Dia 21: El Calentito y Fiestas

Hola a todos!

I know I don’t usually talk about class because I’m not trying to bore all of you to death. HOWEVER, today’s culture class was really interesting. We watched a movie called El Calentito. The time period of the movie is immediately after Franco’s dictatorship when they are beginning to start a democracy in Spain. During Franco’s dictatorship, there was a huge censorship on all media and therefore when the dictatorship ended there was an influx of music and art and cinema into Spain. This time was called La Movida. This was basically Spain’s punk time period. The movie is all in Spanish and was directed by a Spaniard and was rated for ages 14+. This movie would 100% be rated R in the US. The opening scene is two high school girls talking about oral sex and then one girl sneaks out of the house to go to an underground punk bar with her boyfriend. This bar is crazy.  The live punk band on stage is 3 girls, one is topless and they are all making tons of sexual gestures as they sing. The owner of the bar is a pre-op transsexual. The innocent girl ends up joining this crazy punk band and is introduced to a life of cocaine, speed, marijuana, sex, the whole 9 yards AND she is a virgin. Clearly, all of us were captivated by this movie simply because it was so shocking. Honestly, I really did enjoy it but my one critique is that at times it got a little ridiculous.

After the movie, we were talking to Vicky (our professor) about all the slang that they were using in the movie and this is what I learned... FYI all of this is going to be vulgar slang:

"de puta madre" : fucking awesome --- and yes, if you're wondering, I love using this phrase

"tu puta madre" : mother fucker

"zorra" : whore

"perra" : slut

When I got home and told my family that I watched a Spanish film my house dad immediately asked if it was vulgar and all about sex. When I told him yes he said that’s how all Spanish films are and that’s why he doesn’t like them because that’s how they try to get people’s attention instead of an intricate plot. He is kind of right, but coming from an American’s perspective, it was a pretty badass movie.

After class it was THE WEEKEND BABY!!! Tomorrow (Thursday) is a holiday because of Corpus Christi and San Fernando and then on Friday we are going to Cordoba and Granada. 4-day weekends are the bomb dot com and we have another next week as well.

In the evening the city was very busy with people all excited about the holiday. People had hung gorgeous cloths from their balconies in the center of the city and there were TONS of ornate catholic alters throughout the downtown area to celebrate the saints. After wandering around and enjoying all of the festive decorations, I posted up at a table by myself and people watched in Plaza Salvador. The people watching was fabulous. I especially loved all of the little children. An older woman pushing a little 2 year old boy in a stroller came and sat at the table next to me. This little boy was wearing tiny brightly colored shorts, a button down shirt and suspenders. He was soooo precious and kept repeating the same sentence (which I could not understand) over and over. Shortly after he was joined by even more little kids all of who were adorable. One of my favorite moments was that a 5 year old boy had an iPhone in his pocket and he pulled it out and took a video of his little baby sister (less than a year old). The little boy was making all these funny noises to get his sister to smile and squeal. It was so damn cute to watch.

As I finished my second beer I started to hear drumming. A procession was coming down the sidewalk and was about to walk right through the plaza. Perfect timing!! It was awesome. It was 5 alter boys at the front carrying a large cross, followed by an all male marching band. Everyone quickly lined the streets to take pictures and watch.

Then I met up with everyone at the ISA office for the bullfight info session (because I’m going to a bullfight tomorrow!! Ahhhh). The meeting went really well and I learned a lot. I am still pretty nervous about going to the bullfight because at the end of the presentation, Juan showed us some images to prepare us in case the matador gets injured. We saw a picture of a bull’s horn going up through the matadors throat and out through his eye!!! That better not happen tomorrow because I will likely be scarred for life. Fortunately, they said that thanks to modern day medicine a bullfighter has not died since the mid 80’s.

After the info session I walked back through Plaza Salvador and it was even more packed! As I was headed home I ran into Maca and Rafael on the streets and they invited us to go have a drink with them in the plaza. After we had a beer, we walked to another plaza where a live orchestra was performing. Super guay.

(my precious spanish parents)

Then, we went home and had dinner and I got ready to go out with friends. MJ recommended we go to a plaza called Alamedas de Hercules.

I met up with everyone and we went to a little beer place on the way to the plaza and got 3 euro buckets of beer. Then we headed to the plaza. Unfortunately (I learned this later from my family), we took the long route that resulted in us walking for 25 minutes.

 (a whole bucket just for meeeee, you like my top? IT'S NEW!)

(the 3 Rachels on the program: Rachel Priester, Rachel Walker and Rachel Eisen)

We finally did arrive and the plaza was awesome! It was one long promenade that was surrounded by bars. It was a very young scene and there were tons of people. Here we met a couple Spaniards and stayed and hung out for a while chatting.

We ended up staying out until 430am. We went to a couple bars and a couple different discotecas. When we left there were still TONS of people out partying. The next morning I found out one of my guy friends was out at the plaza till 7am! DAT SHIT CRAY. Needless to say, we shall definitely be returning to this plaza soon.

Tomorrow: Bullfight!

Hasta Luego,

Raquel