“Spanish. Bestow great attention on this and endeavor to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connection with Spain and Spanish America will render that language a valuable acquisition.”
(Taken from U. Virginia website)Wow, who knew that in 1787 Jefferson had such foresight into the importance of the Spanish language. It's ranked number two in the world of native speakers, and number three in total number of speakers. Don't worry Mr. Jefferson, I'm working on following your advice, 223 years later.
Continuing on that note, I'm just starting my grad school applications and, boy, this process is hard! I'm trying to decide which schools I should apply to, which professors I might be able to work with, what to say in my personal/academic statements. I officially started my application to University of Oregon, and I am hoping to make progress on a few others as the week comes along. I need to narrow it down to about six schools. So far I am thinking of U of Oregon, Boston College, U of Michigan at Ann Arbor (PhD program only, no masters), U of Virginia and maybe Berkeley, U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, U of Georgia at Athens... And then there is Washington University at St. Louis and also CSU Long Beach (although I am pretty sure I am not going to apply to CSULB, even though one of the greatest professors is there... sigh.) It's such a balancing act - the school, the program, the professors, the courses, the resources.... Poquito a poco, I guess, and it will all work itself out. It always does.
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Changing subjects completely, as I said in my previous post, Fuengirola is this bizarre cultural-fusion place. My experience here is already very different from that of my year in Sevilla. In Sevilla there are Americans everywhere. Here, while many people speak English, I get the feeling that the only Americans are the auxiliares and that's about it. We have yet to meet another American who is not an auxiliar. Yesterday we had our orientation in Málaga and finally I felt like I was in Spain. The buildings were old and reminded me of the Andalucía I know, not the resort town I am living in. I walked through the streets staring up at the balconies above me, made of wrought iron, some with single-paned windows, most likely originals. For once I heard only Spanish when walking though the streets, and not accents from anglophone countries. Although I had never been to Málaga before, I felt like I was in a familiar place. We didn't have too much time to explore, so I'll have to go back and really see the whole city. Luckily it's only a 45 minute ride from Fuengirola, and at 4.40€ round-trip, I'd say it's pretty worth it.
We got back to Fuengirola and stopped at Cien Montaditos for dinner (again - I really love that place, especially on Wednesdays because it's euromania and everything is only, yep, you guessed it, 1€). La feria had just begun only hours before so we walked over to tour the recinto ferial. Unlike Sevilla, anyone can enter most of the casetas, which is great because that's where so much of the action takes place. While in Sevilla most of the music is sevillanas, here there is a great diversity of music. We followed our ears and soon the sounds of the clapping hands of the people tocando palmas and the guitar filled the air. In we went to one of the casetas to watch about a dozen people dancing las sevillanas, each adding her or his own flavor to the dance. The environment was friendly and we appeared to be the only non-Spaniards in the room. I felt like I could have stayed there watching all night. I always find flamenco, especially sevillanas so entrancing. It's that kind of music that isn't just sounds and words, but rather a melody that comes from the soul. It's passionate and full of life. I'm looking forward to going back again today. My friend from Mt. Holyoke Rachel (and fellow Romance Language major) is coming this weekend for la feria, so I am looking forward to seeing her. She's doing the same thing as I am, but through CIEE. She's living in La Linea, which is the town right next to Gibraltar. Pretty sweet.
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