What's up gamers. I have no blog from February 1 or 2 because I was sick🎻 Actually, I've been sick since last Thursday, but I was powering through. Then Wednesday I had no classes, so I took the opportunity chill out. Then Wednesday night--Thursday I had an intense cough, so I stayed home Thursday so I wouldn't disrupt the class. But I have mostly recovered. Anyway who cares. TLDR is we're back.
I had my second set of classes today. I made Larissa take this bathroom mirror selfie with me before school because I felt bad for having no content from the last couple days. I hate letting my readers down. (However I did make the post for my Barcelona trip with Jack in November on Wednesday, which everyone should go read if you haven't yet. Some of my finest work I think.)
Anyway, I tried three classes today. I needed to like/tolerate at least two of them so I could drop Prado, and luckily I did. The first class of the day was Women in Spanish Literature. That was a banger. The teacher was very energetic and I liked his perspective/the way he presented the lecture today. I'm staying in this class.
Then I had Dialectology. I'm not staying in this class. I already know all the content (not just based on today, the second day of class, but also the syllabus), and moreso I didn't rock with some things the teacher said. Nothing overt that I can directly point to but there were just some moments that made me go 🤨🤨🤨 For example, we listened to Rosalía's new single at the end of class (which is straight heat by the way) to listen for dialectal features and someone asked about why Spaniards don't like her (linguistically speaking, like her speech). The teacher said young people like her, and old people don't because she's a young musician who makes more explicit music and did a concert with pre-recorded music instead of having a live band. Fair, sure, whatever, but that wasn't really the question and I feel like you cannot answer that question without addressing the intense Spanish prejudice against Catalan and Romani people and how Rosalía, a flamenco singer from Barcelona, is a target of some of this. (This is a much longer convo but this paragraph is already sooo long.) But literally a week ago I had a conversation with a Spaniard where they were being very disparaging about Rosalía's speech (and also her Catalan identity... hmm). I also felt like the teacher was a little judgey about some dialects, just the vibe I got. So anyway, for that reason, I'm out. Much love though.
Then I had Islam, Christianity, and Judaism: Culture, Religion and Society. This class is cool so far. The teacher is very calm. Today we did an activity where the class split off in three groups and each group had to write down everything they knew about Islam, Christianity, or Judaism. My group was Islam. We went off, going to flex on the blog real quick and say I actually already knew a lot and surprised myself.
After school me and three friends got last minute student opera tickets. This is another flex. Getting those last minute tickets is a competitive sport and I successfully led us to victory. The opera tonight was Arabella, my first German opera. It was a hot 4 hours long (including two 25 minute intermissions). It was really cool, as per usual. The stage/set design was really interesting. Basically the front of the stage was a white cube and then the wall at the back of it would slide different ways to reveal different rooms. Arabella was my favorite character. She was a total girlboss (derogatory). I liked her the best in the first act, she fell off when (spoiler) she got engaged. But she wore a light blue dress for most of the show--a slay opera fit for sure--so I have to respect it.
Anyway here are the opera pics. I don't know if I've officially declared Rose an Elizabeth in Madrid intern yet, but she has definitely earned the title. She is also a reader of the blog, so congrats on your promotion Rose!
Kayla, Alana, me, Rose.
View from my seat. It was originally €250, but the last minute student price was €20. That's €5 for every hour of opera. From this seat. Insane. I love it here.
Presidential alert: opera dress reveal time (refer to January 1--4 2023 post)! Rose took a photoshoot of me in my slay opera fit during the first intermission. (Can my linguistics friends tell me if "took a photoshoot" sounds grammatical? Or if anyone else has any thoughts and cares to share.) Thanks Rose xoxo. This section is dedicated to my grandma, she's gonna love this.
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