monday and tuesday

yesterday was a boring, slow day, as i did nothing at all except hang out and relax before class. chelsea had class in the morning, and when she returned, we spent the morning talking and hanging out in our home. i had class for my usual four hours yesterday, which felt so excruciatingly long (this is coming from the girl who took an average of 17 credits per semester every year in college! what has happened to me!). fortunately, both classes were very interesting, including my franco class! yay!

so basically, we learned all about the political climate in spain leading up to the spanish civil war. it´s hard to imagine spain being a country of such violence and chaos, but, in 1931 through 1936 (and throughout the civil war, i´m sure) it was. in response to the lower class´demand for property, spain created a republic government to try and mediate the problems this government instigated three major reforms: land reform, military reform , and church reform. for the land reform, the government tried to find a way to take private property (owned by the wealthy spanish families) and redistribute it to the poor. as you can imagine, this was widely unpopular with the rich and incredibly difficult to achieve. how can a government break its own laws regarding private property? additionally, the new republic began to cut down the size of spain´s military, sending all of her troops to africa (where i´m sure they weren´t happy). also, the republic government thought it would be a good idea to severly limit a soldier´s chance for advancement. that meant that, soldiers who entered the army with the hopes of making it a career had their career path destroyed, but where unable to leave the army! finally, the worst reform (in my opinion) was the reform of the church. the spanish republic was highly anticlerical. just as hitler blamed the jews for all of germany´s problems, so the republic blamed the catholic church for all of spain´s problems. all clergy members--priests, bishops, monks, and even nuns--were perscuted, imprisoned, and killed. thousands of churches were destroyed, which is so incredibly sad to me. in fact, all of the gorgeous cathedrals in barcelona and the state of cataluña are all reconstructed buildings, because every church in cataluña was literally burnt to the ground. what a waste and what a terrible thing to do! essentially, catholicism (and christianity) were outlawed during the spanish republic. how strange to think that less than 100 years ago, spain was in this state of chaos, anger, and tumult. needless to say, i enjoyed the class immensely and feel much better about my learning prospects.

after class, i high-tailed it home in time for dinner. class always wipes me out, so i was exhausted after we ate. i climbed into bed around midnight and fell immediately asleep. it´s amazing how i have become accustomed to sleeping through the city noises. people who know me are probably laughing right now, because i am the girl who can sleep through anything, but the first few nights i was here, the city noises kept me awake. especially the spanish sirens. good grief! the sirens here in spain seemed to be designed so that EVERYONE in the entire city of sevilla can hear any siren going off at any time in any part of the city! it´s pretty unbelievable. i can just hear the siren screaming EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! I´M LETTING EVERYONE KNOW THAT THERE IS AN EMREGENCY AND I AM HEADED TOWARDS IT! i´m sure that the news reporters absolutely LOVE the sirens here, because they can track down any incident just by following the noise. anyways, i´ve finally begun to sleep through all the city noises, including the spanish sirents, which is quite an accomplishment and a testament to my adaptability.

today, i rode the bus into town and met chelsea in the center. we headed over to parque maría luisa--sevilla´s answer to central park--and we explored for a while. the park is so cool! it´s big and full with awesome things, like gazebos (que romántico!) and duck pons (you know how i feel about ducks!). on our way to the green, lush part of the park, we stopped by the plaza de españa, which is this huge plaza construction for the 1929 world´s expo. we showed up and there were all these policemen and soldiers running around. then, a military marching band started to play and this whole big ceremony commenced. we didn´t know it, but we had stumbled upon this big flag ceremony that is making its way across spain. when watching the news a few nights ago, we watched part of the ceremony as it took place in madrid, and now we got to see it in sevilla! it was pretty cool, and i enjoyed seeing all the different military uniforms. so we hung out and watched that for a little while. afterwards, we decided that we wanted some crepes and juice, so we made our way over to our favorite spot--bliss, the world´s most amazing juicebar (or, at least, the best one in sevilla!). i finally ventured out of my typical nutella crepe and ordered a lemon-sugar one and man, it was so good! we enjoyed relaxing in our favorite shop, munching on crepes and talking about our lives in spain. chelsea and i both realized how awesome our lives are here!

while walking through town to get to bliss, we passed a protest, and it was pretty interesting. the people were protesting against the spanish 65-hour work week. this was interesting, as no one i have met in spain works 65 hours a week. in fact, since the spanish work day is split up because of siesta and no businesses are allowed to be open on sunday, i´m not really sure how they could work 65 hours a week! part of my wanted to stop and ask questions, but the smarter part of me just kept walking. it´s so interesting to me, though, because spain is by all accounts a modern country. they have clean water and decent laws and the respect human rights. however, i feel like things are a little bit behind the times here. simple things like how the majority of houses don´t have internet and the fact that children live with their parents well into their late 20s makes me give spain a second look. it´s all very interesting.

anyways, i was pleased with my two little adventures today (the military ceremony and the protest). after our crepes, we ran home for lunch and a quick nap, then we came back to the center. i had dance class, and now i´m here, hanging out in the computer lab, kicking it on the internet. not having internet in my house (or, i should say, having it only on a very infrequent basis) has made me appreciate the techonolgy and accessibility of the u.s. so much! i can´t wait to get back to the u.s. and be able to check my email whenever i want! i might be slightly addicted, but who in my generation isn´t? tonight is the herederos, my favorite spanish show!!! i love this show. it´s like a soap opera, though it´s on during prime time, and a little bit on crack. i can´t even begin to describe the complicated plot in this blog, though i will say that everyone in the family is incredibly messed up. i´m amazed at how well i can follow the show in spanish, which, i guess, is yet another testament to my adaptability (go me!). anyways, tonight is herederos night, which means i should take off for home so i can do my homework before settling in for the 2-hour glorious television program! until later...