hump day.

I've officially fallen in love with cherries. I'm not talking about the ones they put on your ice cream that are syrupy and disgusting. I'm talking REAL cherries. FRESH cherries. We've had them for dessert for the past two nights, and I can't get enough of them. I'm afraid fruit is much more fresh (fresher? Scott?) here than in the States, and it's going to be a nasty surprise when I get home!

Today is the halfway point for the trip. I left Wednesday, May 23 and The program ends Saturday, June 23. That's 32 days, people. And today is day 16. I don't like that time has gone by so quickly, but I'm so glad I'm not new on the scene, getting lost in the metro and bringing unnecessary attention to my American self.

Today was another one of those boring day-before-a-final days. I've been here studying and procrastinating like a pro. Today was also return-laundry-to-the-Americans day. I din't know how Paloma can stand to do laundry for strangers (pretty much), but I do know that laundry just smells better in Spain.

I really need to study. These directors from the 80's and 90's are giving me a hard time. Their themes are interesting. Some of them still deal with the Civil War but some of them have moved on to more contemporary social problems. The film we watched today was "Te doy mis ojos," about a man who abuses his wife. I thought it was going to be very typical, but the film showed both sides of the story. The man loved his wife and went to therapy to try and learn to control his anger, but he just couldn't do it. There was some sort of mental roadblock he couldn't get past and she just couldn't live with him breaking her every other day. It was so sad because he tried to stop verbally and emotionally abusing her, he just couldn't. I'm not sympathizing with the character or trying to justify his actions, but I do pity him.

Anyway, the change of pace from Civil War to modern times has been interesting. There's nudity and sex scenes in every movie we've seen since the 80's. Franco died in 1975 and the censorship he imposed on the country, including the film industry, was lifted in 1978. Spanish directors and screenwriters exploded with things that had been censored in the past, and now nudity and sex scenes are to be expected in most Spanish films. It's sad. I don't think that is liberation; I just think it's kind of tasteless. But it's Europe. Everything runs a little differently here.

Okay. Nun cookie, study, sleep, then beach this weekend. Start praying now that I don't burn and that all the Spaniards don't decide to make it a nudist beach.