February 9

2-9
I just finished my first day of classes! It was actually a pretty easy day. My first class was from 4-6 and then I had one from 6-7. I got to campus before noon, though, to sign up for a trip to Granada hosted by the Erasmus Student Network for this weekend. That should be fun. Then I had 4 hours to kill, so I spent a lot of time on the internet emailing and researching plane tickets and hostels and the like.
My first class was Spanish Literature. It’s taught in two different sections, depending on the language ability of the students, but for this first week the professor who teaches the lower one, which is the one I’m in, is on vacation, so we were all supposed to meet with the other class. Of course, almost everyone forgot. There were like 15 or 20 of us waiting in this classroom for 15 minutes before we figured it out. So then we all trekked over to the other building. The class was pretty interesting. We talked about the pre-war genre of decadent literature. Then we started reading this weird book about a Countess whose daughter is supposedly possessed by the devil. It’s called Beatriz, and I’m not sure who the author is. They gave us a photocopy that didn’t have the title or the author on it. I thought that was strange. Anyway, our homework was to finish reading the handout, which was only about 5 pages. I’m already done.
The next class was History of Spain, which I’m pretty excited about. It covers all 3000 years of history, but very quickly. He wanted to know what periods we were interested in so that we could cover them more thoroughly. Most people said Franquismo, (the era of General Franco) or the Inquisition, which would be what I’m more interested in. I have a feeling we’re going to be spending more time on contemporary history rather than ancient or modern (modern meaning since the Renaissance), which would be more where my interests lie, but it will still be interesting. Well, I suppose we will spend a while on at least part of the Ren if we talk about the Inquisition. Anyway, I like history, so it should be good regardless.
Tomorrow I have 4 classes, but they’re all an hour or an hour and a half, so it won’t be too bad. I have one at noon, and the rest are all clustered from 2:30-6. I like not having classes early in the morning, especially since it takes 40 minutes to get there, but then I feel like I don’t have as much time at night to do homework, so then I feel like I should get up and do it in the morning. But I’m too lazy for that! I’ll have to see what the work load is like.
So, it’s looking pretty good! I’m really starting to feel settled here. It’s been a few days since I last wished I could go home right now! I’m so glad it’s getting better! I still miss everyone, of course, but it’s more tolerable now that I’m getting used to being a madrileña! (That’s a citizen of Madrid, in case you couldn’t figure it out.)
Chao!
Bethany