Day 4: La Iglesia and our Flamenco Dinner

The Real Colegio Mayor
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There was not much to write about for day 3, only some problems with my electronic devices, but as of today, day 5, when I’m writing these words, those problems have been fixed, more or less.

So it’s our fourth day in Granada, Tuesday, June 3rd. Today was our first day in class. I have two classes, two hours each, Monday through Friday. Side note: We go to school at the Centro de Modernas Lenguas, a part of the Universidad de Granada. I like this place a lot because it reminds me of the language center I went to learn English in Vietnam for many years. Outside it looks like a big private house. Each classroom has small, individual tables that can be moved around so that students can work face-to-face.

Inside the Hospital de San Rafael
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The teachers are very good. Somehow their approach to grammar and other aspects of Spanish is very mind-opening, clear, and logical. For example, when my teacher África explained to us the difference between “por” and “para,” something that is always confusing to me, she told us “por” is more about the cause that in the past led to an action and “para” is more about the future result that one wants to obtain in doing that action. That makes a lot of sense to me yet no text I’ve read has mentioned it.

La Iglesia de San Juan de Dios - the ceiling
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After class, we, the Georgia State group, went to visit the Real Colegio Mayor and La Iglesia de San Juan de Dios. We entered the church through the entrance to the Hospital de San Rafael. Even inside the hospital there are many paintings of angels and saints. The church is dedicated to San Juan. It is said that he used to be a very poor man; somehow he got rich and later, he helped establish hospitals and helped the poor till he had nothing on his body and died. Well, that’s what I understood from what the teacher de culturas told us. The church was very big. There seemed to be no space that is left plain in the main part of the church [the Common room?]. Most of the space was covered in something that is gold-like and bright with very detailed gravings, some scarier than the others. The only space that is not covered in “gold” is the VERY high ceiling or a painted panorama of San Juan handing food to others. In this room there are see-through boxes of skulls, bones, and teeth along one wall. There was also a mummy in a glass coffin. To me that was very different from what I expected to see in a church – a peaceful place for people to stay calm and pray. As I have little knowledge of religion, I didn’t let myself be so surprised. The other students seemed to be overwhelmed. They said there were too many details for a church. A girl in the group said she had been to Rome and visited the churches there but this one was the most ornate of all.

La Iglesia de San Juan de Dios
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On the way I found a “Dinner and Flamenco” restaurant. My roommate was not so convinced that flamenco was something worth watching but 8:30 we were sitting inside this small, cozy restaurant. There was a man playing guitar and singing and a woman doing the flamenco dance for an hour. What the man sang to me was like “Spanish opera.” His voice was very high but very strong. The words were hard to recognize. I thought the songs were about love because I heard “chocolate” and “corazón.” His guitar playing was very passionate and at some point was very fast.