This post might seem a little all over the place but without a trip in the last 3 weeks it seems like I have less to write about.
This is not true of course; I'm just getting lazy, and the life I'm growing accustomed to here doesn't seem so strange anymore. School is early and often, class is easy, nights end late and the concept of a 8-hour work day is non-existent. Ocho horas? Cada dia? Estás loco?
The other day I was watching The Simpsons during lunch with my host family and realized how hard it is to translate humor into other languages. Humor relies so much on tone of voice, irony, a knowledge of local norms, and a deep understanding of the language. Even when I know the lines in the episode, I still find myself not laughing because of the strange and awkward ways the language demands you reconstruct the phrase from English to Spanish. The best thing about The Simpsons here is how they translate the name of Bart's nemesis: Sideshow Bob. "Sideshow" does not translate to Spanish so cleanly. There is no single word that conveys the same meaning as sideshow as a sort of diversion to the main act. So whenever Sideshow Bob appears in an episode, every single character refers to him as Actor secundario Bob. How great is that?
So Amanda hasn't posted in a while so I figured I would pick up the slack for her. She's on her way to Barcelona for the weekend along with about 5-6 other girls. Some other people flew to the Canaries for some sun and hopefully no floods. It has been flooding there recently.
I have been making an effort to watch Spanish movies without subtitles and have a new and profound appreciation for Spanish cinema. Specifically a director named Alejandro Amenabar who makes some great films. He directed Abre los Ojos which was the basis for Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. He also directed The Others and I just watched his first movie called Tesis. Very very good, I highly recommend it to all of you. Also, the movie Celda 211 (not by Amenabar) just won best picture at the Spanish oscars (the goyas) and it was an awesome movie about a real life prison riot in Spain.
What else….
So our classes at Cursos Internacionales are almost over (finals a week from Monay), meaning the Emory group will no longer be having Spanish lessons every day from 9am-2pm. This also means though that the time is flying by and I wish I were as good at Spanish as I thought I'd be by now. Not to say I'm bad, certainly not, but I did have high expectations for myself. I'm meeting a 24-year-old architecture student I became friends with last week for a drink to practice my Spanish and his English. Since the city is full of students, it's pretty normal thing (called an intercambio) and not at all as gay as it sounds. The place we're going is called Birdland and it is by far one of my favorite bars in the city.
Right now it's 54 degrees and sunny, this is the first good weather we've had in a week where every day rain is forecasted.
I forgot that I have to watch Lost so my friends and I can discuss it and analyze it to death. It just finished downloading and I have some time to kill before doing homework. Hasta Luego mis lectores leales.
-Corey
Words of the day:
Faro- Lighthouse
Naufragio- Shipwreck
La Madrugada- The dawn
Payaso- Clown
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