Review, Romería, and Continuation Period

I named this post after the period that's coming up, but I'm going to start with the period that just ended, the intensive period. We had three weeks of intensive language classes, as the name suggests, and it was good. The classes were well done, so while I was a bit tired of intensive classes (I do not recommend that other people try to do seven weeks of intensive class in a row, it gets rather tiring.), I also kind of enjoyed the classes.

This last weekend, we went to a romería, a local festival that is basically a short pilgrimage to a shrine nearby. It was lovely. The people were garbed in their traditional dress, on horses and on foot and with some carriages carrying food. There were also donkeys carrying stuff. There was music and conversation as they walked, and then I suspect that there was dancing at the end, but we left because of the rain. We watched them set out and then hopped in a bus to go to the end point and wait until they got there, but most of them walked or rode horses or carriages the whole way. Here are some pictures of the romería.

The cart carrying the image of Mary they were taking to a small shrine on their pilgrimage.

One of the food carts.

The part of the crowd that was ahead of us when they stopped to pray at noon. (This was just about where we turned around to take the bus to the end point.

Some people on horseback at the end of their journey. I was sitting on a hillside, looking down.

Now, the continuation period is starting, and I'm going starting my new classes and my tutoring work with an 8-year-old child nearby. I should meet him and his parents this week, and I'm talking to his parents about the specifics of that. Yesterday was the first day of class, so nothing's really happened with that yet. I'll let you know how my classes are in a week or so.

As far as photos, I just uploaded quite a few. There are new pictures of Salamanca here, pictures of Segovia here, and pictures of the romería here.

Seville

So, it's been a few weeks since I posted last. I'm in Seville now, and I honestly feel a lot more comfortable here than I did in Salamanca. In Salamanca I didn't really have any friends, and couldn't find what I wanted to in the local churches either, but within a few days of being in Seville I found both. Also, I have been a bit more communicative with my host mom, which helps tremendously in feeling at home.

A few thoughts comparing the International Studies Abroad (ISA) and Spanish Studies Abroad (SSA) programs:

The ISA students never actually practiced Spanish with each other and mostly stayed together, and the other students in Salamanca often spoke English too, so I didn´t actually practice my Spanish with people very much outside of class. There was a reason that when I finally got something approaching friends they were Korean girls who didn't really speak English or hang out with other Koreans. (Okay, maybe the culture had something to do with it to. I don't know anything about Korea, so I don't know.) Not all of the students here in the SSA program actually speak Spanish together, but at least we have a policy saying that we're only allowed to and I have friends who do.

The ISA program was only four weeks, whereas SSA is 16 weeks, so I have much more time to settle down and actually get comfortable with the language here.

The ISA program was smaller, which was both good and bad. We didn't have our classes as a group of students from the US, we had them with people from all over the world, which was fun. But we also were only ten students, so it was easy for groups to form and not be able to find anyone who could be a good friend. Here I can still have some amount of personal relationship with the directors, and it's easier to find friends. We have all our classes in the center (which may or may not be a product of the size of the program, I don't know), which means that we're mostly spending time with Americans, but we all have speaking partners and host families. And Spanish students study English in the center too, so we'll see what happens when their classes start in a few weeks. It should be interesting.

As far as what I'm up to right now, we're in a period of intensive Spanish study. This goes on for three weeks (we have one left), and then we begin the semester. There's a local choir that a couple of my friends and I are singing in, and we went to a rehearsal for the first time last night. We won't be able to perform in their Christmas concert, because we leave before then, but we will be able to rehearse and maybe sing in other events that they sing in. Next week my class at the Universidad de Pablo Olavide starts, and the week after that we begin the other regular classes. I'll write more about those classes when they have actually started.