Wednesday 5th April
I found out yesterday that there is a procession of Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos) in Benamádena/Arroyo de la Miel, so I think I will go to this rather than travel through to Málaga. I will take some photos and post them on my return to Scotland.
The grammer class was very interesting today in the we had lots of discussion abou the past perfect (pretérito perfecto) and the simple past (indefinido). For those of you who study or know a bit of Spanish, the following example will illustrate. The two sentences coming up mean that "my father died in 1985"
1 - Mi padre murió en 1985
2 - Mi padre ha muerto en 1985.
Now, the question is - Which one is correct? or are the both correct? What is the difference between them?
Answers will be posted tomorrow, meanwhile, please post your solutions!

In the conversation class we spoke about different matters an vocabulary related to courses, university etc as well as customs and protocols when Spaniards meet in the street. We also loked at what is considered good and bad manners.
Following lunch is was off to the tennis club for a two-hour practice and then down to Fuengirola to do some shopping.
No wild parties tonight as I have a lot of homework to do for tomorrow.

Each day has gotten easier. I aprticularly like the conversations in class. I have difficulty with the Malaga accent but the teachers at school speak very clearly which helps a lot.
Starting out on Monday with the subjunctive was difficult but the uses of ser and estar yesterday and this morning were much easier. Now that I have the book, I can prepare each morning by reading ahead. I do not have time to study after class. I will be going into Malaga this afternoon.

Tomorrow is my last day and the week has gone by very fast. I will spend the weekend in Sevilla for the Semana Santa processions. I will take a lot of photos and will post some here when I return home to NY.

Hasta luego .... or Taluego as they say in Malaga.

Thursday 6th April
Bueno Día as they say in Andalucía!
I am getting a bit sad that there is only one day of classes left for me. I have really enjoyed getting back into studying Spanish again. It has been nearly three months since I did any studying. I really like this Colegio Maravillas as my other blogs will testify.

Today we worked on something that you will not find in any of the grammar books: tiempo (time (present, past or future) of the verb and a qualifing chronological time (yesterday, tomorrow)); the Modo or mode (indicative, subjunctive, conditional or imperative) and the Aspect (finished or not finished). Really interesting stuff!!
In the conversation class, things went really well. There were only three of us today and we spoke non-stop for almost two hours!
I bumped into a couple of students who had been studying with me at the Colegio last summer - it was good to see them and they are currently hunting jobs here in Andalucía.
My host Maria gave me a copy of the Pau Casals CD to take back with me to Scotland - I look forward to listening to it!!
Went to watch the Barça - Benfica match last night in a local bar. As you can imagine, the Spanish in the bar were very animated and I think I learned a lot of new words!.
Tennis this afternoon. I was pretty deadbeat yesterday after the tennis so a "light practice" with the former coach at the club will be the order of the day.
There is an Easter tournament at the club and the players are starting to arrive. I have played with and against many of them before and it is great to see them again.
My host is feeding me too well, so I have asked her to prepare a nice salad tonight, otherwise I will not be able to run around the tennis court.
Semana Santa is getting lots of airtime on the TV and big coverage in the newspapers down here, so I am looking forward to seeing some of the processions.

Cultural note
Those readers who have visited Andalucía will have noticed that the accent is strange, even impossible to follow!
Part of the reason for this is that they do not pronounce "s"s or "d"s. So this means that, for example:
Bueno día = Buenos días
Ta luego = hasta luego
pescao = pescado
¿ha terminao? = ¿ha/has terminado?
For Jesus Quintero fans, Ratones Colorados becomes Ratone Colorao
This leads to lots of run throughs in words, so the sentence:
"Buenos días Carlos, pues, ¿has comprado pescado?"
becomes
"BuenodíaCarlo, pue, ¿ha comprao pecao?"

Friday 7th April
The tennis went well yesterday. I practised with the former coach of the tennis club, Floreal. Given that he had a stroke in 1991, which affected his right side and his speech, he can still hit tennis balls well. He did some coaching with me - an although his speech is limited, he is still one of the best demonstrators of shot production. It was really enjoyable being coached by him and, for me, this represents one of life´s precious moments. The are only a couple of things that I would not miss for all the world, and this is one of them!

Today, we have a grammar test, but given that, in the superior class, we have not been following the book page by page (in fact, not following it at all), it will be fairly meaningless.
Well, today we did not have an official test but jumped to one of the later chapters in the book - this was an adapted text from "La Colmena" by Camilo Losé Cela. The only problem was that we had to conjugate all of the verbs in the appropriate tense (from all of them and in the appropriate tiempo) and put in necessary pronombres (I don´t know the English term for this!!). The we did some advanced exercises on ser and estar. Great stuff!
In the conversation class, I was in my element, we studied a series of phrases and exclamations that use ¡Mira..!, ¡Anda..! ¡Vaya..!Dale...! and !Venga..!
My favourites..... !Dale que dale! and ¡Mira que no haber .......!
We also had to relate a story about an advert that we had seen on TV. I did the one that promotes tourism in Andalucía "Andalucía te quiere", where the music is played by Chambao!!
I am not going to relate now why I chose this one, but the reasons are stated elsewhere in the forum.

I have really enjoyed the grammar classes and they have brought me a new understanding to the use of probability and hypothesis. The problem now is putting it into practice when I get back home!

