Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Just being a little sentimental as this class ends.....

For my last blog post I am feeling very sentimental. This is the first semester in college where I have honestly enjoyed all my classes....shocker right? And out of all of my classes this semester, this has been my favorite. I honestly looked forward to coming to class every day? WHAT? When does that ever happen? No idea.....

So needless to say, our very last class at Dr. A's house was my favorite. How could life get better? Pizza, cozy living room, our class, Dr A and watching the endings of so many of the telenovelas that we've studied. It was perfect.

Although the class is ending, it has forever changed the way I watch television and telenovelas in general. I had never watched them before this class and now I can't stop! I have 2 episodes left in La Tempestad! Crazy! Its amazing how close I have gotten to characters, to hating them or loving them. I have studied the relationships in the novela, what makes the character do crazy things as well as how the audience has reacted to this novela. It has been an adventure for sure.

I loved our last class especially because each of the final episodes we watched was so different.  I was shocked seeing the main character die at the end, or watching them take down the set, or how they filmed the live audience when the cast came out at the very end. I was impressed by the creativity of Leonardo Padron and the amazing ideas he had in ending each novela.
It makes me even more curious how La Tempestad will end!

As I reflect on this class I think one of the greatest things I have learned is simply about culture. I value culture so much and so getting to study different cultures through the lens of telenovelas was incredibly special. I also learned the importance of media and how influential it can be. I will never forget the day we talked about influence and how there was one novela where the woman was abused by her husband and the day she turned him in, within a week the numbers of women reporting domestic violence increased greatly! Wow, who knew that a dramatic telenovela could have so much power!?
And finally, a great lesson I learned was the importance of studying something you love. Dr. A has studied telenovelas for so many years because she loves them. She is always interested and excited and researching and finding new discoveries in her field. If theres is one main lesson I learned from her it is that you should find what you love and make a career out of it, because that is what she has done and she is so successful now!

I honestly can't believe this class is coming to an end! Thank you Dr A for an amazing class!

Maybe I'll comment on my own post when I finish La Tempestad so yall can see my reaction!
Consumption is important ;)

2 comments:

  1. Okie dokie, like I said in my post, I'll write a comment once I finish the entire novela.....well.... it happened this morning!!!
    Oh my! What a dramatic conclusion. The male antagonist kidnaps the female protagonist with only 20 minutes left in the episode! He ends up committing suicide as well as the female antagonist. 3 of the main bad guys all die in one episode! I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a little happy :)
    Of course Marina and Damian end up together. They have a beautiful wedding and set sail on La Tempestad with both their children (although one is the son of Ernesto and Esthercita....but we'll just let that one slide!)
    It was crazy, dramatic and a beautiful conclusion to this adventure I've been on with these characters. It was sad to see William Levy go since this is his last telenovela and I still think Ximena did a good job for her first part in a telenovela. Overall, it was wonderful. It was definitely a long journey with ups and downs, twists and turns, but isn't that the beauty of it?
    I enjoyed my first telenovela! Time for number 2?? Any suggestions?? I'm leaning toward watching Pablo Escobar!

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  2. Marina-
    I totally agree with you. I have honestly never really liked any of my classes except for this one. This is the first class I am going to actually recommend to my friends. I also enjoyed watching the end of the telenovelas. I don't really know what I think about PatrĂ³n's ending with the real live audience, but I loved the La Mujer Perfecta ending. That was definitely my favorite! I think you should watch La Reina del Sur next. That's the one I studied and I can not stop watching. But I had to buy the dvd because I think it stopped going on the website. Maybe because it is airing right now?

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