Que?!

Tuesday night we had orientation at “Old Pablo U” as my Dad has begun to affectionately call it…possibly because he can’t say the name in Spanish.

The school system over here is a LOT different than the US. Per usual, they are so much more laid back about everything. Rather than having the option to arrange all of my classes online, if I want to add/drop a class I have to show up in person and get the professor to sign a piece of paper, and I have about two weeks to do it, so its essentially just shopping for classes the first week of school.

My given schedule turned out okay, but I’m still moving a lot around anyways. I’m keeping Intermediate Spanish II, Contemporary Spanish Politics, Spanish Art History, buuuut I’m moving the time for Spanish Art History because I’m dropping the Spanish film class I wanted to take in order to fit in US-European Relations. I’m dropping all together my History of Spain class, because the time is ridiculous and it would only be an elective credit anyways. Follow all of that? Yeah, me neither. But I’m in Spain, so I don’t need to worry…apparently.

If my schedule DOES work out, it would mean I would have no classes on Monday or Friday. I…wouldn’t even know what to do with myself.

After orientation, the University held a banquet in the dining hall with the professors and students. Sangria, cerveza (beer), and soft drinks were just laid out for the taking, with waitresses walking around topping off all of the glasses. People also came around with platters of delicious tapas. It’s a bit of a culture shock to see kegs of beer at a school function provided by the school.

I have one (three hour) class Wednesday, Contemporary Spanish Politics, and my professor was the quintessential stereotype of an English-speaking Spanish scholar. His name is Xavier and he speaks with a slight Spanish accent and occasionally messes up English in the cute “I don’t understand prepositions” kind of way. He said he did all of his graduate work in the US, at a school called “Yale” and “Georgetown,” if we knew where that was. He also said he wanted to get the Prince or the Spanish consol to come speak to our class, because he’s “kind of friends” with everyone. He said he would show us pictures? The majority of our class time was spent on a speed date, no lie. He said it’s a good way to get to know people and he usually has at least 2 couples come out of his class every year. All of our reading is on a CD ROM, and his office hours are his cell phone. He promised us dinner after the final exam.

I sat talking to Ana, for a long time after lunch. Sadly, “talking” still consists of me trying to follow and saying “si” every time I want to show I’m still alive. I can follow the context really well when I grasp what the topic is, but I always struggle when there’s a change of topic – I don’t notice it for a while.

Unfortunately, after I left the table, I went back into my room and I just felt COLD, like chilled to the bone. I was about to pull the space heater into bed with me. I just felt sick. I can’t describe what kind of sick it was in English, so it would have been pointless to try to explain in Spanish, so I just laid there.I had some toast and an apple for dinner and Ana was really understanding, I tried to explain about “mi estomago” and she finished my sentence with “esta un poco loco?” Si.