Before I write this, I just want to add a disclaimer that I'm sorry for any misspelled words or other grammatical errors. Especially with words that are similar in English and Spanish, I'm finding that I'm starting to incorrectly spell words that I used to know how to spell.
I just had my first week of regular classes, and I now know my schedule for this semester. Here's a little bit about each of my classes.
I'm taking a seminar on the European Union with other people in my program. We're going to talk about the EU, it's history, what it does, etc. as well as learning about all 27 countries that are current members. I'm really excited for this because 1) I know very little about the EU besides that it's easy to travel between countries and 2) it will be great to learn more about a lot of countries that I've heard about through orienteering (either I've orienteered there or I've met orienteers from there).
The University of Seville also has classes for international students so the schedule and methods are more similar to classes in the US, although they are taught by university professors. I'm taking two of those classes with other students from my program and students from all the other study abroad programs in Seville too. One of these classes is titles "Cocina y alimentacion en el mediterraneo durante la antiguedad" which relates to studying culinary practices from the ancient Mediterranean. It's a mix of ancient history, anthropology, archeology, and a tiny bit of cooking at the end, so I'm really excited for this class! Unfortunately it meets from 5-7 pm Tuesday and Thursdays right after another 2 hour class plus other classes in the morning, so I'm always so tired by this class.
The other class I'm taking with international students is about propaganda. I'm truthfully just taking this as a filler class because it didn't conflict with my other classes and it should be really easy, so I can spend time on the physics class I'm going to audit (I'll explain that in a bit). Unfortunately the professor is constantly asking if we understand him, but it sounds like it should be an interesting class anyway. And I'll finally get to read Animal Farm (in Spanish). I'm sure I could get a similar class in the US, but at least I'll get an Argentinian/Spanish perspective from the professor.
My fourth class I'm taking for credit is a regular university class with almost all Spanish students. It's a linguistics class titled Linguistica, which is going to give an overview of linguistics including some sociolinguistics and talking about differences between first and second language acquisition and stuff like that. Having taken a semester each of syntax and semantics/pragmatics, I think it will be really interesting to learn about other areas of linguistics. I can understand most of what the professor says, although on Wednesday a couple students started arguing in class, and unfortunately I couldn't understand what they were saying. I really like regular university classes (instead of the ones for international students) because that's the real Spanish university experience. And the professor told me I can take the exam early, although I may still have to stay until the beginning of June when the class meetings end.
I'm also going to be auditing a physics class on relativistic quantum mechanics. I went to the first week of the class, and it sound interesting, but 1) I can't understand everything the professor says and 2) I don't think I have as strong of a background in physics as all the other students in the class and some of the notation is slightly different than what I'm used to. Because of both those factors, I decided that although I think I could take the class for a grade, I would be spending all of my time here studying physics. And although I would love to learn some interesting physics this semester, I don't want it to come at the cost of not enjoying other aspects of Spain. If I had wanted to spent another semester focusing only on physics I would have stayed at Williams. I therefore decided to audit the class, so I can do some of the work, but if I'm feeling that it's cutting into other things I want to do, I won't feel bad about not doing it. Unfortunately, this means I'll be attending 5 classes, so I'm going to be spending 19 hours in class a week (but no classes on fridays!).
So, those are my classes. In general, I'm excited for them. And unlike this past week, I should be able to go home for lunch every day except Tuesday.
The main thing that happened this past week was figuring out classes, but I have had fun hanging out with people too. Last Saturday, my program took a trip to Cordoba.
It's a really pretty city, and the main attraction is a huge mosque that had many different renovations/additions throughout history. I love all the arches!
Then, on Sunday, Natalie and I took Tiffany out to dinner (tapas!) for her birthday. Here's a photo of me and Tiffany at the restaurant. Unfortunately we forgot to get a "before" picture of the food.
And my main method of transportation everywhere now is biking, even when I'm wearing a dress.
Yesterday after classes, Natalie and I met up with one of the Spanish girls in my linguistics class and one of the girls she lives with and we went to a plaza where a bunch of university students were having a botellon (people congregating outside to drink). It was really nice getting to talk with Carmen, the girl who I met in class, and her friend. I'm trying to meet more Spaniards.
Another international student I met in my progaganda class was randomly walking by the plaza so we got to talk with her and her friend for a bit too. Both of them also like talking only in Spanish (unlike a lot of Americans), so I'm hoping I'll get to know them better during the semester. Then, this afternoon, Natalie, Tiffany, and I finally went in the row boats at the Plaza de Espana.
It's a lot harder than it looks! We definitely ran into several other row boats and spent a while figuring out how to coordinate paddling between 2 people. It was really fun though! And it was only 5 euros for 35 minutes in the boat (which turned into 50 minutes since we were pretty bad at paddling).
A couple other girls in my program and I are trying to meet up with a hiking club tomorrow morning to go on a hike, so hopefully that's fun. Since I need to meet up at 8:30 tomorrow morning, I'm just hanging out at home tonight and going to bed early.
I just had my first week of regular classes, and I now know my schedule for this semester. Here's a little bit about each of my classes.
