Thank you for your co-operation

April 1, 2010

Today was our last day of class!! In just 4 short days, we've really bonded with our teachers and the students.  I really did feel quite sad at having to leave them so soon.  However, as I will relate later, we were soon to take the fun to outside the classroom and inside some bars --

Afternoon with the Australian

Morning with the Germans -
The Situation is at the Front in the Pink Shirt

Here is a photo of both our morning class and afternoon class.







So the night that followed was probably one of the best that we've had so far in Seville.  First, we met up with  the Germans, the Aussie, a Canuck, and a Brit and we were off to watch a flamenco show.  It took some time finding it, because it was not a touristic show but a local bar that had flamenco dance and singing performances every night.  The place was cavernous, and actually quite German in its tall ceilings, long wooden tables that stretched from end to end of the great hall.

Scary Woman is First on the Left

As the performance started, one of the performers began by telling us to please not smoke, and not drink.  As she was talking, although softly, I and the rest of the room could not help but feel the force of her words and stare.  She had the room at her attention not unlike some tyrant teachers.  Her appearance too, was very startling - like that of a man squeezed into a woman's dress.  Short, black greasy hair pulled back very high on her forehead into a little pony tail, bloated face and upper body, with a dark fuzz that extended down the side of her face like a man's side-burns.  I heard quite a few people talk about those tonight.

The Situation is on the Right

You will remember that I mentioned that someone from my class is exactly like the Situation from Jersey Shore had he been German.  Well, in German, the word for side-burns is Koteletten, so our German Situation figured the English word couldn't be that different. So he turned around to Marco and said, "Look at that woman's Cutlets!"  It caused a lot of laughs later when the mistake was explained.

Several times that night, whenever there was any noise from the crowd, she would narrow those snake like eyes and stare with absolutely livid hatred at the direction of the noise and make a loud hissing sound.  At one point, she even gave Marco that death stare.  When it came her turn to dance, she gave everyone in the crowd a scare.  She literally jumped out of the chair and came forward with her eyes blazing and staring in our general direction.  My friend, Johanna, jumped in her seat and gripped onto my arm - we both thought she had had enough of the noise in the crowd and was going to come after one of us.

However, when she started dancing - I think every single person in that crowd was impressed.  She twirled, jumped, flicked her hands, and stamped her feet in perfect rhythm of the guitar.  It was incredible how her feet had become an instrument, changing and varying the rhythm of the song itself.  She moved not so much with grace, but with an unbelievable command of emotion, force, and power.  I could feel her anger through her movements and my heart-beat raced throughout.  I know flamenco was a serious dance, but she had certainly taken it to the next level and made it her own.

Next, a beautiful woman with long, dark red hair and a flowing red polka dot flamenco skirt stood up to dance.  Now she truly was flamenco personified.  Tall, with graceful curves that she undulated sensuously to the music, she danced gorgeously, with passion and pride in her art.  Her fingers and hands twirled and spun, mesmerizing the crowd.  It was an incredible performance.

After the show was over, we walked through the city to get to another bar district. Along the way, one of the girls did not see a decorative mound in the road, and she tripped and collapsed on top of it.  I did not witness the entire fall, but what I did see was her sprawled on the ground and a Spanish girl sitting nearby throw her arm across her face, shaking with laughter.  We were all laughing hysterically too.  It got even funnier when we were getting read to move on, and another German girl in our group announced extremely dramatically to the giggling Spaniards with a wave of her hand, "Every-sing OK.  Thank you for your co-operation." I just about died at that, and it was repeated at various junctions for the rest of the night.

The Germans

The last funny thing that night happened a little later, when the Brit of our group started hitting on the German girl who had fallen previously.  I wasn't there when it happened, but Marco explained it dutifully as we were walking home.  I'm not sure how old the Brit is, but at least in his late thirties.  Well, the German, totally unaware, announced at one point that she was just 18.  The Brit stared and said, "I need a drink" and disappeared into the bar!  What a golden moment - I'm quite sad to have missed it.

All in all, it was one of the most enjoyable nights I've spent in Seville so far.