniard into the bathroom to check up on their washing habits, but it is clear that they are not as germaphobic as we are.
7) Pharmacies, glasses shops, and a few other specialty shops use universal signs to mark their entrances. For example, for a pharmacy, you will always find it marked by a fluorescent green cross and a glasses shop will be easy to find because you only need to keep an eye out for a lit sign shaped like a pair of pink glasses sticking out of the building. Yes, this is very logical, but any American business would immediately think, “But I don’t want to have the same sign as every other pharmacy! I want to stand out as different.”
8) Graffiti is everywhere. The teens hardly consider it refutable and the city has crews who regularly circle the city to repaint the benches and walls. (This is rather unfortunate when you come to the tram stop only to find that all your benches have recently painted and you have no place to sit for the twenty-minute wait.)
9) School buses are huge in a tall way. They look more like our tourist buses than school buses. One friend asked me, “Are your school buses in America really yellow like they show them in the movies?!” They thought it was a pretty funny idea.
10) The standard size paper is taller, the envelopes are not as wide, their binders all have four holes instead of three, and they hardly ever write on lined paper opting instead for plain white paper or graff.
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Well, things are certainly slowing down here. Well, in my life at any rate. The truth is that things are just getting started in Alicante with all the tourists flocking in from everywhere and shops opening up to receive them. But for me, last week was the last week of school. I took a few tests, which I’m sure I did pretty well on even though I didn’t study, and got results back for some of my tests. Guess what?! I GOT A 9 ON MY LAST PHILOSOPHY TEST!!! I was so surprised when I found out because I didn’t even study for the test, but I essentially got an A on it! Maybe I should just stop caring about my grades and scores more often if I come out with grades like these! Just kidding.
Anyways, I tried that drink horchata made out of the juice from the groundnut and it was really good! It is served cold and is very sweet. I cannot describe the taste, but it reminds a little of coconut and chai tea.
Well, what have I been doing this week aside from the minimal testing? I’ve gone to the beach a few times, and a friend commented that ya’ll aren’t gonna recognize me with this tan! I dunno, I’m still white as cream compared to most everyone here. I’ve also hung out with a few friends on different occasions down in Alicante, browsing shops, going to tea houses, eating kabobs and falafels, and talking.
On Sunday I went out climbing with Ignacio and his dad at a place called Crevillentes. T’was good. It was all displome, “overhanging,” which is my favorite. I only climbed four short routes , but the last one was a fun challenge with a funky crux up toward the end where I had to go up to an under-hanging pocket, clip, and use the side of a ledge to get up to the good holds above. I have to admit that I have not been climbing as much here, so I am definitely not up to my usual level. *sigh* Good thing dad is coming here for a few weeks to get me back in shape before I get back! Man, since I went to Paris, my hands got all soft and shed, so now my climbing time is determined by how long my hands can hold out before I turn in, blowing on my raw red digits. But I will get those calluses back!
Well, I have about two and a half weeks here until my exchange is officially over. During that time, I will go to the graduation ceremony and party, chill with friends, go to the beach, climb, paint, go to an ancient archeological museum exhibit, and hopefully go to a few shows. All in all, I have too much time on my hands. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to do some volunteer work, but who knows if that will pull through. Well, feel free to write me and ask all sorts of lengthy questions to keep me occupied for the long summer hours ahead!
Love,
Jocelyn
Showing posts with label test. Show all posts
Showing posts with label test. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Saturday, April 7, 2007
¡¡¡SEMANA SANTA!!!
After a two day school week, the authorities liberated the youth of Spain to two weeks of vacations. The strange part is that after our nearly twe weeks off, we will return for two days before our next vacation. ... The logic is beyond me. So why do we have this loverly break from rigorous studies? For Semana Santa! Translated to the Holy Week, La Semana Santa celebrates from Domingo de Ramos (the day that Jesus came to Jerusalem) to the Crucifiction and Resurection. Practically speaking, this means that there is a procession every day of the week (excluding Saturday, because that is the day when Christ chills in heaven before being resurected) in every city in Spain. These processions consist of a huge representation of whatever scene corresponds with the day (say, Christ on the cross with La Virgen de las dolores, or the virgen of pain, weeping at his side -usually represented with manneristic sculptures), a band of wind and percusion instruments, and many other elements that have names that are beyond me. In order to substitute my inadequacy, I have included a decent description from another web source:
"The holiday, jubilant in Seville and Andalucía and solemn elsewhere in Spain, is practically defined by its stunning processions. Each of these processions typically boasts two intensely adorned floats, one of the Virgin and the other of a scene from Christ's Passion. Take in the lavish decoration of these incredible creations as they slowly pass before you accompanied by the music of coronets and drums; its hard to do without getting chills. Underneath each float, you'll just barely be able to make out rows and rows of feet. There are up to forty men, called costaleros, who haul the float on shoulders and control the swaying motion of the float. In fact, they practice so much and are so in sync with each other that the realistic figures on top look eerily as if they were walking along to the music.Impossible to miss are the seemingly endless rows of nazarenos, or penitents, who walk along with the float.. You may even see many nazarenos walking barefoot, which is pretty impressive considering some of the processions last up to 14 hours! Oh and don't be thrown off by the resemblance between the pointy hoods and long robes of the nazarenos and those of the Ku Klux Klan; it's coincidental and completely unrelated.Don't be surprised to see how nicely the people dress to watch the processions, especially during the second half of the week. Women often dress to the nines while many men brave the sun in full suits. Of course not everybody dresses up so much, but basically if you want to fit in watching the processions, just leave the t-shirt you wore to paint your garage behind." (http://www.enforex.com/culture/semana-santa.html)
Right, so you get the idea. I´ll include pictures when I can. The heavy floats are carried by rows of men and this description says that this consists of up to 4o men. Not true: I´ve heard that in the bigger processions it gets to be up to 4000 men! Since I only saw the procession of a small town here in Malaga, the float was equally small. Here in Spain, the Holy Week along with Christmas are the two biggest holidays. I asked if they have easter eggs and it appears that they do, but they certainly don´t have egg hunts like ours. So what are we doing this Easter Sunday? Well, I woke up and had my breakfast of toast with strips of deli ham atop and colacao (otherwise known as Nestley´s hot-chocolate), followed shortly by a little tinkering on the computer. This afternoon we will go to lunch with los abuelos -the grandparents- before an afternoon of lazing or strolling through the city, like yesterday. We might take in a procession, but everybody is pretty tired of the processions after seeing them every year since forever. Maybe if we were in one of the big cities -say, Seville- there would be more hype over Semana Santa. As it is, I wouldn´t mind the egg hunt right about now.
