Professor Sharon

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Salud!

March 18th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Itinerary, Learning Spanish, Sabbatical trip, Site Seeing

I did it! I’m feeling very proud of myself this morning! I managed two “real” things using only Spanish – and the best part – I used a verb! Who knows if I used the correct form, but I succeeded in asking my homestay mother if she would wash our laundry today and I asked for a particular type of pastry at the shop as well! Feels good to get somewhere with the language! It’s really frustrating at moments.

Tomorrow is our last day of classes here in Granada although we don’t leave until Saturday. We take the train to Madrid for less than two days, then we fly to Marakeesh to join son and daughter-in-law for a week’s vacation. So we have no idea of when we’ll be able to connect, so please keep checking my site!

Here’s what we’ve been up to for the last three days.

Saturday: We took a bus trip with the school to Cordoba to see the important sites there. There were about 12 students from 3 different schools and about 6 countries. The tour was given in Spanish! The guide would not speak English (part of the idea of immersion); but did do many of the talks in slow clear Spanish; so I think we got more than half or better at times. We did read our tour books so that we had some idea of what he was going to say. We left at 8 am and returned at 9 so we were tired. But the sites of Cordoba are amazing. We saw the Cathedral/Mezuita; the ancient Jewish quarter, a Roman site and other things in the central city. We also went in the bus to see another ancient site of the Muslims.

The Cathedral/Mezuita is breathtaking, and I mean that literally. I wished that I wasn’t on a tour so that I could sit and really take it in. It really touched me – the beauty, the reality of the oldness of it, the spirtual presence of so many religions in one spot. Really truly breaktaking.

The bus ride on the way was lovely as well – fields and fields of olive trees. We stopped for a break in an olive oil producing area and got to taste a few local products.

Sunday

We thought we would have a slower day, right! Our homestay gave us a sandwich and fruit and we walked around the city. We went back up to the view of the Alhambra and mountains. Ate here and there, and then waited to see one of the processions.

It is Semana Santa here in Spain – a huge deal! Another astonishing event to see — each church has a procession of many many people wearing all types of costumes. Each church has a particular set of colors and one or two floats. These floats are carried on the shoulders of about 40 men at a time. A band plays a very fascinating piece of music that has a rhythm that they march to. Every now and again they set the float down, and then to see the float get hoisted up again is amazing. I wish we were seeing these processions with someone who knew all about them and spoke English – I have so many questions. YEt, to just watch is to see a passion enacted that is moving.

We have been able to catch several of them – there are 4 to 6 each night in Granada. Actually, it’s quite hard not to see them as they block the streets and we’ve had to be sure to have our map handy in order to find our way around. If you’ve done your math, you’ll figure out that’s about 25 or more churches in one small area of the central city.

Monday

We had school as usual and decided after an early dinner (7:30 pm) to go back to Paddy’s Pub and have a drink to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Well, there was a procession in front of it. It took about 20 minutes and a lot of pardoning ourselves to just get across the street. But, the best part, we got to see the float from the pub! And we enjoyed meeting some great people and talking in English for a while.

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The top two pictures are just two of the floats we have seen so far from amongst the crowds. The bottom left is the float we saw while inside the pub. The last, sorry it is out of focus – the camera’s battery was about to give out – is inside Paddy’s Pub while the float went by. This is for my siblings — Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I know Dad would have appreciated my downing a Guiness while watching the Virgin Mary go by!! 🙂

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2 Comments so far ↓

  • ProfSharon

    Thanks for the update on our friend Fred! My cardigan ended up staying at home as it didn’t fit in our luggage and wasn’t the “right color” — (we went with the color scheme method of packing in order to minimize what we’re carrying) – but I’m looking forward to wearing it this summer on cool evenings!

    While I’m enjoying my time off, I miss all of you as well! I’ve had some nice time to think about teaching methods, etc.

    Give my best to the other student teachers!

  • Suzanne Stillinger

    Congratulations on using your Spanish skills out on the street! I thought of you today because it’s “Sweater Day”. From CNN:

    “To celebrate what would have been the 80th birthday of Fred Rogers, better known as TV’s “Mister Rogers,” friends of Mr. Rogers, including David Newell (a.k.a. Mr. McFeely), have declared this Thursday “Sweater Day.”

    I’m wearing mine, but that’s because it’s cold here! I’m sure that Fred would understand if it’s too hot where you are for a cardigan!

    You are missed.
    -Suzanne

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