Como una Cabra

Miguel, Me and Snookie

One of the many 'anticrisis' demonstations

Ría de Vigo

Me and Miguel over Riveira

¡Buenos!

I'm getting progressively worse at updating this blog every week, I will  make more of an effort in future because half of the reason for this blog is to remember little anecdotes for my oral exams and I'm not going to remember any at this rate.

Right so where did I leave off on this gran historía de España? Vigo Zoo, well animal park. It was, we decided, the last good weekend we were going to have, and we were right. Although I got to crack the legs out a few days for lectures the weather has now turned miserable and rainy and cold compared to the heat of a summer in Toulouse and September here. So now the legs are well and truly hidden away until next year. But anyway the Sunday we went to the zoo it was really, really nice again so we thought it would be a good day to go to the zoo. Now...Owen asked his landlady where to catch the bus to the zoo and she told him it was from Plaza América, it wasn't. We had to walk about 20 minutes to what is basically the other side of Vigo to get to the bus stop that goes to the zoo, thanks to the information of a kind bus driver. This bus stop is about 500m from my residence, but like I say it was a nice day and being British I didn't complain too much about it. I've decided that Owen must look Spanish, because these women came up to us, conveniently for them, asking where to go to get to the zoo and looked proper shocked when they heard our accents as we replied and then just laughed and said thank you. But they can't have thought I was, someone in the residence said that I'm visibly foreign because I'm far too fair eyed and haired to be español, which is always nice to know but probably true.

Vigo Zoo is up in the mountains just outside Vigo and from it you can see all over the Ría de Vigo, the sea and the Galician mountains, it's such a nice view of the city and area. The zoo itself is actually quite small, and there wasn't much I hadn't seen before except BEARS. There are these two brown bears who are Spanish TV stars who are there. This woman was throwing peanuts to them and it sat catching them and was proper good to see cus I've never seen a bear before, I don't think. All in all it was a really good day and a good day to make the most of the last of the good weather.

One evening we went to see 'Of Mice, Of Men' in Spanish which was actually really good because it's one of my favourite books in English. I won't talk for ages about it incase people haven't read it, but I thought it was a really good translation of it, although they moved away from the book a little bit occasionally and they made George out to be really harsh to Lennie in parts when he always seemed more benevolent (to me).  There was this Galician family who came in and asked what seats we were in, and so when we told them they said "you're not from here are you?" to which we said no, we're English, Northern Irish and German and they said oh well you speak very good Spanish because we asked you in Galician, sorry. haha. We hadn't even realised! Apparently my roommate Anxo (which is Galician for Angél) speaks to me in Galician by false of habit and doesn't realise sometimes, oh dear! And when we were out it made me laugh that two of them started having an argument over a word, because one told it me (I've since forgotten) and then the other was sure that that was the Galician word and not the Castillian one.  Good to know that they know the difference.

Last weekend I went to stay with Miguel's family, which I really enjoyed. I felt a bit harsh kicking his sister out of her room and forcing her to sleep in the Grandmother's room but she didn't seem to mind. Linguistically it was quite tough, mainly because Miguel's Grandmother only speaks Castillian, i.e. Spanish, when she goes to the doctors, I don't really understand why only at the doctors but there you go, and so she kept slipping into Galician. But everyday the Dad did his Mum kept shouting to speak Spanish so I understand, to which he said, I think, hay que fallar gallego, you need to learn Galician. I think. I know two expressions in Galician, one is boas noites, goodnight and the other is cachurrita, which a term to refer to a girl that I'm never ever to say to her face, so make your own translation. I really appreciated that his mum drove us up in the mountains on Saturday evening to see the views of Riveira (his town) and also to some sand dunes. It was really nice and a lot quieter than Vigo, which I liked because I much prefer countryside/semi-rural places to big cities. I also got to meet some of Miguel's friends at the botellón in Ribeira which was fun too. You might have noticed that I've just spelt Riveira in two different ways. A lot of students of Spanish struggle when they hear a word to know the difference between V/B as there is no phonetic distinction in Spanish. Vigo is pronounced Bigo. Apparently no one knows whether it should be spelt with a B or a V, so it's quite reassuring that sometimes the Spanish get confused over their pronunciation too.

One thing I did want to mention though was British humour and that it goes straight over  people's heads here. Or rather, good old British sarcasm/banter. For example, I was asked if it's autumn in Britain too, to which I said yes, and the added with a smile that  it is the same continent as same Spain you know? Now, maybe I said it wrongly because I was just looked at like soz for askin' but I think it's just that the humour aspect of winding someone up went right over her head. Also one of the girls left on Thursday to go home and on chat I said to her "oh someone went without saying goodbye then..." to which she replied that I wasn't there so she couldn't have said goodbye. Fair play, I said, I'll forgive you then. And then on Sunday she asked if I was in a mood with her because she didn't say goodbye? I don't think it is sarcasm, I just don't think they understand the false seriousness of British humour, that we pretend to have a go at people to wind them up. I need to stop it or people will be thinking I'm a right moody moody.

The other Thursday was a strike day against all the cuts to education across Spain but I thought it would be a bit rich for me to strike seen as I let the student fees in the UK rise without protest even though I was and am against it. So, being the principled young cabellero that I am, I, along with three other people, went to class. Fight the system. But I walked past the protest on my way to class and it seemed that more people were making use of the Thursday proceeding the Friday that was a public holiday to go home, as there was like no  one at the protest.

I have my first piece of assessed work due in soon, it's a translation of an Australian menu and a linguistic commentary. Should be alright. Need to start cracking on my Year Abroad Written Task too, but I'm not sure what to do it on; I'm thinking maybe something about the Galician presidential elections that are coming up? But need to start the research and turn Durham-mode back on to get it done and done well. We're so lucky that's all we have to though, some have massive dissertations AND have to pass their exams. ¡Qué horror!

Right lads, I'm off, promise to speak soon! ¡Ata logo!