One down!

I woke up to my alarm Wednesday morning very groggy, but determined to get things done. I had my first exam at the University of Sevilla that evening, so I was a tad nervous. I showered, got ready, grabbed my books and headed over to Starbucks. There I sat for a good 3 hours studying for Teatro. I went over my notes and then gave myself a practice exam. The exams at USevilla are essay exams, so I took blank paper and wrote everything that I knew about each play that we read. I was able to fill an entire blank page of information on each work. Therefore, I knew that I was in good shape. At around 2 I walked home for lunch; we ate salad, crab fritters, and fresh squuezed orange juice for dessert. Not bad. Then I got my things together and walked toward the center, first buying myelf a bag of peanuts because I have this superstition that before every exam I have to eat peanut butter to give myself a large dose of protein to help me think. Yeah, I´m a dork, I know. But it´s very difficult to find peanut butter here, so I bought peanuts. I sat in the center with a bunch of people from our Teatro class where we all looked over our notes and discussed Teatro, mostly asking and answering questions we had. However, I was studied out. I really spent most of the time just dicking around and listening to music. It was actually really fun; for a good two hours we all sat around and joked and laughed and just pretty much chilled out before the exam. I´m going to miss those silly times with everyone. People are leaving as early as June 2...it´s so weird that this other family I have is starting to fade, and we´ll never have this group back together again ever. Sigh. Anyways, at around 5:30 we walked over to Starbucks so I could buy a green tea because whenever I drink caffeine before an essay exam I get really in-the-zone and write a lot and really well...it helps me concentrate. We ran into this girl from our class who goes to University of Chicago and took the Lope exam a few days ago. She told us all about it and that it was easy and how/what we should study. Nice. She also assured us that we´re all, without a doubt, going to pass all of our classes (she would know since she has been here since September). She gave us a bunch of reasons which I won´t list, but basically we´re going to pass and I´m happy. The Sevilla grading system here is on a scale of ten; in order to pass, you must receive a 5. I´m aiming for a 5 in all of my classes, needless to say, which is basically a C-. I think I got this in the bag. I´m just aiming to pass because none of our grades factor into our GPA, they just go on our transcript. I don´t plan on going to grad school for a loooooong time, so I´m not to worried about how these grades will look. Besides, study abroad is a resume builder, not a transcript builder. Some people here are really stressing out about their grades and it´s so weird. I mean, a little bit of stress is a good thing because it gets ya studying, but really, all ya need to do is study a decent amount and you´ll be fine. This is what I really learned after taking the Teatro exam, for which I overstudied. The exam began at about 6:15. We all sat in a large lecture hall and he handed us all four sheets of blank paper. He then stood there and came up with the questions on the spot. There were only three questions, and we were to choose 2. Actually, they weren´t even questions. They were "´Barranca Abajo´and gaucho theatre", "The theatre of Roberto Arlt" (he wrote "300 millones"), and "Absurdist theatre in Latin America". I chose the first two questions and wrote two pages on both. It only took me about an hour and a half and I was one of the first people out of there. How easy. So easy. I knew more than I should. Yeah, definitely overstudied. So I´m expecting at least a 7 on it. I, without a doubt, passed that thing with flying colors. I got this. I´m going to dominate my exams, aw yeah! After the exam I stood outside and talked with AnnaRose and Vicki (two of the academic year peeps), then walked home where I was so happy to get one exam under my belt. I´m done with Teatro! I´m officially done with one of my classes! Yes! I was feeling great and was in good spirits. When I got home I earned my vegging; I watched TV, chatted with María del Mar and Maruja, putzed around on the internet, etc. Stacey didn´t get home until 9:20 because she spent the entire alotted time on the exam. I can´t imagine how that´s possible, but a lot of people spent the whole time on it. Then we ate dinner which was awesome