Un montón de cosas (A Bunch of Things)

My new favorite phrase is "ya está." It doesn't have a good translation in English, but it literally means "already there" or "there it is." I probably shouldn't bother writing this in the blog because it's so hard to explain well in English, but I thought it was worth mentioning that I am annoying people with my over-usage of "ya está." It's really quite fantastic. I missed having my little phrases that I always say, because I definitely have that in English, and I'm finally starting to create some in Spanish. It's good stuff. Well, ok, "ya está" was already created, but I am embracing it as an emma-ism. It's official. I do like the sentido of it. Yes indeed.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving (or, as I call it, T-gives)! The center took us out for the Thanksgiving meal, which was a lot of fun. It wasn't typically American or anything, which I think was better--it was very Spanish. We had a room where we stood, schmoozed, and beverages and ordervs (spelling?) were brought around. The food was Spanish, the presentation was Spanish, everything was Spanish, but I think that's a good thing. An authentic Spanish Thanksgiving (ha, if such a thing exists) is much better than people who are good at making Spanish food trying to mock American food. That normally doesn't turn out so great. But yes, T-gives was overall very enjoyable. We spent 2 hours schmoozing with each other, talking, and laughing. I really love the directors of the program, too, who I spent awhile talking with (something that I could not have done to save my life at the beginning of the program). I'm going to miss them.

All of my classes in the university except for one were canceled this week (um, or people just didn't show up so the professor didn't teach) because of Bolonia, the nickname for the new law that was just passed in Spain. Like I mentioned before, there have been strikes and other things going on in the University because Spain just agreed to this plan, Bolonia (more information at http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proceso_de_Bolonia, but in Spanish), and the students hate it. There are strikes, protests, marches... the main patios in the central university building have been closed off, the main libraries have been shut down (which is funny because now there's really nowhere to work) and there are always policemen and guards lurking the school. There are posters up everywhere about when the next strike is, about challenging the administration, etc. Bolonia was proposed by the EU, and basically what it does is standardize university education in each country so that the degrees in each place line up. In theory it's a good idea, but it means the students have to pay more money and it means that they have to go to more school to get their degree. It's kind of like the US system -- they'd have to go to undergrad and grad to become, say, a pharmacist, whereas now they can do that in just undergrad (ok, that's oversimplified, but it's more or less the idea). Also, Bolonia means the termination of some departments, like Anthropology, so having Anthropology classes has been interesting. Students are feisty about it, obviously. My Cuban Anarchist Anthro professor, the old man who I'm in love with, thinks all the protesting is phenomenal. He kind of just sits back and watches it happen with a smile on his face. I love it. Anyway, all this Bolonia stuff means stuff at the university has been irregular and unreliable, but also very interesting.

Yesterday, after my Anthro of America class was canceled, I went to my teacher's office to talk to her about the commentaries we've had to turn in and that one in class essay we had. She's an old woman and intimidated me when she was in the front of the class, but when I went to see her in her office she absolutely couldn't have been nicer. It was great. Warm, friendly, joking... everything. Turns out I totally missed the point of that in class essay we had, which isn't surprising, but after she read it she smiled and made some jokes about how obsessed I was about the wrong people in my writing. It was good. Then she read one of the take-home essay/commentary things I did and said it was great, so that made me feel good. We talked about language barriers and her failed effort of learning English, and it was all just great. I left thinking about all the progress I'm making, rather than the one in class essay that went horribly, which is not in my nature to do. Talking with her gave me confidence and reinforced that it's okay if I miss some things -- I'm trying and it's obvious and the world doesn't end. And I spent 15/20 min talking to a professor in Spanish! Fluidly! How about that!

Sevilla is getting a metro system. One of the stations is going to be right next to the program center. There are several prensas in between the program center and the to-be metro -- little permanent stands where you can buy magazines, newspapers, candy, etc. Yesterday, one of them fell into the ground. Literally. I guess it was too close to where they were digging for the metro, but the people in the Prensa heard an enormous rumble and got out just in time. The entire stand -- again, it's a pretty permanent building-like structure -- fell through the ground. It's surreal. Today when I came to the center, there was a fence up all around it and all sorts of TV cameras and the whatnot. Weird. I'm glad everyone is okay.

I have started working with my older person through Solidarios, the nonprofit organization I joined! At first I was really worried about it. I got placed with a very nice older woman, Antonia, who has pretty advanced Parkinson's. Dealing with advanced Parkinson's in English is hard enough, and adding Spanish made it nearly impossible. She can't really move her face, so her words all gush together. The first time I went and met her with the person from Solidarios, I was upset and had my doubts. I thought it wasn't going to work and I was bummed that they had put me with someone who was going to be so difficult for a foreigner to deal with. But then I went back by myself (she also lives pretty close to me, which is a huge bonus) and it was great. She smiles when I can't understand her. It's good because it means that she's not the only one who's slow... I have my own problems to deal with! So we work through them together. I helped her rearrange her closet. I really like Antonia a lot... she lives with her daughter, who came home from work as I was leaving, who is also phenomenal. I'm really happy overall with the situation. I don't understand a lot of what Antonia says, but it doesn't even seem to matter. Bonds can form in such simple ways. Also, Grandma: I was wearing the white knit hat that you got for me and Jenny, and Antonia couldn't stop smiling and she kept telling me how cute I looked. Just so you know!

And, last but not least, I had another intercambio this morning that went really well. It was with Fernando, a 24-year-old Pharmacy student. We talked for about 2 hours. We're... different, again, but it was still good. He was really gung-ho about practicing his English, so that was good. Although I will say that my Spanish was better. :o)