Buckle Down Time: Class

I officially started classes last week and completely started classes this week. What do I mean? I started my classes from my program last week but this week I started my class with españoles as well as my internship. Not only did I start everything...but I also changed homestays (more on that later). So how do I feel now that I have a full course load and my first internship???

Here is my schedule:
Monday:      10:30-12:30 Sales Merchandising (with spanish students)
                     1:00-3:00    Cervantes: Estudio de Quijote (a literature class
Tuesday:        9:00-10:30   International Marketing
                    11:00-6:00    Internship (with an hour for lunch)
Wednesday: 10:30-12:30  Sales Merchandising
                     1:00- 3:00    Cervantes
                     3:00-4:35     Intership classroom component
Thursday:       See Tuesday
Friday:           NO CLASS!!!

As you can see I have a pretty nice load this semester. Compared to last semester it's really difficult. All of my classes are in Spanish and there's actually work to do. Plus the internship is more of a time committment. None of this is bad but it's a difficult adjustment because last semester was like a vacation.

The highlights:
Antonio Navarro: He's the professor of both Sales Merchandising and International Marketing. I think I'm going to like both of these classes. In marketing we basically watch commercials and see powerpoints of the info. In Merchandising there's also powerpoints and the highlight is that he starts about 15 minutes late and will probably let us out early too. On Wednesday, he let us out 30 minutes early and started 15 minutes late. I have no problem with this. Between the 2 classes I see him everyday and he seems to be a good professor. He teaches lecture style but he also asks for light participation but it's not really required and he answers all the questions he asks himself. I have to listen really carefully though because he tells his jokes without a smile so I need to pay attention to figure out why people are laughing. He's kind of strict but he's also seems to be a really nice guy.

Internship: I'll probably dedicate a complete post to this but here's what I know so far. My tutor/supervisor is really nice. She smiles alot and understands that everything is really new. There's not a whole lot of work to be done. So far I'm making powerpoint presentations, IN ENGLISH, to recruit american students. The company teaches spanish to non-spanish students. So far I am not improving my spanish that much except for the fact that powerpoint is in Spanish. But it's a relaxed, small office and I think the internship itself will be pretty easy. But I'm not sure that this will be what I hoped for as far as improving my spanish. But then again, I've only been there 2 days.

No class on Fridays: This is self explanatory. Most people travel on the weekends, atleast some weekends. I don't know what I'll be doing when I'm not traveling but it's always nice to have a perpetual 3 day weekend.

The classes are challenging both academically and linguistically. Everything is still new so I'm still really excited. I have to prepare a group presentation everyweek for marketing as well as write a 600 word diary for my internship every week so I'm sure the excitement will start to wane soon.



   

Sand and Sun: Cadiz!

Also on the itinerary this weekend was Cadiz. A beach town about 2 hours south of Seville. It was a culturally enriching experience as well as a really fun day. This was an excursion by my program so it was already paid for. First we took a tour with a guide through the city then my friend played tour guide and we saw some more stuff we missed. The beach was beautiful but I really like the cities  and gardens and plazas here. The close buildings and mosaics make me fall in love with everywhere I go.



At a castle.

Jerez de la Frontera

On Friday I took a short notice one day trip to jerez de la Frontera. It's a small town about an 1.5 outside of Seville. I went with a friend from class. It was an amazing day because a) we spoke spanish the ENTIRE day (except for like 5 minutes when we were lost) and b) the weather and views were gorgeous.

Jerez is one of the many pueblos in Andalucia (the southern region) that is in the industry of wine. So our prinary purpose was to visit a bodega that specializes in port and sherry. We went to Sandeman which is a winery that dates back to 1790. We took the tour in spanish even though they asked us if we were sure like 15 times. The tour itself was really short but very informative about the origins of Sandeman (who was Scottish) and the actual process of making the port. There was a tasting at the end. Neither one of us are drinkers so we really had no idea what we were drinking.

Quest to Fluidity

I have no intentions of leaving Spain "fluid." If I have learned anything it's that fluidity is more of a state of mind. It's a very subjective term and really means nothing. There's no test that you can take that comes with a certificate that says "fluidity accomplished!" We are our toughest critics and I've never heard anyone say that they are fluid and perfect spanish speakers (or any language for that matter). I know people whose second language is english, they've been speaking it for years, yet they don't feel like they're good enough. It's the same for me.

It's all up hill from here: Senderismo

This weekend I did something that I never thought I would enjoy. I went HIKING. I know. I don't seem like the hiking type. I'm out of shape. I have a touch of asthma. I don't really do the outdoors. I don't even own hiking shoes. A few months ago I would've said absolutely not. But I think after all of the trekking and stuff I did in Peru I can do just about anything. So I went hiking. Again, it was a group activity and I did make the committment.

We went to a small town about an hour and a half away.

Huge rock. Pretty view.

Ruinas Italicas

As part of my committment to trying to absorb everything about Spain this semester, I have decided to attend all (or most) cultural activities offered by my program. My program organizes and offers cultural excursions. They're generally very interesting, well lead, and most importantly, paid for whether I go or not. So I decided to go and considered it a productive way to procrastinate for the test I had the next day.

This is the entrance to the theatre.

Spanish Grades!

So I got my mid term exam back yesterday and was thrilled to have made a 9.06! a) That's out of 10...chill out. and b) it's better than I thought it would be.

The Spanish grade system is based on 10 being the highest grade possible. According to my professor (and the exam grades posted publicly all the bulleting boards) the average student makes about a 6 or 7. This is definitely something that'll be hard to get my mind wrapped around. In the states there is usually a curve and atleast a few students make a near perfect score on exams. Most of the grades that I looked at outside of class rooms were about the same. Maybe there were a few 9s but there were NO tens. Most students made about a 6 or 7. And there were a few lower than 4.

I say it's better than I thought because honestly I didn't study for the exam. I also had a paper due the next day and I'm not good at all nighters because I don't want to fall asleep on the test. I only left one spot blank and anything else I got wrong was just minor things like accents.

Classes start next week and I'm getting kind of nervous. I'm ready to start classes but the reality of all spanish classes, homework, projects, etc is starting to settle in.