don quijote

I studied spanish in high school and one memory that really stood out to me was studying the story of Don Quijote. We read the novel in class, watched the movie, and also we were able to go see the play. Studying the story helped give me an insight to Spanish culture. The story is a comedy making fun of the main character, who believes he is a chivalrous knight. This story is still well known across all different cultures after over 40 years. This is what struck me the most. I am familiar with historic literature from European and American cultures but this is the first example of Spanish culture I had seen.
Surprisingly what I got the most out of studying this story happened after watching the play with my class. Our class among others was invited to stay afterward and meet some of the actors. I was extremely surprised at how friendly they were. I have volunteered as an usher for years at the Dallas Children's Theatre in my hometown. After viewing these plays, the actors would also meet with the audience to sign autographs and take pictures. The difference was the American actors were professional and somewhat reserved. The Spanish actors were overly friendly and greeted us with hugs and kisses on the cheek. They also jumped in and out of their humorous characters which gave us all a good laugh. This showed me how very open Spanish culture is when meeting new people. The play also helped me to increase my Spanish vocabulary because the actors performed the play in Spanish but would speak the occasional confusing scene in English. I very much enjoyed learning about Spanish culture and language through this experience.