Indie Films, volleyball, and a tiny bull with a scarf.

This weekend I didn't manage to go to the north of Spain due to insufficient planning on my part. I did find other things to do, though. Friday I spent all night studying Spanish in my room. It was kind of exciting. I managed to roughly translate a recipe for cream candy for the cooks at the primary school. It's difficult enough to explain how to make that stuff in English, much less in broken Spanish.

Saturday night I watched three short films made by Teruel natives in one of the old, single-screen cinemas in the city center. They were surprisingly good, as I was expecting much more amateur-level production quality. They were all a bit eccentric and "indie", which I found refreshing compared to the movies I've been watching with my roommate in the cinema. I'm getting better at understanding dialogue (or at least I think I am), but I struggled with one of these films because it was almost entirely dependent on understanding a voice-over by one old mumbling man. The whole experience of leaving the mini film festival was similar to leaving after a church service. Everyone had to greet everyone else with the same meaningless small talk as they slowly dispersed into the streets in search of dinner or their houses. I think there's something meaningful amidst all of the tired greetings, though. There was a sense of community and welcomeness there that even I felt I was becoming a part o f. Teruel can be an inviting place at times. If nothing else, being surrounded by a ton of warm people in the streets while it was snowing was a plus.

Sunday I went to La Copa del Rey (King's Cup), the championship volleyball game between Teruel and another team from Spain. I was strangely excited about volleyball for some reason. It's not the most invigorating thing to watch but it's interesting nonetheless. Teruel won three straight sets and won the big, shiny cup. The crowd shot streamers and glittery paper all over the place in celebration. One of the security guards was covered in shiny paper. It was cute.

There was a post-game celebration in the Plaza del Torico, home of the city's iconic little bull statue. The players showed up to shout a lot about winning. The most entertaining part was one player scaling the statue and dressing Torico in an orange scarf. Here is a play-by-play from my phone to assist your imagination:

Torico was still decked out in his orange scarf this afternoon:

This week at the language school, where I normally work in the evenings, the students are taking their exams. This means I get a week of free evenings to run around Teruel. I decided to go for a long walk around the city and take a few pictures. 

I also bought a nice copy of Don Quijote de la Mancha in one of the local bookstores this evening. I'm not sure if I'll even read it anytime soon (or that I'm even capable of doing so yet), but it is a decent little souvenir to keep from Spain. It came with a free bookmark that serves as an advertisement for another book entitled, "I also had a bisexual girlfriend." I like to think that this was a recommendation from the bookstore owner based on my purchase of the Spanish classic.

6 Spaniards, 3 Germans, 3 Turks, a Swede, and an American walk into a bar...

Last weekend I signed up for a library card at the public library here in Teruel. One of my teacher friends helped me pick out several films to watch in order to familiarize myself with some of the best Spanish films. I watched four out of the five films in the first two days, partially out of boredom but also because they were good films:

Los Girasoles Ciegos
Silencio Roto
La Lengua de las Mariposas
Mar Adentro


I also have Salvador, a film about the last man in Spain to be executed by Franco. I haven't watched it yet because I've been too busy.

The school in Albarracin is working on an international project with teachers from Sweden, Germany, and Turkey. Their aim is to encourage students to be more interested in science and technology and to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to actual projects of their own. The kids will eventually invent their own machine of some sort. That's about as much as I got from what they are doing. I was more interested in hanging out with the other teachers. There are three sarcastic German women who speak English fairly well, three Turkish men, only one of which speaks any English, and then there is the Swedish man, who showed up almost two days late. His English seems to be excellent, though I don't know for sure because I only talked to him for a few seconds before I had to leave. In conjunction with the Spaniards, they make for an interesting bunch. I've been hanging out with them outside of their meetings to help translate and to learn a bit about their respective cultures. I can now say "thank you" in a ridiculous amount of languages. Don't ask me how to spell them.

We went to some of the local sites in Albarracin to show the foreign teachers around. We got to meet the mayor of the town and he gave us a personal tour of the town hall, which I'm pretty sure was older than time. The Turkish men sat in the old-timey mayor's desk upstairs and took pictures. So many pictures. After lunch, we had a tour of the bishop's palace and the cathedral. I got to explain some of the things I learned in Austria last year in Spanish about Baroque architecture. One of the teachers didn't believe me when I told them most of the pretty Catholic decor was probably just wood painted to look nicer. I asked the tour guide how old the decorations were and he confirmed my suspicions. I told the teacher to go knock on the decorations and, sure enough, it was wooden. Though I was proud that I could recognize it, it's sad that that is one of the few architectural tricks I know.

I also found the coat of arms interesting. I took the following with my phone because I didn't have my camera with me:

Last night we had an awesome international dinner with food from all of the different countries. My favorite food is still from Teruel, though. You can't beat their ham. I ate some kind of rice wrapped in grape leaves from Turkey. I couldn't eat the Germans' dessert because, as always, they fill it with nuts. I don't understand peoples' obsession with putting nuts in everything. Either they don't want me to enjoy chocolate or they want me to die. I'm not sure there is much of a difference between those two options. That dinner is probably the closest I will get to a Thanksgiving dinner this year. I suppose it was a decent replacement, though not nearly as warm and fuzzy as a meal at home in ol' Cantuck. It was fun to speak in two different languages and learn some words in two or three more, though. I don't think my grandparents are capable of teaching me Turkish or carrying on a conversation in Spanish. I suppose I can make Christmas dinner in Kentucky a lot more interesting now.

Traditional Spanish garb is kind of awesome.

