Vivimos en una época posmoderna (We Live in Postmodern Times)

So, as the title of this entry suggests, I have another emma-ism that has taken root in my time here in Spain. I write things off as 'posmoderno' pretty much every two seconds. For example, the center took us to see a play last Friday and parts of it were really surrealist and trippy (strobe lights, dancing with plastic bags, etc). Whenever those scenes came on, I leaned over to Audrey and Liliana and whispered "don't worry; it's postmodern" in Spanish. It was sufficiently humorous and irritating. So now it has stuck... whenever I say something that doesn't make sense or I observe something weird, I just call it postmodern and move right along. For example, I was being silly and told Katie that I was going to wake her up by shoving socks up her nose and tickling her stomach (or something, I can't remember exactly what I said), and she looked at me, very confused, but once I said it was postmodern, everything seemed explained. And hilarious. So using post modernism in my humor has officially become a... well, an official thing. Officially.

1) I really like mantecado. Well, liked, and I'll get to that in a second. It's a Spanish christmas sweet. It's not chocolate, but rather baked. It's kind of floury and tastes like cinnamon. It has sesame seeds on top. It's really unique and delicious -- I got some when we toured the factories in Estepa with my development class. So I was eating one when I was talking to my dad on Skype, and he wanted to know what was in them. So i started looking up the ingredients in my dictionary. And do you know what the second ingredient is? Lard. Yup. Turns out that's what "manteca de cerdo" is, for all you veggie people out there who are thinking about coming to Spain. So now the idea of eating them disgusts me... ah, innocence was bliss. It's not that I feel like I can't eat them now, it's just that the appeal has lowered significantly. Significantly, significantly. I should have known, though... this is Spain, after all.

2) I gave a 15 min presentation in my Anthro of Contemporary Societies class on Monday. It was weird... I was the only one in the class who was ready to go, so I was the first and only one who went. Most people in the class hadn't shown up that day, so the class was small (10 people, maybe). I mostly read off a piece of paper that I had prepared, and every time I looked up people were nodding and smiling at me. It was an odd kind of encouragement. It was hard because my topic (on time and progress, don't get me started) is pretty philosophical and hard to communicate in English, so in Spanish it's doubly hard. I realized that I was repeating myself with the same phrases a lot because it's hard to find more colorful verbs in Spanish that mean the same as they do in English. I also didn't really say anything new or meaningful... it was basically a recitation of poorly-researched facts. I know my standards for myself are high and I should probably lower them considering, yes, I am trying to function in Spanish, but it's hard. At the end, people were smiling, and I couldn't figure out if it was in an endearing 'oh, look, the foreigner actually tried to say something, this is really cute' or in a legitimate pleased/proud kind of way. I think it might've been a combination of the two. I felt kind of bummed after the presentation -- it could have been a lot better, but oh well. In a weird way with everyone smiling and everything, it kind of broke down barriers between me and other people in the class. Anyway, my professor asked if there were any questions or comments, and there weren't (ouch), so he then used my presentation to turn the rest of the class into a poetry slam about time. Have I mentioned that I love him?

3) Taking anthropology in Spanish has made me realize how absurd some of the stuff is. Parts are legit, but parts definitely are not. Changing the language I learn in has the effect of putting me outside the culture, outside the norm of thinking and understanding, so I view what's happening in class from a different perspective than when the language is my mother tongue. It definitely makes a difference and sometimes I don't understand why we spend time talking about what we do.

4) People have stopped coming to classes. It's funny. The first few weeks, everyone comes, everyone's talking, everyone wants to see each other's notes and make sure they are completely up-to-date on everything, and then they slowly come less and less until they're not coming at all. There are some people who I know are in my classes who I legitimately have not seen for over a month. Even in my one class where the teacher takes attendance, people have stopped coming. It's weird. I guess that's what happens when university doesn't cost an absurd amount of money.

5) Katie and I were having a great conversation with Mayte and Fernando in our room about... well, things. Turns out Mayte knows the verb 'to spank' in English. I will leave it at that.

6) Yesterday when I went to see Antonia, I was wearing my pink hat that i crocheted for myself (Angie, high 5). I showed it to her and she got the biggest smile on her face. I told her I want to learn how to crochet better and she got excited to teach me, so next time I go over there I think our classes will begin. It will be hard because she can't do it anymore (her fingers can't really move) and I sure as hell am not going to understand all the verbs that go along with crocheting, but we'll still try. It should be good. It also gives us something to do and it gives her a purpose. I think that's important.

7) I'm giving a 30min presentation in my center class on daily life under Franco. I decided to do my topic on what dating was like under Franco -- not marriage, but before. There's a lot of information on how couples functioned during marriage, what gender roles were, etc, but there's nothing about how dating worked. Girls and guys weren't allowed to socialize, really, so the way that two people began to date (and what 'dating' actually entailed) seemed really interesting to me. I asked Mayte about what her experience with it was yesterday while Katie and I were eating dinner, and that lead to a huge conversation about her and Fernando's courting process, and how they were both more free-thinking than most people under Franco, etc. There were some great stories about awkward encounters, about breaking society's rules, and about thinking for yourself. Anyway, that conversation (where I did get some great information for my presentation) led to Fernando whipping out a DVD slide-show that their kids made for them on their 25th wedding anniversary. It's a collection of photos from their teenage years till now and it was so wonderful to watch. From kids to adults, to having kids, to their kids becoming adults, to their adult kids having kids... it was a nice collection and really fun to see Mayte and Fernando messing around as kids our age (Fernando had a 'moto' that they took everywhere). Oh, and now I know the age difference: when Mayte and Fernando met, Mayte was 19 and Fernando was 28. So that means that now if Mayte is 66, Fernando is 75.

8) Liliana and I are waking up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go to SCOTLAND!! There's a holiday on Monday, so it's a long weekend... I guess I have the Catholic religion to thank for that one. We will be back on Tuesday night... so hasta la semana que viene!