Today was our final field trip day with the Center, and this time my group went to the Alcázar in Sevilla. Unfortunately, it was raining again, so I wasn’t able to stay as long as I would have liked. And I had not replaced my camera battery after Córdoba, so I couldn’t take pictures. However, I get in free with my International Student Identity Card (henceforth to be known as ISIC), so I will most definitely be going back sometime to take pictures and wander the rooms and the gardens, because it is gorgeous. Although much of the palace is not original Moorish construction, the mudéjar style here was also popular, as it was in Córdoba. There are many rooms in the palace that look “Arabian,” but you can tell they are not, because within the geometric designs are lions, symbols of the reign of León, which would never have appeared in the original Muslim design. But between the shapes of the doorways and the geometric tile mosaics on the walls, I felt like I was in Aladdin. I especially loved the gardens, although less so in the rain. There were groves of orange trees and geometrically shaped hedges and fountains sprinkled here and there.
And now for another tangent—shopping and interculturality (they are mostly unrelated, but my first tangent is about to lead to a second tangent). I mentioned earlier how a lot of the shopping is really specific—you go to the papelería for paper products, the ferretería for hardware, the confitería for candy, or El Corte Inglés for everything. I am now going to talk about clothes shopping. There are a few European stores I have discovered which I like. One is H&M, which apparently exists in a few cities in the U.S., but not Albuquerque or Tulsa (go figure), and the other is Zara, which my friend Adrienne had told me about before I came. But aside from these department store type places, I have also discovered that a good way to buy clothes is to wander between all the little “super bargain” clothing stores that pepper the streets. Their selection is somewhat random, and certainly not “brand name” if that’s the sort of thing you care about (I don’t), but you can find fun items for cheap. I bought a pair of black wedges for €5 (about $8) and a pair of black pants for €11 ($16) from two of these places.
(Tangent to interculturality) A lot of these little “super bargain” stores I’ve gone in are owned by Asian immigrants (I think often Chinese, as sometimes I feel like I can almost understand some of what they are saying). I think a lot of Asian immigrants are finding sort of their economic niche in owning these stores, as well as restaurants. You don’t really see many ethnic restaurants here, the way in the U.S. you can drive down the street and pass a Mexican restaurant, a Chinese, an Indian, an Italian, and a Lebanese all in five minutes. But most of the (non-Spanish) restaurants I have seen are either Chinese or Japanese. I keep meaning to try one of the Chinese restaurants, both because I think it’d be interesting to see what it’s like here, and because I’ve really been missing Chinese food.
It’s interesting, because Spain has never really had many immigrants until just recently. As Alicia’s language professor said, people used to say that Spain is not a racist country, but that’s because everyone was the same. But now, they are receiving a lot more immigrants, and all of a sudden, they are having to confront racial differences. There is definitely a degree of racism here, although to my knowledge it has not manifested itself in much violence (I could just be clueless, though). But even my host mom, who isn’t exactly racist, has made some comments that seem to put some distance between her and the Romanian or Chinese or Peruvian immigrants. Things along the lines of “I respect them as people and they have the right to live their lives, but I’m not really interested in learning anything about their culture.” So not exactly racist, but sort of hesitant and distancing herself from new cultural influences. I think this is an interesting time to come to Spain because of that aspect. It’s something I didn’t really know about before coming here. I mean, I’d heard that in many places in Europe, racism towards certain groups is a lot more open than it is in the U.S. My program had available on their website and in the acceptance packet they gave us some advice to African-American students coming to study in Spain, because there are not a lot of people of African descent in Spain. I guess I’m just so used to trying to be racially sensitive (and hopefully succeeding in said endeavor, although I cannot be the judge of my success, only of my intentions) and I’m so used to a society in which racism has been and continues to be an issue of public consciousness, coming to a place where such interracial confrontations had not yet occurred is a little odd. Starting next week I have a class on Spain and Immigration, and after having observed these things, I’m even more excited for this class. It should be really interesting.
So, with those tangents, I think that’s about it, except for a quick side note—I have some Spanish children to tutor in English! I don’t know anything about them, except there are more than one and at least one is a boy, because when their mom called me she said “niños.” I get paid €8 an hour for doing this, which is definitely nice, but mostly I’m just excited for this experience. I taught clarinet in high school, but I’ve never tried to teach my own language to someone who doesn’t speak it. We’ll see. I think I should be able to find a groove, and figure out how they like to learn, and come up with something. I have my first session with them next Wednesday at 3:30, so I’ll let you know how that goes.
Anyway, I have a final for my Intensive Period class tomorrow, and I need to study. ¡Hasta luego!
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