The End

The night before my nine hour bus trip to Barajas Airport was another random holiday in Spain: San Juan.  At around 22:00 my host brother and I met up with Kirsten, her host sister, Sara and Jess and we walked down La Caleta with folded up note cards in our pockets.  We got to the Columbus fichus trees and saw crowds of people…hundreds walking down to the sea. Walking down the ramp onto the sand, the view of the beach reminded me of Carnaval.  Groups of people sat together in circles; drinking, talking, smoking. Old, young, infant, elderly; everyone seemed to be on the beach.  BOOM!  Everyone shuttered from the loud noise and the sky lit up.  BOOM BOOM! More fireworks lit up the sky above the fortress to the right of the beach.  Reds, blues, greens, and yellows illuminated the crowd and the little boats floating in the ocean.  We watched it under a bungalow until they ended and then found a spot in the sand. 

I looked back at the group of teens smoking behind me, asked for their lighter and we all took out our note cards and burned them in a pile.  There were a bunch of fires on the beach ranging from tiny ones like ours to bonfires where University of Cádiz students burned their notebooks and printed out slides.  On a piece of paper we wrote down a wish and burned it at midnight in regular custom of San Juan.  Then everyone went into the ocean for some symbolic reason (no one seemed to know why).

We made our way to the port to a dance party by some pirate ship looking boats and then made our way down to the discotecas to dance the night away.  We danced on stage, sweated to death in the packed crowd of “Aki Te Quiero”, took a couple breathers and decided to leave early to head down to the beach again.  At around five we got back to the Caleta, stripped down to our skivvies and ran into the warm ocean while groups of people looked on by their scattered fires on the bottle and bag littered beach. 

We swam out farther and farther until we got to some boats floating in the middle of the outlet.  We pulled ourselves inside and sat on the wooden bench alone in the middle of the ocean inlet looking up at the stars and on the glittering fires on the beach.  The night was still somewhat warm and the peaceful slapping of water splashed up with the small waves heading to shore.  Kirsten and Yeyo jumped back in the water while Jess and I stayed back in the boat for a few.  I sat back and soaked in the quiet starry night and looked out onto my Spanish city.  The beach held so many memories: Our first day in the city, tanning, stealing boats, February swimming adventures, studying, bridge jumping, parties, and too much more.  La Caleta turned into a symbol of Cádiz, of all of the good times and great adventures in the past 6 months: a kiss under the stars, countless sunsets, friends, new family…As I sat in the boat looking back at my city and my second home I realized that in hours I would be leaving it for my American home.  It was time I guess…even though I love my new friends and family, and even though deep down I never wanted to leave Spain, it was time to go.  So with that, I jumped in the water and swam back to shore leaving behind a boat filled with memories, ready to start the next chapter in my life.  Cádiz I will miss you.    

Tortilla: the new soul food

The day started at 10:00.  I woke up and was craving some Muesli Cereal so I pulled a box of milk out of the fridge and ate my oats, dried fruit and cereals ready to start my day.  I got inspired to go for a jog (which rarely happens here) so I put on my shorts and shirt as quickly as I could and went on my way before I could change my mind.  I started along the Eastern coast facing the mainland, ran under lanes shaded by palm trees, continued along to coast passing La Caleta (now on the Atlantic facing the United States) and towards the cathedral.  I passed through a few parks with blooming purple flowers and tropical birds chirping the morning in, made my way to the harbor, and finally ended up at my starting point: the Cádiz Island circuit.

Feeling accomplished for the day, I showered up and relaxed a bit before lunch: A good start to my first day of summer.  We ate lentils, meat balls, and some bread and Yeyo and I were able to make it to the beach by 15:30 to tan up since we've been cooped up in the house for the past month because of exams.  The tide was high so Yeyo, Kirsten, Chelsea and my new Texas roomate: Hely decided to do some bridge jumping by the Island fortress: you make recognize it from Pirates of the Caribbean.  I got up on the ledge, looked at the huge drop before the water, jumped and 4 seconds later splashed hard into the water; heart racing and blood flowing.  Everyone else jumped a few more times too and then we went back to our towels to swim in the bath-like water and tan up. (I woke up this morning looking really dark).

Noni wasn't in when we got back to the house so Yeyo and I watched some TV and by 8:30 I decided to make us an early supper before we headed down to the beach.  I peeled, cut, soaked and fried 3 potatoes, scrambled up 5 eggs, made a big tortilla for the both of us and we went on our way.

Kirsten was at the top of the beach all dressed up and ready to go out.  As I was talking to her, Donna (Irish) came over and started talking and pointed us to the crowd of people standing at the edge of the beach.  All the British kids were there talking in little groups and I saw Chelsea, Sara, Jacqueline and her sister in one of the crowds.  I walked over with Yeyo, we said our hello's and we stayed on the beach to watch the sun set.  Next step: Lunar Eclipse.  Unfortunately only Europe, part of Africa and I think part of Asia could see it, but we all crowded on the beach watching the moon get bigger and bigger.

