This past week we took a little descanso (rest) from classes for culture week which Casa de Las Lenguas had arranged for us! It was a whole week doing fun activities that related to the society and culture of Spain, and on Friday, the last day, we had a big assembly for everyone to show off what they had been doing all week. Everyone had to pick two workshops from comics, theater, dance, photo, or photo journalism. I was sick the day we picked so my two best friends just picked them for me, and stuck me in dance and theater with them. I have to say I was a little nervous for theater at first because I am not the theater type of person at all, I’m too shy! It ended being really fun though! We performed skits and improved in SPANISH (ah!) all week. I already don’t like acting but to do it in Spanish is so much more intimidating! The teacher was really fun and nice, and did a good job making everyone feel comfortable! The class ended up being a blast. I had a lot of fun, it went too fast! I think it helped a lot with getting me more comfortable speaking in Spanish. It was also cool to mix with students from different levels of Spanish and meet more people from other countries.
On Wednesday we all split up into groups to make our own skits. My group did a skit about a first date, and we had people acting out the thoughts of the girl and the boy and how different they were. Then on Friday we all performed and chose a skit to perform at the assembly. One group did a skit on the new law that went into effect in Spain in the beginning of January.The law banned people from smoking indoors. The skit was really funny and had one girl act out a lonely cigarette who was upset about the new law and had the ghosts of cigarettes past, present and future (like in a Chirstmas Story) come and visit her in her dreams. It was really cute!
We also had Dance workshop which was SO much fun! We learned Merengue and Pasodoble and at the end of the week performed our dances for everyone at the assembly! Our teacher, Leni, was so fun and enthusiastic. He was from Cuba so his accent in Spanish was much different and sometimes I had trouble understanding what he said! But we all had a lot of fun learning from him and he was very patient with all us beginners :]
Below are some links to youtube videos. The first one is an interview with some students and there are some clips of all of us practicing the dance throughout the week. The second is an interview with our dance instructor, Leni :]
Student interviews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZ2Lnvs2ow
Teacher interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZ2Lnvs2ow
The assembly was great, and it was cool to see what everyone had been doing all week. We have a lot of students here from Japan so before it started they all came up on stage and dedicated the Assembly to those who are suffering from the aftermath of the disasters in Japan. They placed around the stage little origami doves for symbols of hope. A lot of people from the comic strip and photo group (there was a contest for the best) did some really great projects focusing on hope and strength for Japan. I like this picture some students from Casa de Las Lenguas took, they wrote “Strength to Japan” in a couple different languages on the board. ¡Japón, ánimo,!
Well, back to class tomorrow! I’m not really looking forward to it since last week was so fun, but I guess it will be a good thing. Back to working on my Spanish grammar :]