I am taking four classes at a university for foreign exchange students. Yes, for exchange students. That is kind of a sore point with me. You see, without a school to facilitate meetings with actual Spaniard students our age, it hasn't even come close to happening yet. The only hope I have left for meeting Spaniards is this coming Monday night when basketball starts. Even that I'm not so sure about, because it's through the school so wouldn't that mean that the only participants will be from the school?? I really hope not.
My four classes are as follows:
Advance Spanish. I look most forward to this class, as our teacher is fantastic. She apparently is a widely known professor with many achievements, but all we know her as is a pleasant Spanish proff who knows how to make a fun learning environment. In this class we learn whatever our group might require most. So far we've started slow and with pretty basic Spanish, but I'm sure it will pick up soon.
Spanish myths and Legends. The title in itself should describe how awesome this class is going to be. We've only had one class so far, and it was pretty much a syllabus day, so I don't know much more than the title describes, but the proff appears to be really down to earth and student friendly!
Cinema: I'm not really sure what to expect from this class other than a few movies which we will analyze. We haven't had class yet so I can't be sure.
Seminar: This class is taken by all study abroad programs, and it's purpose is to help us with the program as a group, and teach us about the culture. So far as I can tell, it is by far going to be my most difficult class. We have purchased four novels with a 5th pending, depending on how fast we read the first four. There will be a thorough analysis of the books as well as class discussion.
My typical day looks like this:
Wake up a little after 8 - shower, make my own breakfast usually consistent of a freshly squeezed orange juice, toast, and a glass of milk. I then get ready and head off for my first class which is at 9:30 every morning besides Friday (11:00). After that it differs daily, sometimes finishing classes at 11, other times not till 1:45.
The Spaniards have a much different eating schedule than do Americans. As we learned today, the typical Spaniard eats five times a day.
Breakfast - 7:00: Glass of milk or juice with some piece of fruit.
Snack - 11:00: Some sort of snack... an orange, sandwich, something like that.
Lunch - 2:00: The most important meal of the day... usually pretty big in size. Often times there courses. Varies in food and quantity just as lunches do in the United States.
Snack - 5:30: Similar to the morning snack.
Dinner - 9:00: Differs from family to family. Sometimes two courses, where in other families there are three.
The meal of course vary from person to person, but are generally pretty accurate. My personal schedule includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast is pretty small, but lunch and dinner are enormous and I love it! I have always received enough food, and the quality is through the roof. My host mom is a marvelous cook, and we often times eat food which would only be found at the nicest of restaurants. For example, today we had chicken which was marinated in apples, oranges, and one other fruit which escapes my memory right now. The oranges were literally placed underneath the skin of the chicken to better soak in the flavors.
At one point during the meal my host mom asked me if I was just enjoying the meal or if I was in pain because I couldn't help but let out the occasional moan of enjoyment.
As for generalities, as stated before I am having a great time, but there are a few things that worry me. Because of the lack of native Spaniards at my school, I have not met any yet. We also can't seem to find them at any restaurants or bars at night because the young people here are apparently so poor that they hang out together in the parks or at a friend's house until three in the morning when they go to the clubs because there is no entrance fee that late at night. I am a late night-er, but I don't expect to stay out past dawn very many nights here... so that becomes a problem.
In addition to the lack of natives, I hear a large amount of English in my school. Most people, in fact, are studying not Spanish, but English. Why they came to Spain to do that I will undoubtedly never know. All I know is this is my last semester abroad, and I'm going to have a good time when I'm here, yes, but I'm here to learn Spanish, and that's what I intend to do.
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