I survived my first week of classes here. I thought it would be impossible to take four Spanish classes at once, but it looks like it might not be too bad after all. I mean, really I’m used to taking 19-20 credit hours with 5 classes and this quarter I only have 16 hours so it’s kind of break from the normal load. Also, I don’t have the distractions of Scott Quad and everyone else (I love and miss you guys!) so I get everything done a lot faster. I end up watching a lot of TV and movies because that’s usually what Miguel and Amparo are doing. Anyway, so here’s a little bit of info about my classes. If you find it boring, just skip to the next entry (and check out the link at the bottom of this page). Lol, I just thought some people might be interested. Anyway, my first class is SPAN 343x Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition with Nekane. So far it has been pretty easy. We’ve just been reviewing grammar tenses and stuff. Parts of it are hard because they have new names, but the basic concepts are the same. There are only four of us in the class so we to have a lot of interactions and practice talking which is nice. My second class is SPAN 348x Spanish Culture and Civilization with Ana. The class is a mixture of basically everything about Spain. So far we have talked about history, current events, cultural things (festivals, food, etc.), and geography. I think it is really interesting, but almost everyone else thinks it’s boring. The third class is SPAN 356x Poetry with Ana. I was really worried in the beginning because I think poetry is hard in English, but so far it has been interesting. We have mainly just been learning the rhetorical devices which are the same as the ones I learned for AP English in high school (just with Spanish names). The final class is ML 250 Field Studies with Nelson. Our community service and intercambios (conversation partners) count as part of this class along with the excursions that we take (I’ll explain that more later). We only have the class formally for 2 hours a week and we learn general things about Spain such as some vocabulary only used in this region, different newspapers in the city, etc. We talk about what it’s like to live with a Spanish family and the differences between life here and life in America. Like I said, none of my classes have been too much work so far, but I’m sure they will get harder throughout the quarter. I can’t believe I’ve already been here for two weeks!
Here is a link to a map of the city if you are interested in seeing where I live! There is a beacon at my apartment and you can zoom in & out to see the rest of the city and the great location that I have here!
