Happy May Day! In the states my mom usually gives Clare and I a little May Day present, usually including a pair of socks. Here however it’s the Spanish equivalent of Labor Day so the entire city is off of work and essentially closed down. Between today, the festival el Dia de la Cruces on Saturday and Mother’s Day on Sunday Granada has a big weekend, which means I had only three days of classes.
And to top things off it’s my host grandmother’s 91st birthday today so my host family is throwing a party and judging by the Coke, Fanta and six pack of beer in the fridge it’s gonna be quite the fiesta.
It’s been another eventful week here in Granada. On the 20th of April a group of IES students met for the Seder, which was hosted by a few of the Jewish students in our program. It was quite the success and it was a great experience for everyone. Two of the students led us through the service, explaining everything and sharing stories and then the whole group ate a dinner together that they had prepared. For me the highlights were listening to the daughter of a professor sing for us in Hebrew and watching the kids tear apart the library looking for the hidden matza.
This week a few of the Arabic and Islamic Art and Architecture professors hosted a calligraphy workshop for their students, which fortunately some others got to sit in on. After the short presentation the wife of one professor and a calligraphy expert gave us a short lesson in the techniques of writing Arabic. Granted we didn’t have much time, but she wrote my name for me in two different styles of Arabic writing and then I got to try writing my name with the traditional tool and ink. It was so different and really hard, but so much fun.
This past weekend my theater class took a trip to Madrid to see a contemporary work called La Paz Perpetua that we had just finished reading and discussing in class. Getting to see the play itself was incredible because it was written just last year and went the second night and we went to a beautiful, old, opera house style theater to see it. The piece itself is unique because it discusses rather deep topics like the existence of God, war, terrorism, torture, but the three main characters are dogs. Anyway, it gave me a lot to think about, strangely, or maybe not so strangely, the issues seem much more profound coming from the mouths of animals. We had such a great weekend in Madrid and we played the role of the tourist and walked through the Palacio Real, the Reina Sofia and the Parque Retiro.
Since we are getting down to the end I have a lot of work so I’ve spent a lot of time writing lately. This Monday I had my last Mediterranean Ecosystems class and on Monday we already have our final. Crazy, but it’ll be so nice to have one class out of the way for my last month here. We went on our last MedEco field trip last Friday, though it turned out to be more like a mountain climb than a leisurely walk with discussion about plants. We actually climbed to the peak of this mountain in the Sierra Nevada and through the climbing part was brutal the view was incredible. On one side we saw part of the Sierra Nevada that is still covered in snow and the other way the land just stretched forever.
I feel like there is so much more to tell, I’ve been going to quite a few live concerts, plays and have been trying to go to new places and restaurants. It’s a busy life. Alright grandma’s here, gotta get ready for birthday party!
bss
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