:::
Enough on Semana Santa. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
On Monday I got back the results of my English test and I am happy to say that I passed with a practically perfect score! I cannot espress my relief at this improvement in my performance -yes, improvement. On their grading scale from 1-10, with anything below a 5 being fail, I came off with a 6.7 on my first test. A fair share of my classmates even took away better scorew than me! I attribute this to a) the sections where I had to translate from spanish to english or vice-versa, and b) the fact that I actually don´t know so much about the english tenses as I thought I did. After getting that aweful score, I started studying in my English class, and I am happy to say that my vocabulary section, where I translate between English and Spanish, was perfect. Thank you Janire for studying with me! Well, now that I have my lovely 10 in English class, I can chillax over break. lol! What a sad life I lead!
:::
ROCK CLIMBING WITHDRAWALS!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCKKK!
:::
More thoughts later.
Love,
Jocelyn
"The holiday, jubilant in Seville and Andalucía and solemn elsewhere in Spain, is practically defined by its stunning processions. Each of these processions typically boasts two intensely adorned floats, one of the Virgin and the other of a scene from Christ's Passion. Take in the lavish decoration of these incredible creations as they slowly pass before you accompanied by the music of coronets and drums; its hard to do without getting chills. Underneath each float, you'll just barely be able to make out rows and rows of feet. There are up to forty men, called costaleros, who haul the float on shoulders and control the swaying motion of the float. In fact, they practice so much and are so in sync with each other that the realistic figures on top look eerily as if they were walking along to the music.Impossible to miss are the seemingly endless rows of nazarenos, or penitents, who walk along with the float.. You may even see many nazarenos walking barefoot, which is pretty impressive considering some of the processions last up to 14 hours! Oh and don't be thrown off by the resemblance between the pointy hoods and long robes of the nazarenos and those of the Ku Klux Klan; it's coincidental and completely unrelated.Don't be surprised to see how nicely the people dress to watch the processions, especially during the second half of the week. Women often dress to the nines while many men brave the sun in full suits. Of course not everybody dresses up so much, but basically if you want to fit in watching the processions, just leave the t-shirt you wore to paint your garage behind." (http://www.enforex.com/culture/semana-santa.html)
Right, so you get the idea. I´ll include pictures when I can. The heavy floats are carried by rows of men and this description says that this consists of up to 4o men. Not true: I´ve heard that in the bigger processions it gets to be up to 4000 men! Since I only saw the procession of a small town here in Malaga, the float was equally small. Here in Spain, the Holy Week along with Christmas are the two biggest holidays. I asked if they have easter eggs and it appears that they do, but they certainly don´t have egg hunts like ours. So what are we doing this Easter Sunday? Well, I woke up and had my breakfast of toast with strips of deli ham atop and colacao (otherwise known as Nestley´s hot-chocolate), followed shortly by a little tinkering on the computer. This afternoon we will go to lunch with los abuelos -the grandparents- before an afternoon of lazing or strolling through the city, like yesterday. We might take in a procession, but everybody is pretty tired of the processions after seeing them every year since forever. Maybe if we were in one of the big cities -say, Seville- there would be more hype over Semana Santa. As it is, I wouldn´t mind the egg hunt right about now.
:::
Enough on Semana Santa. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
On Monday I got back the results of my English test and I am happy to say that I passed with a practically perfect score! I cannot espress my relief at this improvement in my performance -yes, improvement. On their grading scale from 1-10, with anything below a 5 being fail, I came off with a 6.7 on my first test. A fair share of my classmates even took away better scorew than me! I attribute this to a) the sections where I had to translate from spanish to english or vice-versa, and b) the fact that I actually don´t know so much about the english tenses as I thought I did. After getting that aweful score, I started studying in my English class, and I am happy to say that my vocabulary section, where I translate between English and Spanish, was perfect. Thank you Janire for studying with me! Well, now that I have my lovely 10 in English class, I can chillax over break. lol! What a sad life I lead!
:::
ROCK CLIMBING WITHDRAWALS!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCKKK!
:::
More thoughts later.
Love,
Jocelyn
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