and the perfect topper of the day: spinach and garbanzos (one of my favorite Spanish dishes, I´ve decided) and shellfish croquetas (one of Stacey´s favorite Spanish dishes). For dessert we had cherries (soooooo good!). Then I got ready to go out. Stacey decided not to celebrate since she had studied so much and so late every night she had only slept a total of 6 hours in the past 3 nights. Oh that girl. I met up with Melissa at Vips at 11:30 and we headed over to Flaherty´s to meet up with Courtney and her friend from school who was visiting (she just finished up a semester in Rome). We met up with her, Elise, and her friend from her program, Taylor. We sat at a table in front of Flaherty's for awhile chatting, people watching. It was really nice and Courtney's friends were both really cool. We sat there pregaming, having drinks, ya know. It was really nice because it was a really nice, warm night and we were sitting next to the cathedral having a drink at midnight...I really felt Spanish! It was also a good time people watching because all of the "newbies" have arrived. There are a bunch of spring and summer programs that come here and a lot of them have arrived. Most of them are from Texas and you can recognize them from a mile away. They travel in packs and are overly excited about the novelty about drinking in the streets. Haha, oh man, I remember those days. So that was all pretty amusing. Then Elise had some second-hand aquaintence that had just arrived on Summer program and met up with us in front of Flaherty's. He was with a friend and they were both pretty lame and yet amusing. You know, super awkward. I'm adding them to my "the awkward American boys you meet in Europe" play. They were all like, "Oh man, have you been to this bar Long Island?" Uh, yeah... "Yeah, it's pretty sweet." Um, actually, no it's not. Oy vey. We sat there for awhile, and all of us, sans awkward boys, walked over to Alfalfa (of course). Taylor bought me a big beer from Robotica because, after remembering to pack everything in my purse for the night, I forgot to pack money. Who forgets to pack money?? I'm in idiot. Luckily I survived on no money, and the next night Taylor wouldn't let me pay him back. How kind. Anyhoo, Alfalfa was fun, but it's just not as fun as it used to be. So many funny Americans and Europeans have gone home (we're one of the only programs still around) and a lot of Spanish people are studying so don't really go out. It's only the sketchy Spanish that are really out at Alfalfa, so Alfalfa has just become a place to go get a cheap drink with friends rather than a place to meet funny people. It's also become a good place to pester the newbies, mwa ha ha. After some time at Alfalfa we decided to go to Elefunk, a reggae club, which was exciting because it's a Sevilla staple and I still had never been there! On our way Elisa and Taylor, unaccostumed to the Spanish nightlife schedule (it was about 3am), decided to walk back to the hostel. So then it was just Melissa, Courtney, and me. We got to Elefunk which was nothing like I expected: white walls, kind of light, some paintings on the wall, the music was okay. The only cool think about it was the goldfish bowls hanging from the ceiling. Melissa left after about ten minutes, so it was just Courtney and me, which is a dangerous combination. Oh man, just wait till you see the pictures from the rest of the night. We're insane. Somehow I started talking to some weird Irish dude and he kept trying to make out with me and kept talking about how beautiful I am and how he wants to take me out for coffee one day and begged me to come home with him that night. Um, no. We left around 3:30is...Elefunk just wasn't doing it for us. Somehow we ended up hanging out outside with the bouncer who then proceeded to hit on me and beg for my number. I attempted to give him a fake number, but I couldn't remember how many numbers are in a Spanish number so I stumbled over my numbers, gave up, and just gave him my real one. It's not like I have to answer the phone or anything. Then we ended up taking a bunch of pictures with mopeds parked outside of the club. I don't know, we were wasted. Actually, that's no excuse. We're just a couple of tools. Haha. Then we called it a night. I bruised my foot on the way home somehow, and it still hurts. I have a nice bump there, woohoo. Somehow I always acquire random injuries when I drink vodka here. I'm bad news, man, bad news. Haha, oh well. It was an excellent celebration of my completion of my first exam at the Universidad!