This week has been one of the longest weeks I have ever had in my life: I was sick, I was jetlagged, I had some difficulties with the language and I learned how hard Spaniards go at the discotecas. And let me tell you, I wouldn't change it for anything. I have learned so much Spanish and culture in week that I really can't believe it. But anyway, enough with this mushy, "woe is me" post I'm just gonna write what you all want to read. So the way that I'm going to try to write this post is put some Spanish words that I've learned or are significant to something that I did in the week and expand on them a bit. If it works well for me I'll keep it going haha.
GITANOS, n., (hee-tah-nos): translation: gypsy
On Wednesday we continued our orientation and went to mercadilla, which is just an flea market. There are super cheap clothes, a ton of food and a ton of people. The only thing that I bought was licorice because I was nervous that if I bought any of the fresh food my mom would be, not necessarily upset, but along the lines of "I could've bought that for you."Anyway, I came back and told mi familia española (Spanish family, if you will) that I went to this market and they asked me if I saw all the gitanos. I hadn't really ever heard this word so they had to describe them which was a lot of talking slow and acting out which didn't help. But I ate lunch with all of them and they continued to explain this to no avail. So later that night I was talking with my sister Ester when she brought it up again. She got her computer and then all of these people started showing up in the family room like Ana, Javi, Ana's boyfriend Roberto (which has gotten confusing because my family calls me Robert) and a friend of the girls that was over because they heard what we were talking about. I realized that they're just gypsies, but my whole family was ragging on them because of their accents, culture and lack of jobs. Basically all the gypsies in Spain, according to my family, make money by stealing, selling drugs, or working at the mercadilla. But a lot of them actually have a ton of money and spend on it on huge parties and weddings. At any rate they should me this show La Palabra de Gitanos which apparently is also a show in the US called Gypsy Weddings(?). They were trying to point out how weird of an accent they have, and let me tell you, they have a very strange culture. They dance all the time, as in I'm pretty sure the entire wedding was just a big dance that the pastor sang and they all clapped and danced haha. If you want a good laugh you should look it up and check them out.
Tell me this man isn't wearing the most ridiculous thing that you've ever seen. Oh and they bride's like 16...so there's that. Also I guess the bride is pretty ridiculous as well haha.
So a couple of times when we're at the club, I'll tell Ester, Ana, Roberto and their friend Concha to dance like the gypsies and we all start clapping and dancing and laughing because it's so ridiculous. But to be honest, I have no idea if I saw any gypsies and cannot tell the difference between theirs or any other accent in Spanish because they speak so damn fast.
HAKUNA MATATA, n., (hah-koo-nah mah-tah-tah) translation: a problem-free philosophy created by Timon and Pumba of Lion King fame.
So the only reason I really put this in here is so that I can talk about my family and how much of a delight they are. They is so much dancing and singing in this house that sometimes it's too much. When we were eating dinner the other day, I was trying to figure out how to say peach in Spanish because we eat fruit for dessert every meal and its a tough word to say (melocotón). After I got the hang of it my sisters asked me how to say it in English, and this all happens very often in my house. But then they started reminiscing about how they used to watch James y el melocotón gigante (James and the Giant Peach) and wanted to learn how to say it in English. One thing lead to another and all of a sudden we were talking about the Lion King and all of the girls in my family broke out in to the Spanish version of Hakuna Matata haha. My brother also loves reggaeton and will frequently start playing it in the kitchen or on the patio and start dancing and often Ester will join with him, dancing the bachata. There are so many little quirks to these guys and it's funny to see how our cultures are different!
So in Cáceres at least, people only party on Thursdays and Saturdays, which sounds strange but it makes sense when you see how they do it. Basically when you go out the night starts at 2:30AM or later and goes until the sun comes up so you can get some coffee, churros and head back for some sleep. I didn't stay up that late on Thursday because we had class but I had an awesome time bar hopping and dancing at the discotheques. Mauro and I hung out with Ana's boyfriend, Roberot, for the most part and taught him English slang. So far he's got 'swag', 'swerve' and arguably the most important 'YOLO' down. He's an awesome guy and we all had so much while he went out with us both nights. He went to my university my has recently taken his equivalent of boards for nursing school which is why he was here for the week. His boards basically consist of sitting in front of a board of registered nurses and doctors and another audience, getting peppered with question after question for 10 minutes and they decide whether he did adequately. He rocked it out and got a 9 out of 10 on it, so he can now start working! But he had to leave yesterday unfortunately and was very sad to do so. I'm hoping we can both make it up to Salamanca to visit Ana and Ester and hang out again.
LA CACA DE LAS PALOMAS, n., (la ka-ka day lahs pah-loe-mahs) translation: pigeon poop
We got a tour from one of our history teachers around la Ciudad Antigua (Old Cáceres) which is gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of when Charlie and I went to Rome, just condensed. I wasn't aware of the rich history of Spain and the number of times different parts were inhabited by different religions and tribes. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to uploading pictures, but I'm sure you can see some more on Facebook from other people at K or if they tagged me in them. While we were walking back throught the Old City, I was talking to my professor when I heard something splat on the ground next to me and low and behold...'twas shit. A bird pooped on my shoes and part of my ankles, but I found myself lucky. My professor had it in his hair and down the back of his shirt. At first I was not happy, but like the cacereño way I chilled out and laughed it off because in a disgusting kinda way, it was hilarious. This drunk guy that we started talking to offered to help me clean it, which I declined but looking back on it, the whole situation was pretty funny. Anyway, the day after I had painful stomach virus for about 24 hours (I'm fine now though!) and I couldn't figure out what it was from. Being sick in a foreign country is difficult, because 1) I don't know any words to express that I'm sick other than "I feel bad here" 2) you can't really focus on conversation even when you're feeling better because you're not 100% on top of jetlag and 3) you don't want to go to the hospital just because you don't know what to expect. But like I said, I got better by drinking some light lemonade and very salty soups so it's no big deal. It could've been the poop on my feet or other poop in that just floats around in the air that I picked up, one will never know.
In a nutshell, I'm still doing awesome and trying to get used to how this country lives. It's weird that the whole house stays up until 1:30 AM on any given night, but I'm getting used to it. Oh and on Saturday night we stayed up until 8:00 AM at the clubs and then went and got coffee and churros, so that we pretty sweet. I love it here, and I miss most ALL of you so please let me know how you're doing every once and while!
Chau!
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