I'm taking a seminar on the European Union with other people in my program. We're going to talk about the EU, it's history, what it does, etc. as well as learning about all 27 countries that are current members. I'm really excited for this because 1) I know very little about the EU besides that it's easy to travel between countries and 2) it will be great to learn more about a lot of countries that I've heard about through orienteering (either I've orienteered there or I've met orienteers from there).
The University of Seville also has classes for international students so the schedule and methods are more similar to classes in the US, although they are taught by university professors. I'm taking two of those classes with other students from my program and students from all the other study abroad programs in Seville too. One of these classes is titles "Cocina y alimentacion en el mediterraneo durante la antiguedad" which relates to studying culinary practices from the ancient Mediterranean. It's a mix of ancient history, anthropology, archeology, and a tiny bit of cooking at the end, so I'm really excited for this class! Unfortunately it meets from 5-7 pm Tuesday and Thursdays right after another 2 hour class plus other classes in the morning, so I'm always so tired by this class.
The other class I'm taking with international students is about propaganda. I'm truthfully just taking this as a filler class because it didn't conflict with my other classes and it should be really easy, so I can spend time on the physics class I'm going to audit (I'll explain that in a bit). Unfortunately the professor is constantly asking if we understand him, but it sounds like it should be an interesting class anyway. And I'll finally get to read Animal Farm (in Spanish). I'm sure I could get a similar class in the US, but at least I'll get an Argentinian/Spanish perspective from the professor.
My fourth class I'm taking for credit is a regular university class with almost all Spanish students. It's a linguistics class titled Linguistica, which is going to give an overview of linguistics including some sociolinguistics and talking about differences between first and second language acquisition and stuff like that. Having taken a semester each of syntax and semantics/pragmatics, I think it will be really interesting to learn about other areas of linguistics. I can understand most of what the professor says, although on Wednesday a couple students started arguing in class, and unfortunately I couldn't understand what they were saying. I really like regular university classes (instead of the ones for international students) because that's the real Spanish university experience. And the professor told me I can take the exam early, although I may still have to stay until the beginning of June when the class meetings end.
I'm also going to be auditing a physics class on relativistic quantum mechanics. I went to the first week of the class, and it sound interesting, but 1) I can't understand everything the professor says and 2) I don't think I have as strong of a background in physics as all the other students in the class and some of the notation is slightly different than what I'm used to. Because of both those factors, I decided that although I think I could take the class for a grade, I would be spending all of my time here studying physics. And although I would love to learn some interesting physics this semester, I don't want it to come at the cost of not enjoying other aspects of Spain. If I had wanted to spent another semester focusing only on physics I would have stayed at Williams. I therefore decided to audit the class, so I can do some of the work, but if I'm feeling that it's cutting into other things I want to do, I won't feel bad about not doing it. Unfortunately, this means I'll be attending 5 classes, so I'm going to be spending 19 hours in class a week (but no classes on fridays!).
So, those are my classes. In general, I'm excited for them. And unlike this past week, I should be able to go home for lunch every day except Tuesday.
The main thing that happened this past week was figuring out classes, but I have had fun hanging out with people too. Last Saturday, my program took a trip to Cordoba.
It's a really pretty city, and the main attraction is a huge mosque that had many different renovations/additions throughout history. I love all the arches!
Then, on Sunday, Natalie and I took Tiffany out to dinner (tapas!) for her birthday. Here's a photo of me and Tiffany at the restaurant. Unfortunately we forgot to get a "before" picture of the food.
And my main method of transportation everywhere now is biking, even when I'm wearing a dress.
Yesterday after classes, Natalie and I met up with one of the Spanish girls in my linguistics class and one of the girls she lives with and we went to a plaza where a bunch of university students were having a botellon (people congregating outside to drink). It was really nice getting to talk with Carmen, the girl who I met in class, and her friend. I'm trying to meet more Spaniards.
Another international student I met in my progaganda class was randomly walking by the plaza so we got to talk with her and her friend for a bit too. Both of them also like talking only in Spanish (unlike a lot of Americans), so I'm hoping I'll get to know them better during the semester. Then, this afternoon, Natalie, Tiffany, and I finally went in the row boats at the Plaza de Espana.
It's a lot harder than it looks! We definitely ran into several other row boats and spent a while figuring out how to coordinate paddling between 2 people. It was really fun though! And it was only 5 euros for 35 minutes in the boat (which turned into 50 minutes since we were pretty bad at paddling).
A couple other girls in my program and I are trying to meet up with a hiking club tomorrow morning to go on a hike, so hopefully that's fun. Since I need to meet up at 8:30 tomorrow morning, I'm just hanging out at home tonight and going to bed early.
Yay courses on the EU! I'd love to hear what you learn, and we can compare notes :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're having a great time! Kinda jealous of your courses and random adventures and having things to do...
Haha... that would be fun to compare notes. Did you take a similar class last year? So far we've just talked about intro stuff and the steps leading up to the formation of the EU. Also, the students are giving presentations on different countries, and so far we've heard about the Netherlands, Italy, and Slovenia (mine).
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like fun things are going on at Williams too! And when I get back we can compare stories about travels and other adventures.