Antiguo

So apparently I'm old fashioned because I don't shave my legs. Little exposition: my 73 year old host mother told me this. That I, the 17 year old, am old fashioned, and she, the 73 year old, is modern. EXCUSE ME for trying not to reveal how white my upper legs truly are (my kryptonite)

So I did really well on the last Lengua exam (highest grade in the class!)

Which turned out to be a BAD thing, because as I was one of the two people that didn't fail, and as I don't speak Spanish natively, this was seen as some sort of shame for my Lengua teacher, and he made me read my exam to my class so that they would know what a good exam was like. Embarrassingggg.

I'm reading Interview with a Vampire, IN SPANISH, and I love it. I can't wait to start the second one, IN SPANISH. Sometimes Anna Rice kinda drags out the depressiveness of being a blood sucking immortal being, which is pretty dumb, because there are clearly no down sides. At all.

And I've been getting all morenito, (poco a poco) since March, cause you know, I just HAPPEN to live across from the beach rated the most beautiful in Spain, the country that is already the Miami of Europe. Sigh, my life is so hard.

Televisión

So television here in Spain isn't quite as popular in the States. Everyone has a TV, but spend fewer hours watching it.

I however spend a fair time watching TV. It's really good for practicing my Spanish when I don't have someone to talk to. Howeverrrr....

Everything is American. Almost all the shows are American with dubbed voices, or knock-offs (Gran Hermano = Big Brother, La Ruleta de la Suerte = Wheel of Fortune, etcétera)

The Spanish voice actors... I don't know if they record in outer space or something, but they're always so gaspy-for-breath and dramatic. Imagine that the script is written in all capitals and tears, and you get an idea.

And all the titles in English are translated just as badly. Hocus Pocos = THE RETURN OF THE WITCHES, Brokeback Mountain = TWO COWBOYS DOIN' IT, etcétera.

Also, even though I get to enjoy the Simpsons and Family Guy in Spanish, the commericals begin in the middle of a sente-

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and then come back ten minutes later. TEN.

And I don't know why, but during Christmas season, there are so many cologne/perfume commericals. I counted 30 different ones. And on the 6th of January, the biggest shopping day and gift day (LAST MINUTE SHOPPERS, ALL OF THEM), there were 60 in a row. IN A RO-

Nazi

So like I've already mentioned, I miss Jewish people. But I'm the only one.

Now, it's not that Spaniards are Nazis.....afterall, in the Midwest there's a huge Nazi movement.

But...

Most of the desks have a Swatzika drawn on them. Or an anti-swatzika sign. There seems to be some graffiti war going on or something. Maybe I'm just dumb and never noticed it in the States.

But the other week I started writing on the desks with Statzikas: (in Spanish, of course)

The King of the Jews

Is YOUR God.

Respect the differences,

Realize the similarities.

And then a Star of David and a cross that joined together to make an anti-Swatzika sign, yayyy.

BUTTT

One of my classmates today told me that Hitler was God, and crossed out my acceptance tolerance love stars horse shoes and rainbows pictures with heavy black marker.

He was laughing when he said it, but stillll, that's not really anything to laugh about, especially when we're studying WWII in history at the moment.

Tolerancia

Today is Thursday of Semana Santa, the most important day. After I eat dinner, my friends and I are going to see some more pasos, which will end at 10am. Wheee.

Today is the saddest day, since Jesus dies and all the stuff. Some pasos have flowers thrown on them. Others glide in the darkness because everyone turns of their lights as they pass by. And most of them, when the people carrying the pasos rest, have a Saeta sung to them, which is basically a branch of Flamenco, but it's a solo in the middle of a street with no instruments. It's basically an eargasm.

Semana Santa is obviously extremely religious, but at the same time it's not. The people who carry the pasos do it as repentence (it's at least 8 hours, no easy task) but the people who watch do it out of custom, whilst others break down in tears and pray. It's a very big cultural mix of tradition and leisure and religion. Which brings me to my main point:

Spaniards are very tolerant of religion. Or at least, they're so used to it since it's ingrained in their culture. Most of my friends are Atheists or non-practicing Catholics, but that doesn't mean they're unaccepting. One of my friends has shown me every single church, explained the history of every single brick, and has attended Mass with me. Yet he's an Atheist.

This is something very few Americans would do. It's pretty typical for an American Atheist to shun a cross like a vampire, but a Spaniard never would, because it's frankly intolerant. They understand that personal religious affiliations and interactions with others in religious terms have no over-lapping.

Oh, and a common Semana Santa treat is the Pirulí. A cane of sugar that even I can't finish. Shame. And the little kids collect wax from people carrying these enormous candles along with the pasos, on little aluminum balls. Fun AND logical, right?