There were lots of good things to eat at the fiesta after classes today. The usual.. jamon serrano, chorizo, queso Manchego etc etc.
At the fiesta, I has a little time to chat to Arturo. Our paths have not crossed much since we were in different classes in Colegio Maravillas. He is going to Málaga on Monday to see some of the Semana Santa processions and I am going to because Maria my hostess and her friend informed me that the confradía de los Gitanos (Gypsies) are doing a procession - this is a must!

The tennis.... for a change, I had organised a practice session at another tennis club, with the former accountant at the tennis club I normally go to, who is an excellent tennis player. He and his Spanish girlfriend make sure that Floreal is OK and help him organise things. The are currently helping him organise a trip to Scotland to visit me. This is great for him ´cos he has never been to Scotland. At the same time (well not at the same time, but back to back, I was hitting with Joe, a coach on the Costa. It was good to see him again, because we have played a couple of tennis tournaments together and a couple against each other. Both these guys a a good deal younger than me but they hit a good ball.
We went back to Mark and Rafi´s (his girfriend)apartment for some tea and tapas. Rafi was drinking cinnamon tea! Wow - these flavoured teas are something else!!
Did some shopping and then back home for some food. My hostess continues doing a good job in the kitchen!


Cultural note:
There is an interesting article online at "Dine Online" about Semana Santa, food and the Andalucian accent. See http://www.dine-online.co.uk/carmona.htm

Today was the last day of class and we had a test on the subjunctive, ser y estar and vocabulario. The test was easier than I expected, much easier nthan the exercises in the book. Maybe they wqant everyone to pass and to continue on. I received my diploma and there was a party after the classes.

Overall I enjoyed the classs and would like to mtake more classes when I have more time. A week is really not enough time but the classes helped and I gained confidence each day. I was not afraid to join in the conversations.

Both teachers were very good and the other students all had interesting stories about why they were in Spain studying Spanish.

I want to thank Robbieroy for recommending Colegio Maravillas. He was right about the friendly staff at the school. I can see why he keeps coming back. He speaks Spanish well and studies hard every day. It was hard for me to find time to really study. There is so much to see and do and so little time.

Yesterday aafter classes I went into Malaga and visited all of the churches in malaga centro. I don´t believe how many churches are in such a small aarea. They were all preparing the tronos or floats for Semana Santa. They are very large and very elaborate. Tonight they will transfer the church statues to the floats. In Malaga the bleachers are all up and waitng for the crowds aof peole.

Tomorrow I am off to Seville with a friend, her father and another friend. Since none of them speak English, it will be a very interesting ride to Sevilla.

That is it for the classes. I will add some pictures when I return home for Easter Sunday.

Hasta pronto.... Arturo

I wish Arturo well on his trip to Sevilla, although it will be very crowded for Semana Santa, I think that his trip will be very worthwhile. I hope to visit Sevilla again, sometime in the future.

Saturday 8th April
Now that classes are over, I can spend a bit more time doing other things - like tennis!!
This morning I went up to Mijas to pick up a copy of their Semana Santa poster and fortunately, the tourist office was open and they had some posters left.
Here are some photos from Mijas:








I went to the tennis club and did some Spanish studying and talked to a few of the recently arrived players and went to a countryside venta between Mijas and Coin with for lunch. We had mixed salads, jureles (a type of sardine)and chips, lots of water, great bread and coffee. All this for 14 euros
Played some tennis with Floreal in the afternoon and did some other reading.
My hostess has promised the she and her friend will give me "un día Andaluz" on Monday.
The plan is:
paella at lunchtime
the costal train to Málaga
watch the Gitano Semana Santa procession
have some tapas
return by train.
I am already looking forward to it!

Sunday 9th April
We went to the Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) service this morning in Arroyo de la Miel.
Before the service, olive branches were given out.


The service started outside the church with all the congregation in the plaza of the church:


The olive branches were then blessed:


We then went inside. The service was full of emotion and the church was packed.

Following the service, the procession with the trono of Jesus on the donkey was then paraded round the streets,




fronted by the Nazarenos, the band and the penitentes following behind.





The afternoon was spent at the tennis club, playing and chatting to friends. The Easter tournament is now underway and there are lots of people around.
I hope Arturo had a similary interesting time in Sevilla, I look forward to seeing the photos.

Cultural note
The is a good explanation of Holy Week in Seville at the following link: Holy Week in Seville

Monday 10th April- Lunes Santo in Málaga and my día Andaluz
I am afraid that technology has got the better of me and I forgot that we were only allowed 8 images per post.
For this reason you will need to scroll down to read about it (sorry).
Robbieroy

Tuesday 11th April
Sadly, this is my last full day in the south of Spain. It has been taken up with visiting and saying goodbyes at the tennis club. I also went back to the Colegio to say bye to a friend from Scotland. She arrived on Sunday and is also staying with a family.

Cultural note:
20minutos.es has some great images of Semana Santa here
There are also photos sent in by their readers here

Domingo de Ramos and Lunes Santo

I have put together slide shows with music of Palm Sunday in Arroyo de la Miel and Holy Monday in Málaga.

For Palm Sunday in Arroyo: Click here

For Holy Monday in Málaga: Click here