Not What I Expected...

So Tuesday night I took the opportunity to try something new and go to a Flamenco Concert. We heard about it through our school, and the entry fee wasn't too expensive and included a free drink. Not to mention I saw it as a good cultural experience and didn't really know a whole lot about Flamenco other than what I had seen at GC on Culture Day. But even that didn't have me totally prepared for what it actually was. There was of course the dancer (whose dress was not as pretty as the one in this picture), and then there was the guitar player and a singer. The dancing and the guitar were awesome. The singing--not so sure. Where I had expected something melodic, it was more like a strange chant. One of my friends kindly pointed out after the show that I apparently had one of the strangest and funniest faces when the singing started (thanks a lot). But despite my surprise, the locals and die-hards were really into it. Honestly, the whole thing kind of made me think of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," but everyone was just shouting "Ole!" instead of "Opa!" But I must admit, it also kind of made me think of the scene from "Blues Brothers" when they posed as Los Lonely Boys in the bar (this particular sentiment was also probably helped by the fact that my host mom had compared Spanish Flamenco to American country music). I know, kind of weird to put those two movies together for something, but it works in my mind so just go with it. As it turns out, my host parents are apparently not big fans of Flamenco...they say it doesn't really represent Spain, but rather the Gypsies. Plus I felt a lot better when they each said how horrible they thought the singing was. But overall, I'm glad I went to the concert. It may not have been what I thought, but it was still very interesting and I had a good time.