It's Only Rock and Roll But I Like It

It's a good day when you start your school day with John Lennon and end with Elvis.

City buses here, and I'm told taxis too, have tv screens. They show anything from the current exhibit at the local museum, how to get a bus card, ads for English classes, the weather forecast, etc. Buses also play music. Usually random American music and pop. I've heard everything from Aerosmith to One Direction on the bus. Today it was John Lennon's "Imagine." I like that waaaaay more than some lame boy band.

Also, waiting for the bus to work, four classic cars drove by. Beautiful 1920s cars. Just cruising around San Sebastian. No big deal.

My music history class started today. It's called, "From Elvis to Rap: 50 Years of Music and Culture" and it's taught by the same very interesting professor I have for Art History and Myths & Legends. There's 16 students in the class, easily making it the largest I have. Huge right? Half the students are American, half are European. Some of the UPV students aren't from Spain, but from other schools in Europe, studying abroad with Erasmus.

It makes for a very interesting class. The class is on, well basically American culture and a bit of US and world history. I almost titled this post "Quien es Rosa Parks?" because that was totally asked today. Americans hear about her every February from the time they enter school. I can't imagine that happens in Spain so asking who she is is a totally valid question. It just goes to show you that you can't take for granted that people have the same references as you do. This class is a marvelous example because the American students have heard of all the things discussed in class but they may not know much about them. For many of the European students, it's all new. It's going to be a fascinating class.

One last anecdote before I go study for my two scary tests tomorrow in Spanish and Basque: I often eat cereal for breakfast because well, I like it and I don't want my host mom to make extra dishes for her to wash because she makes me an omelette practically every morning. Anyway, today I had cereal, which my host mom always has laid out waiting for me when I get out of the shower. I had finished and I was clearing up my dishes kind of while my host mom was in the shower. My host dad told me not to worry about doing that but I at least insisted on putting my own napkin in the composting and the juice carton in the recycling. My host dad picked up the cereal box and he was looking in the cabinet for where it went. He tried putting it on the apparent space for it but the box didn't quite fit. In that moment, I felt slightly better about myself because I have that exact same problem every time I have cereal for breakfast. So right now I'm home alone for the first time since I came to San Sebastian. First thing I did? Looked for where my host mom really puts away the cereal.