Today we were talking about our respective cultures and what they mean as far as our identity. The first theme we've been given to work with is the Tower of Babel. One of the Americans in the class seemed to think he was running the discussion (he knows everything about everything). At one point he interrupted an Icelandic woman "just so i can clear this one thing up about America." And started trying to "debunk" some stereotype about American politicians being the most corrupt - i wasn't aware of that one - making a total fool of himself and embarrassing the rest of the Americans in the room. At the same time, he managed to forcefully uphold that other stereotype about Americans (loud, ignorant, obnoxious). Finally, the tutor who was actually running the discussion said, "Stop talking." Sheesh.
Now, pictures of the apartment, inside.
My room!
This is Raul and Luis, in the ginormous-especially-for-a-European-apartment kitchen:
Hallway. For reference on the height of the ceilings, that coat rack you see on the wall is about at head level for me.
The living room:
The living room again, with the doors opening onto the balcony:
And here's the view from the balcony. It's the metro stop!
Today we were assigned our first projects and given just over an hour to do them - a 15 cm x 15 cm self portrait of our "identity," within the cultural context that we'd spent the morning talking about. Here's what i made:
It's interesting, it seems like none of us in the workshop had particularly strong feelings about our home countries. The older students, the ones from Iceland, were an exception, but also their country is tiny and isolated. There was some discussion of globalization and the internet having a big impact on our generation and how we feel our cultural identities.
Someday when i have nothing else to post about, i'll write about the washing machine.
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