Thursday morning I woke up tired but it wasn't as bad as Wednesday. I went to lit class and we talked about Lope de Vega, who apparently was way cooler than I gave him credit for. He's kind of the Shakespeare of Spain (Well, Cervantes gets the name, Lope gets... basically everything else, the plays, the new genres, the prolificness) BUT FEMINIST! Probably not really, since it was 17th century Spain, but there were some surprising girl power moments in the play we talked about today. We read parts of this play Fuenteovejuna which is based on a true story of this town who came under the control of this really terrible commander during the wars in the mid-1400s and then somebody killed him. So, like good kings, the Catholic- ya know, I actually don't know how to refer to this in English. In Spanish Ferdinand and Isabel are the "reyes católicos" which literally translates to "Catholic Kings" but rey is gender neutral in Spanish in a way king isn't. Huh. So anyway, the reyes católicos, who were in power at the time send a judge to this town to find out who killed the commander, and everybody answers "Fuenteovejuna, señor." Everybody. Even under pain of torture, nobody gives any other answer. They basically put the blame equally on the whole town, and when the reyes católicos hear what the guy was doing, they pardon the town. So Lope took this story and retold it and added a love story and a fool, and actually had the women of the town murder the commander because he raped and tortured one of them. Basically the men wouldn't do anything, so the women did, which I thought was really progressive. He also gave these peasants the right to honor in his play, which was also pretty progressive, because not only did peasants not HAVE honor under the eyes of the law, they didn't even have the right to it, but Lope gave them both, and that was fascinating. I might have to read more Lope de Vega.
So then I came home and took another nap and did homework and wrote a blog post and rested and ate dinner, and sleep. It's kind of quiet around here, lots of people going out of town, but we're doing a day trip tomorrow, so not bad.
Today I woke up at like 10:40 and heard the maid down the hall. Now, I have been sick, but am feeling much more human today, so I really wanted to get the room cleaned to excise some of the germs, so I roll out of bed and in my pjs go ask the maid if she will still clean my room if I leave now, and she says yes, so I go put on jeans and a jacket over my pj top and glasses, and I run out the door. At this point, having nothing better to do for about half an hour, I decide to go have breakfast at the pasteleria around the corner, because by this time the dining hall is closed for breakfast. But on my way, I notice that the central market is just as close, and since I didn't go with the group last weekend (I slept in. Sue me), I decided to check it out. They said that they had a lot of food in there, so I figured I might be able to get breakfast there too.
It was incredible. It's this massive modernist building with steel and tiles and concrete and inside it is absolutely amazing. It's this massive market that has everything you could possibly want. Mostly food. There were butchers and bakers and (I didn't actually see any candlestick makers) fruit stands and a whole AREA for fresh fish, and it was overwhelming. There was so much. It's things like the central market that make me feel like I could live somewhere like Spain, more than even the Mediterranean climate and the beautiful architecture. I love being able to walk in there and shop and browse and find everything fresh and quality, and I loved even more to watch the Valencianos do the same. Because they clearly knew people. They seemed to be going to the stores they knew, because there are multiple stores for everything, but the Valencianos seemed to know the shop owners or the worker, and that's nice, and I liked being able to see my food, and it was a much better atmosphere to me than a grocery store. I've never liked grocery stores, but this I liked.
So after browsing a bit I got hungry and I bought a pastry, some strawberries, and dried banana and apricots. I've actually been looking for dried banana, so I'm really glad that I got some. But everything I ate was really delicious. The pastry was some kind of apple thing, and it was nice and flaky and just full of flavor. And the strawberries were divine. They were fairly large and bright red and perfectly sweet and juicy. I haven't tried the dried fruit yet, I really got that as a snack, but I hope it'll be good as well.
So then I came back and sat on the roof and read for a while and chilled and worked a little on homework, and then went down to lunch. After lunch we met up in the lobby and headed down to the IMAX theatre at the City of Arts and Sciences.
I really like going to the Ciudad because 1) It's a supercool place 2) it's a really lovely walk.
Like, you go down through the río and past gulliver and all these orange trees and fountains, and everybody is out enjoying the day and walking their dogs, and then up ahead there are these big white and blue modern buildings that look like a '60s sic-fic author's vision of the future. It's lovely.
Unfortunately, today we were in a bit of a hurry, because it is a bit of a walk and we started later than we meant to, and the entrance to the IMAX was kind of hard to find, but we got there and got in before the movie started. When we gave them our tickets we got these weird headgear things that, again, kind of had a Star Trek vibe about them, but it turns out that they were so you could change the language and listen to it in Spanish or French or Italian or English or Catalan. At least theoretically that's what it does, but I only could get mine to go to Spanish or if I tried REALLY HARD TO GET IT TO ENGLISH it might switch to French. But fortunately, I speak Spanish, and therefore was able to enjoy the documentary about the team that navigated the Nile from its source to the Mediterranean. It was pretty intense.
Actually, the theatre itself was pretty intense. It is this massive dome, with the screen extending from the floor to right above your head, and the screen is curved, and so you sit in seats that basically make you feel like you're on your back and look at what seems like straight up at this MASSIVE screen. Actually, just walking into the theatre made me a bit dizzy, and walking to my seat felt like it required a lot of balance. Some of the people actually got seasick. Yeah. Mom, you'd hate it. It was really overwhelming, but pretty awesome.
Then we walked back through the río without the teachers and found some exercise equipment. It's kind of like a playground, but with stuff to help you work out instead of stuff for kids to climb on, and had a good time looking like idiots trying to figure out how it all worked. And then we saw Elena and Gary on the street above us taking pictures. We really don't want anyone to see those pictures. Ourselves included. So yeah, then we came back, I showered and did laundry, a bit of homework, and blogged! I just got back from dinner and I am planning on going out tonight, so we'll see how that goes. It just feels like a good night. I feel more up for socializing than I normally do in the evening. SO yeah, tomorrow or the day after you'll get to hear about that and our excursion to Xativa tomorrow.
Oh yeah, I also bought a mug at the theatre, because it was on sale and I knew it would make mother feel better about me drinking out of plastic cups. I love you, Mutti.
aaight. ciao!
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