As UofM begins midterms, my classes finally begin

I must begin by saying that today was just crazy strange. A lot happened while really not much happened. Well, let me begin. Woke up at 9:30, made toast, Stacey had left for class already (I was skipping lit. today to go check out a class in the University) so Maruja came in and told me that whenever we shower we have to turn the water off to soap up and then only use the water to rinse off because there's not a lot of water in Spain. Ugh. Way to make my one-handed showers even worse. Now I'm dreading the shower. Anyhoo, my first University class wasn't scheduled until 12, but I wanted to get up early so as to find my classroom with enough time to spare. I got to the University around 10:50 with butterflies in my stomach. When I walked into the beautiful, historical building, I was immediately bombarded by giggling, chatting Spanish young adults and adults alike. I was so nervous, I felt "new kid syndrome"...it felt like my first day of high school or something. Where do I go? Will I make any friends? Same old inner dialogue that the insecure pre-teen feels. Crazy. I searched for my classroom, which was called Aula Magna (Aula means room) in el departamento de historia y geografia. Each department has its own wing of the building, but sometimes they overlap. The numbers of the rooms don't go in chronological order, either. So, you basically have to search until you find the room. Fortunately, I found it right away! What a surprise. So I decided to wander for a bit in my spare hour to see if I could find any of my other classes. I actually wasn't too successful, it's a confusing system over there. During my exploration I ran into Keith, one of the Cornell kids on my program (who actually reminds me of Greg Malen so much), who was searching for his class that began at 11:30. I told him that I had just found my room (I was standing in front of it), I pointed to it and realized that it said Magna filologia (the humanities and linguistics dept.). I expressed my confusion, and Keith told me that he knew where the Magna room for the history and geography department was. He saved my life! Can you imagine...? The Magna rooms are the main, large lecture halls, and I guess each dept. has one. I sat outside the classroom for a good half hour on one of the immaculate windowsills overlooking one of the sunny, pretty courtyards. Finally the classroom opened up at 2 and I entered my first class at the Spanish Unviersity! Eek. The room is huge and definitely pretty ancient. It has rows and rows of connected desks (think an antique version of room A334 at HPHS) with chairs that fold out. At the front of the class are green chalkboards and an elevated desk with a microphone placed upon it. It's like a conference hall! I walked in to see Freya, a girl in my program from Cornell, which was a relief. There were actually a lot of Americans in the class, but not from my program. Our professor is a sassy middle-aged woman who speaks very clearly. The class looks awesome, easy, only one exam (a final in June) and the readings are optional and supplementary. It's because Spanish students don't really attend class, they just cram for finals. The class meets twice a week for 2 hours, one day we watch a movie, the next day we have a lecture on it. So basically, if I watch the movies and attend lecture regularly, my outside work will be nil. Gotta love the Spanish University system. Needless to say, this course beats out the center's lit. course completely. The whole class consisted of just going over the syllabus and the units. Oh! The class is Historia del Cine...it's an overview film class taking on an artistic perspective. It looks great, we're going to study the masters (Hitchcock, Kubrick, Buenal, Coppola, Scorsese, Welles, Renoir, and many more from other countries and time periods). I'm sooooo excited and so happy that she's a good professor. During the lecture, the Spanish students all talk. I asked Katie about this, and she said that in one of her lectures the students have regular voice side conversations. I can't believe it! That would never fly in the states. I mean, reeeeally talking. The prof. for my course had to stop lecture a couple times because of it, but they always start up again. It's crazy. Also, there are a lot of elderly folk in the class...actually in all of the classes. I guess that continuing education is a big thing in Sevilla, which makes sense since the elderly population is quite large here. There are also a lot of cute boys...ya know, I was wondering where all of them have been! Hahaha. Actually, throughout the entire day I've seen more attractive men than I have my entire time in Spain. Sweet! We got out of class early, so I made a quick snack stop at OpenCor for a Special K bar and a small bag of cherry tomatoes. On the way home I ran into a bunch of Michigan people who are in my lit. class who said that Pilar missed me in class. Awwwww. Got home to find Stacey back already doing hw. We had lunch soon after, cream of corn soup with bread crumbs, choriz/beef grilled bocadillos, and tangerines for dessert. After lunch I sat and watched the news with the Spanish housemates. I suddenly realized that I was really tired and could barely hold my eyes open...who knew? I came back into the bedroom where Stacey was doing hw with the window open and birds chirping (it was a lovely day) and I passed out for and hour and a half. Again, who knew? I woke back up at 4:30, got ready, and walked back to the center of town with Stacey (she had class at 5 in the center, I had class at 6 in the U.). After