Last weekend I agreed to attend a banquet for my mentor's dance group in Teruel. I showed up after the dinner (as it was 30 euros per plate) and had some dessert. Most of the dancers were sufficiently inebriated at this point, which was entertaining for me. They repeatedly sang a song that would call out a person in the room to dance like a jellyfish. I'm not sure why this was done, but eventually even I was called out to wiggle my arms around. The dessert was some kind of delicious mousse with raspberries. After that we headed downstairs for a picture slideshow of the dance group and to watch some dances and hear the Spanish folk songs being played by their band. They dance/play the jota, which is a traditional Spanish style. The singing isn't all that appealing to me, but it is fun to experience the cultural aspect of it.

I mistakenly thought that this was the extent of the night. Afterwards, the dancers went to a pub nearby and continued to dance and increase their level of drunkenness. At least they were entertaining. The worst part of it all was having to listen to a talkative, cocky Argentinean bartender with a microphone. I wasn't a fan of the music being played, but I couldn't really hear it over his incessant boasts that he could get any girl in the bar. More power to him.

After the bar, my mentor's brother led us to a "disco movil" (I believe that's how it is spelled). It was essentially a discoteca or dance club set up temporarily in a big warehouse. It was not the least bit enjoyable. The music was horrible and loud and the people were all high on something besides alcohol. One guy was throwing small amounts of change at a pizza vendor and demanding food, despite the vendor telling him it wasn't enough money. Needless to say, we didn't stay there long.

The next day I watched two of Almodovar's films, "La Mala Educacion" and his new one, "La piel que habito". The first was lent to me by a new friend who works at the Foreign Language School in Teruel. The second I watched with my roommate David and his lady friend Pilar. Both films were very intense and provocative, as is Almodovar's style. I really liked the concept of the new film, though. And I believe I understood most of the story despite it being entirely in Spanish with no subtitles. I watched the movie in the cinema in Teruel. It is over one hundred years old and was converted from a stage to a movie screen. It still has the balcony seating on the sides.

This week I started at the secondary school in Albarracin. Though the kids behaved entirely different than the 10-12 year-olds, most of them didn't know much more English. I have been somewhat impressed by the upper-level students, though. They managed to ask me some fairly coherent questions and I taught them vocabulary for facial expressions, clothing, pattern styles, etc. They managed to successfully apply the new vocabulary when describing pictures of my friends that I dug up from my external hard drive. Jac was especially popular for his many different hairstyles/colors and his variety of dress. One of the other classes prepared questions to ask me in English, which I thought was a decent exercise because it allowed them to form questions and ask them orally without the pressure involved with creating ideas on the fly. Given their level of English, it was probably a good thing. However, they came up with some of the weirdest questions, such as "when did you first kiss a girl?" and "if you had kids, what would you name them?"

Last night I followed the dance group through the streets of Teruel while they danced and sang. It was quite enjoyable. Afterwards, Ana and Louis took me to their apartment for dinner. I got to play Louis' bass for a while and listen to some of their music. They bought me a Spanish Civil War book about the Battle of Teruel in a bookstore and gave it to me last night as a gift. They are so helpful and friendly. Louis prepared pizza, omelets, mushrooms, some kind of sardines, and of course bread. I skipped out on the sardines.

As usual, Ana and Louis led me to a bar after dinner. They have a tendency to say something in Spanish that I don't quite understand and then they get up and expect me to be ready to follow them. We went to a really old pub that is apparently notorious for attracting strange people. It was entertaining. Louis had to explain a lot of the conversations because they were full of slang and cursing that I wasn't familiar with, but watching a drunk man force another drunk man to dance with him is enjoyable without understanding a word of what they are saying. Louis shared a tea with me, which is uncommon for Spaniards. They are strict coffee drinkers and they denounce American coffee as too watered-down.

Today I woke up early and headed across town to meet up with Ana's family to participate in the Catholic fiesta honoring St. Pilar. I didn't get much about what the festival was supposed to be about other than putting flowers on a pyramid-shaped wire structure. I don't think there are many religious people in Spain, at least not among the younger generation, but they all go along with the traditions. So no one clearly explained what was going on, only that it was some sort of mass. The dancers danced for the mass and the band played as well. I got to dance with a baby too. They abandoned her in the back room while they went to perform, so I babysat. And by abandoned I mean they all just walked off without securing a babysitter or anything. Anyway, the baby enjoyed the sounds of the dancers and the music and started bouncing about. It was adorable.

The best part of the day, however, was that I got to dress up in traditional Spanish garb. I had lacy socks, velvet shorts, a corduroy vest, and a pirate-like headpiece. I think a picture will describe this better than I can in words:

After a dance in the nearby park, I was invited to lunch by Ana's parents. We met up with their family at a fancy restaurant. It was 20 euros per plate. Her family paid for everything. The helpfulness must run in the family. Ana's father has a great sense of humor when I actually understand what he is saying, which made dinner fun for me. I ordered what I understood to be pork steak, though I didn't receive it until much later. We had I think five or six rounds of appetizers prior to the main course (salad, rice, mussels, bread, a couple different kinds of pork with bread, etc.). By the time I got the pork steak, which was a huge hunk of meat, I was about to burst. Then I had ice cream in the shape of the star of Teruel with hot chocolate poured over it. Absolutely delicious, though my stomach hated me later.

I seem to be comprehending more Spanish conversations and picking up on quite a few colloquial phrases. I'm not sure how fluent I will be after all is said and done, but I think this is an excellent way to learn a language after you have the basics. And I'm not just learning a language, I'm absorbing so much culture. I have so many opportunities to learn here.