Tiempo y espacio

In composition class today I learned something new, or rather something old in a different way. Our teacher began the class with a slightly convoluted metaphor about space and time and sailboats and humans and language. Not sure exactly, but he did say one thing I picked up on. Humans think in terms of time, not space. According to him it's because there is only one dimension of time, and space has three to worry about. We speak of a "space of time", but never a "time of space." He continued by explaining how in language there is not only the absolute past, present, and future, but also relative time. You can talk about things that are not present, but are before the future, during the future, and after the future. For example, "When I get to Valencia, I will have read that book." Or "When I get to Valencia, I will be reading that book." Or "When I get to Valencia, I will be going to read that book." Did I explain this correctly? Anyway, all this in Spanish. A new perspective of tenses! 

Culture class today was really great. We learned about the prehistory of Spain, so the early early humans roaming around Valencia. This is right up my alley, and I had a lot to say to the class. She finished the class by playing clips of American songs, that have "hidden Spanish" lines embedded within the lyrics. In reality, the words in the song sound like Spanish, but are not. In Michael Jackson's Billie Jean he says "But the kid is not my son." To the Spanish population, Michael is clearly saying "Quieres una mazana?" Do you want an apple? It was hilarious...

Some of us went to Corte Ingles (a giant department store that sells most everything) to try to buy a board game. American games, like Apples to Apples and Monopoly, ranged from 45 to 70 euros! Ugh! And Harry Potter Scene It was 80 EURO. Needless to say, we did not buy a board game. We settled on a cheap puzzle and we have been working on it ever since. At Corte Ingles, I made another great purchase: peanut butter. Oh it's so good! In truth, I have been missing American food. If I could afford to go out and eat really wonderful Spanish tapas every day, that would be a different story. Or if I had a kitchen and could cook! But we are forced to enjoy the cuisine offered by the cafeteria. There are always french fries and always bread, which I never eat a lot of at home. The salad is good, and usually the soup is good. It's OK. But not particularly satisfying. All the UGA kids want to find a Mexican restaurant around here...

Today is beautiful again! But windy! Tonight some of us are going to a Dent May concert. He is actually from Mississippi, and I used to play him at the radio station all the time. He is playing at another dorm in the city for free. I am excited to see what kind of crowd shows up. This weekend there is a lot going on with the America's Cup, so I will hopefully be hanging out at the sea! The sea! The sea!