she went up to class in the center, I grabbed an apple from McDonalds and sat on a bench overlooking the river to take in some rays and chill out with my lovely little fruit. It was quite peaceful. I freakin love Sevilla. Then I walked over to the University early because I didn't know where my class was, and again, I found it right away. I sat outside and read the paper. A little before 6 a Spanish student came and sat down next to me. She asked if it was the classroom for Historia de las tendencias artisticas, which it was, and if it started at 6. I had some trouble understanding her, but she was pretty patient. The class began on time. This one was a small class, maybe about 15 of us. There was an elderly man in the class who sat next to me, and the girl from before sat on my other side. She asked me if I was part of Erasmus, which I didn't know what it was. She kind of gave me a weird look when I said that I didn't know what it was. Then she asked if I was an exchange student...THAT's what she meant. I said yes, from the U.S. She was very kind, but a bit impatient at that point. But I think that she wants to give me a chance, she seems very friendly and open. It's nice to have a Spanish "friend". Oh man, haha. Our prof. walked in, he wore a corduroy blazer...OK, I swear that every art history prof. that I've had wears corduroy blazers, it's strange. He began to speak...he spoke extremely fast with a thick Sevillano accent which caught me completely off-guard. That means he lisps a lot and cuts off consonants at the end of words. Oy. So I missed the first quarter of his lecture, which is OK, I guess, because he mostly went over the syllabus. I didn't really catch what he was saying about books or anything, but I believe that we don't have any outside reading and only one exam (a final in June). I'm one of 2 Americans in the class, and I think that it's a class that Americans don't typically take, so he definitely didn't slow down or clarify. So after class I went to talk to him, introduce myself, and ask questions about what I missed, but he bolted out. I don't know for what he was in a hurry because he let us out an hour early. Oh well, I'll talk to him before class tomorrow. Hopefully I'll understand him. Stacey and I had planned to meet at the Starbucks near the U. at 8 since that's when her class ended (mine was scheduled to end at 7:30, but now I had an hour and a half to kill). As I was walking out, the strangest thing occurred which made me realize, truly, what a small world we live in. I was exiting the front of the University and I saw, lo and behold, Jamie Pell. Now, if you're not an '03 HPHS alum, Jamie Pell is a girl who I graduated high school with, we had numerous classes together including AP Spanish. Crazy! It really freaked me out, I asked her what the hell she was doing there! She was freaked out, too, because she said that I was the 2nd HPHSer that she had run into in the past 5 min.! I guess that Ivy Lynn, another HP '03er is studying in London and came here for the week, and Jamie had just seen her strolling down the street. WHAT?? This was too weird. So Jamie goes to Wisconsin and is here on the CIEE program, a pretty big study abroad program, and has been here since January. She even used to live in los Remedios until moving to the center of town a few weeks ago. So crazy! So hopefully we'll be bumping into each other more often...I mean, Sevilla's not a big place. It's truly a small world after all. Bewildered, I started trying to figure out what to do with myself. I walked around the center of town and went postcard shopping (may as well get it out of the way sometime). Then went to the post office and waited in line for 20 min to simply buy some postcard stamps. At the post office I saw a Tommy Greenfield look-alike which was kinda crazy. Then I ran into Keith again, talked to him for awhile (love that kid) and thanked him for saving my life at the U. this morning, haha. Then I headed over to Starbucks a little before 8, bought a bran muffin, and sat next to Julia and Emily, two girls from Cornell who were reading there, chatted with them a bit, and began writing postcards. Then Stacey entered around 8 with Katie and Melissa and we sat around and chatted, shared a few laughs for about an hour. Meanwhile, Starbucks was playing some awesome music: Rufus Wainwright, Xtina, and the song from the closing credits of Donnie Darko. Always a treat. Then we all walked back to los Remedios, and Stacey and I were home in time for dinner. Dinner was quite good: a sauteed spinach-garlic-garbanzo bean dish, and these ham/bacon slices that Maruja makes herself that have other stuff in them but I can't figure it out. I think that it's called jamon iberico...but I don't even know what that means. Maybe Evan can tell me. I was stuffed. After dinner Maruja let Stacey and me taste a little bread cake thing that she had baked. Delicious! Then Stacey went to take care of some things online and I watched CSI Miami with the Spanish girls. I love that show now, even though I never fully catch what's happening. I mean, always think that I know what's going on, but then the episode will end and I'm never sure about whether or not they solved the crime, lol. Oh me. Then I came back in here, internetted, blogged, and whatnot. It's crazy, I'm so in love with the Spanish University system right now: I literally have nothing to do tonight. I mean, they don't do the whole homework thing...just one exam at the end, perhaps some reading if you want, and maybe, just maybe a project. Why can't UofM be like this? It'd be a much happier place, overall.