First Day of Classes

Yesterday, I went to mass at a nearby church with my host parents. All I got out of it was that it was the children’s mass and also that the children are very off key (they led the songs). I found a guide to the mass in Spanish and have been working on memorizing a few prayers, so hopefully that will be better in the future.

Well first day of classes done. Aahhhh! I got out of my first class and all I could do was laugh and think ‘oh crap.' As it turns out, classes that start at 10 here actually start sometime after the professor shows up at around 10:15. Good to know. Musica de España. I was one of only 5 students and after our short break, 1 of 3. The others are 4^th year Spanish students. I understood maybe half of the words the professor was saying, so I got the gist of maybe 1/3 of the sentences. We skimmed over history of Spanish kings and such as a groundwork for understanding what we mean by music of Spain, since Spain didn’t exist at the time. I learned most of this in AP Euro, but I definitely need to brush up and learn how to say the names in Spanish. Additionally, I have a 1000 word written piece to do for class. It’s due at some point in time and is probably on a certain subject or topic as well. Umm…yeah. I guess I should ask again tomorrow. I made him repeat it once and still didn’t understand. Eeek.

My second class was much more promising. It has closer to 30 students…the majority of whom are American. It was kinda strange. I don’t know where they came from, but there they all were. Many of them know less Spanish then me, but also, this was their only course with Spanish students. Kind of ironic. Contemporary Social Movements did lift my spirits, as I understood most everything the professor told us. I also know what is expected of the class in terms of work and even the final exam.

Finally, I figured out, mostly, the library. It's the first time I'd been to a library that has a stacks and the Spanish made it more confusing. There's a reading room that has a number of books in each discipline, but the vast majority of the books are kept out of site in back rooms that you cannot enter. I had to fill out a card and request that a librarian fetch it for me. Not so bad once I figured it out, but the librarian was less than helpful and not forgiving of my non-fluency. Everyone understands if you use the word computadora here. It is a word, but they use ordenador more formally. She refused to understand what I was saying until I used the correct word. On the other hand, most everyone I've encountered has been very kind and patient with me. Especially if it's a business, they don't care what language you speak as long as you carry euros. :)

Had a little fun with photoshop. This is a stairwell in the cathedral.