One of the best things that can happen to you during a class

...HAPPENED TO ME TODAY. Seriously. My heart was legit pounding because of the adrenaline. (Once you read the story, you are going to think I'm a complete EMPOLLONA for getting so excited/nervous/adrenaliney about this)


SO, today in my Novella y Cine class, we were talking about the FIRST PIECES OF LITERATURE (in Spain?) ... and we got to something written by Alfonso X el sabio. And when I saw his name I was like hmmm I wonder if he's the NO8DO Alfonso.. And then my teacher Ángel (WHO IS SO GREAT HE'S AN ANGEL OH WOW HIS NAME WOW) said 'Does anyone know who this is? ... Have you seen those designs all around Sevilla that look like this?' And then he goes up to the board and draws NO8DO. And people were like yeayeayeah we've seen it. BUT THEN HE ASKS Does anyone know the story behind it?

MY HAND SHOOTS UP WITHOUT EVEN THINKING. I love NO8DO. But because of my lack of thinking, I realized I didn't really know what I was going to say. So I just went for it. 

'Alfonso era.. el rey.. y su hijo, Sancho.. quería tomar su reino. Pero Sevilla.. quedaba.. loyal? al Alfonso... Y.. <No madeja do>.. <No me ha dejado>.. Como.. esta.. esta imagen (pointing at the 8) es una madeja.. y es como <No madeja do> - <No me ha dejado> -- Sevilla has not left me..'

At around this time, my heart is pounding, I'm probably obviously nervous, my voice is a little shaky.. so I take a pause to collect my thoughts and take a breath. WHILE I AM DOING THIS, I HEAR AN ENCOURAGING VOICE SAY 'Come on, you got this!' from a boy in my class. And then my teacher joins in 'Yeah, this story isn't easy to tell, and you're doing it perfectly!'

So that makes me feel freakin AWESOME. So I keep going.

'Entonces Alfonso po--..pu..-puso esta diseña en su.. (I was looking for the word for 'shield')'

Ángel chimed in - 'Escudo?? Bandera?' And i'm like Shield??? and he's like 'Sí, escudo!' And I begin again.

'Puso en su escudo para siempre recordar la loyaltad?' (Ángel: Lealtad) 'para siempre recordar la lealtad de Sevilla.'

I stop, and take another breath. AND ALL OF A SUDDEN I HEAR CLAPPING FROM THE ENTIRE CLASS. I SWEAR I HAD TUNNELVISION AT THIS POINT, I could only see my teacher and the corners of my classmates' faces... but my teacher looked SOOOOO IMPRESSED OH MY GOD. Then he said how I should be the official historian of the class, and I was like oh nonon me interesa mucho este tema, pero no sé nada más!

And then like for a few minutes after that people in the class kept looking at me IMPRESSEDLY. And then there was some other historical story that Ángel wanted to know if we knew anything about, and he jokingly said to me OKAY TELL US THE STORY. 

AND NOW I FEEL GREAT. Like.. that story will be forgotten by everyone else in that class except for me.. and I LOVE how the little things like that can make SO MUCH of a difference. Whatever, I feel awesome.

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Couple other things -

In all the emails CIEE sends to us, they start by saying Hola chic@s!!! BECAUSE THE @ SIGN  IS LIKE BOTH AN A AND AN O.. SO IT'S BOYS AND GIRLS.. that is absolutely genius.

Also, it rained far too much today. My feet were soaking through my converse. SO MUCH INCOMODIDAD. DISCOMFORT. THIS IS NOT THE SEVILLA I SIGNED UP FOR. 

Oh, Ángel also taught us that the line from My Fair Lady, 'The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain' was changed a little bit for the Spanish version so it would still rhyme -- La lluvia en Sevilla es una pura maravilla. WHICH TRANSLATES TO THE RAIN IN SEVILLA IS A PURE MARVEL. WHICH IS NOT TRUE. But it's cute because it rhymes.

And I still love it hehhhhhhhhhhh yay!

Now homework.. yay for today being my last day of classes antes del FIN DE SEMANA WOOO NOOO CLASES EL VIERNESSSS