The street party type thing (known as an 'espicha' in Spain which I can only assume roughly translates as 'flipping massive booze up') took place last Friday. It was organised by the Chemistry faculty (again, what is it with the party animal scientists in Spain?!) and was held in the car park of the football stadium in Oviedo. We jumped on a bus in the early afternoon and arrived in Oviedo about an hour later. Beers in hand, we made our way towards the football stadium, following the streams of people heading in the same direction and the sound of booming music coming from somewhere just around the corner. Everybody was laden with plastic bags full of cartons of sangria, bottles of cider and massive plastic containers filled with calimocho - the coke and red wine mix. The real professionals even had bags of ice and plastic cups to boot. When we rounded the corner, we were greeted by the sight of hoards of people all stood around in groups drinking and dancing to the thumping beat. We found a spot, made a base camp of coats and bags and proceeded to get stuck in. It was great fun and we met more than a few hilarious characters. At one stage, many calimochos later, we were talking to a particularly sozzled guy who cut the conversation short because he realised he was going to be late for his exam. An exam that he had to pass to avoid being kicked out of university. He slurred a drunken farewell and we high-fived him for good luck and off he trotted. Classic Spain. Many hours of dancing, wandering, socialising, cider-drinking and attempted Spanish-speaking later, we got on the bus back home. It was a good day.
We've also been getting our culture on at the Gijón film festival. The festival was running all week, with various venues across the city and countless films on offer all for the low low price of 3.50 a go. Sadly we weren't able to immerse ourselves in the world of independent film quite as much as I would have liked due to clashing timetables and inconvenient bus schedules but we did what we could. On Tuesday we saw a program of short films with offerings from every corner of the globe. They were all pretty fantastic and we left the cinema with a lot to talk about and mull over, feeling decidedly cultivated. Then on Thursday, we went to see the second round of shorts but the experience was slightly different. The running theme seemed to be cliff-hangers and ambiguity, which aren't things I cope with very well because my imagination goes flippin' mad. Then there was this: http://vimeo.com/19175852 to which I can't add much further comment. As we left the cinema we saw one of the directors stood wearing a beret and thick-rimmed glasses and a leather satchel leaning against a wall (and not doing anything at all to dispel the 'arty person' stereotype). It was an opportunity I couldn't resist. I led in with a "Hi...! um... your film... was... I mean, like, it was... um... like, we were just wondering about... I mean, what was the message... overall... do you think? Umm... yeah" Star of the stage in the making? I think not. But we managed to recover from my shambles of an intro and ended up having a good little chat with him. After a quick wine break, we returned to the cinema to watch a feature length French animated musical called 'Lea magasin des suicides' about a little town so overwhelmed by depression that the most lucrative business is a shop offering different methods of suicide - satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. Despite the morbid premise, it was highly entertaining. We rounded off our film festival experience with a final program of shorts on Friday night, this time all Spanish-made. I learnt a few things, but mainly that Westerns is not a strong genre for the Spanish. Not strong at all.
School's been just fine. I've had a few awkward moments (though none even coming close to Rosie And Jim Gate, you'll be disappointed to hear). In an English lesson with the 4th year class I ended up adamantly insisting that, as a matter of fact, we certainly do refer to the weather as being 'soft'. This came about after a particularly nervous girl was berated rather severely and at length in front of the entire class for using 'soft' instead of 'mild' in her little speech about different climates. Suddenly I was inundated with flashbacks of feeling totally humiliated at school thanks to certain teachers and their intense love of the sound of their own voices. Before I knew it I was arguing a strong case for the flexibility of weather-related adjectives. The teacher gave me a strange glare and looked set to argue but eventually moved on, leaving the girl in peace. Clearly this isn't something I plan to make a habit of and in the long term it's probably not ideal that an entire class of Spanish students may now journey to London and comment on the 'softness' of the weather. But small victories are few and far between in the constant battle of the classroom.
The week was nicely rounded off by a night of mad dancing to Motown mash-ups and 80's power ballads in the basement of an Amsterdam inspired bar. And then the next day Jean and I treated ourselves to a four course lunch of typical Asturian cuisine before heading off on a trip to nearby Avilés to have a little wander round and visit Tom, a fellow Durham student who lives there. People in Gijón don't tend to speak very highly of Avilés for some reason but I think it's got quite a lot of charm. There's a lovely range of architecture and all the cafes and bars are very stylish and unique. Here's a little gem we found on a wall:
'In this house you will be able to eat, drink and enjoy yourself until your body and soul can take no more'
It's been a darned good week. And it's Monday again tomorrow. So here's to another week like the last!
X
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