Waking up at 8:00am, which really felt like a continuation of the day before, I had breakfast and went to Relaciones Internacionales. For my project's presentation, I brought along my California flag to use as a prop. Our original teacher was back, still teaching despite being 9 months and ready pregnant. We had some good discussions, the most poignant moment being my intervention about "Israel's war against Hamas," which the Professor interjected to point out how I had said that in such an "American way." Here in Spain and the majority of Europe, the war in Gaza in December and January is referred to as the "Disproportional, aggressive war of Israel against the Palestinians." In instances today, and for what has been many this year, I generally keep quiet and listen to the opinions that others have even though I may strongly disagree with them.
After class, I quickly ran down stairs to print my essay running into Melissa. We printed out our essay and spiral bond it in a small book. We quickly went back up stairs to start our presentation. The DVD worked and we set up our powerpoint. The professor took a seat in the back and the class faced us. I'd put up the California flag over the wooden podium. Melissa began talking, reading her notes about the theories of Imperialism. She was getting really nervous and was not speaking well. It got to the point where she was so nervous that she couldn't go on and I skipped the last slides of her part. I quickly jumped down from the stage and stood in front of the class without any notes and began my part of the presentation. I explained the history behind each point I'd written down. The professor interjected a few times but I more or less spoke for a solid 45 minutes. We finally got to the documentary which worked great. After the film we began the discussion about Imperialism. Although off to a slow start, it got really in depth with the whole class participating, including the professor. There was point in which I could see the educational epiphany, the true cultural exchange taking place. In the end we received a loud applause and the professor said we had done a good job with a lot of effort.
Outside I told Melissa we had done a great job and I was happy it was over. Happy to be done with the big project, I went grocery shopping and then went to Master Tutorial which was fun and easy. Jon came back over to my apartment after class and we talked about future trips. Once Heiko and Antonio came home, we decided to complete what we'd been talking about since September...purchasing a BBQ. We went to a hardware store and bought a 70 euro BBQ for 40. Charcoal and a little small, nevertheless it looked good and we were excited. Antonio and I stopped to buy some meat while Heiko went for a run. Back home, we assembled it in the living room and then put it out on the balcony. I made a marinade for the pork chops of white wine and spices and we laid on the vegetables and sausages. The mentality of summer had arrived and although our charcoal wasn't that great and it took us a while to get it hot, the BBQ was a christened. We're looking forward to having some cook outs on the teraza.
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