By around midnight we headed to Nahu and did our normal rounds to our favorite dance spots and danced the night away.  I must say Wednesday was the best end-of-school/start-of-summer I have ever had in my life.  Today, I am avoiding the beach and the strong sun and then probably going out again since it is Chelsea and Jacqueline's last day here in Cádiz...It's all ending so soon and I just hope I don't get too sentimental...We've been through a lot of stuff together: protests and uprisings in Marrakesh, long hikes and random goat herds in the middle of the Spanish countryside, scary trolls in Madrid, Lady Gaga entourage during Carnaval...We stole boats together, jumped off bridges together, suffered through horrible classes together, and became good friends and some even best friends.  Chelsea and Jacqueline leaving represents an end to the best time of my life...an end that seemed to not exist.

BUT! I still have 8 more days here and I'm going to make the best of them.  I really have no free time from tomorrow until the end of my trip...Why? you ask?? Well, just when I thought my traveling days were over, it turns out I'm going to be camping in a bungalow on a tiny Portuguese Island: No roads, no cars, no shops, no nothing; only me, 4 friends, some marshmallows, music, beach food, and a guitar....TOMORROW!!

Exams

I got my final grade back for Introducción al siglo XX class!  I got a 7.5 "notable" which translate to a B in the American system!!  All the last minute cramming really paid off I guess, but talk about high-stakes testing!!  Better get back to studying for art.  This month has been horrendously boring. Tomorrow the summer begins!!!  

June Madness

After 2 hours, I can finally say that I have finished one Spanish final exam!! After going to every class, rapidly writing down notes from 3 different teachers with 3 horrible powerpoints, and reading packets upon packets of information, I have finally completed Historia del Siglo XX!!  This was a humanities class that studied human ecosystems across history and into the modern day by splitting it up into 3 sections taught by 3 teachers: Julio taught us about the Grand Area (the Americas, their territories, and Great Britain with its territories), the other man -who's name escapes me- taught about Germany and their constant dominance over Europe, and Flavia taught us about Japan and the micro-system of Russia, the USSR, and the perifery.  They also made sure to talk about the changes in capitalism and jump around as much as possible in their lectures.  

I know I've mentioned it before, but all that I have seen from the University of Cádiz is terrible teaching.  Three teachers, with three subjects, teaching one class from the published works of one of the teachers seemed confusing and aggravating.  The main text was written by the first teacher and the assigned reading about the transitions to democracy in Central America and Reunification of Germany were both written by his students and edited by him.  It seemed very opinionated as well.  Another teacher didn't seem to know what she was talking about and even argued with me and some of the British kids over the split of Germany after WWII... supposedly East Germany was ruled by the USSR while West Germany was split into 4 zones; American, French, English, and by another country that she couldn't remember (or that didn't exist).  Questions were answered in round-about ways and people were made fun of because of their accents.  My poor friend Chelsea finally got the courage to speak up in class only to have the teacher respond to her in a super-American accent...This happened to Chelsea three times and to a British friend once which I think is pretty harsh.  Being judged by your accent and grammar is a language learner's worst nightmare.

Bashing the teaching aside, the exam was (in my opinion) not authentic.  "Authentic examination" is a teaching term that links the examination of students with material and forms of learning.  An authentic exam for this class would be multiple choice (since we only learned and memorized facts and dates) and short answer questions about either the evolution of a superpower, how the process of becoming a superpower relates at a global level, etc.  The exam should also cover everything learned in the class.  [My teaching classes at RIC make me notice things].  

Our exam was one question (or statement rather) on the chalkboard: "The geo-strategy of North America".  With that we received white printer paper to write our essay...it didn't even have lines.  Three people put their names on a blank piece of paper and then left; those are Erasmus that only need to sit in on the class and their grades didn't matter.  The rest of us scribbled away trying to pull everything from the course together:  Harris treaty and Treaty of Kanagawa...manifestdestiny and imperialism...50 year war/Spanish American war...1898 and Islands in the pacific...espacio vital and Lebensraum...I wrote down as much as I could on a scrap paper, organized it according to the subsystems of capitalism, and wrote a 4 page essay entitled "Las claves de la geoestrategia norteamericana:  una examinación del poder estadounidense durante un sistema capitalista" [The key factors of the North American geo-strategy: an examination of American power during a capitalistic system].

I pulled everything I knew from high school American History class and cramming for this test, tried to link it to everything, and...I THINK...pulled it off pretty OK.  The grades get posted next week so we'll see how I do!!  42.9% of registered students pass the course...Linguistics exam on Wednesday too, this one scares me more.  50% of students fail the course according to the university website.  While more than half fail the Siglo XX class, the Linguistics class is much more complicated and we've missed months at a time due to Spanish holidays.  (Plus the course load is the heaviest in this class.)  Wish me luck!