This past week has gone by so quickly! Orientation is now done (I finished my orientation "finals" yesterday!) and I still have to email in a paper, but besides that I'm ready to move on to regular classes. I have a bunch of classes I'm going to try out, and which classes I attend on Tuesday is going to depend on how I find the regular university classes I try on Monday. My current plan is to go to a linguistics class Monday morning (I think it's about the study of languages in general, not specific to Spanish or any other language) and then a physics class (relativistic quantum mechanics!) and then go to a JYS seminar titled "Spain Today" in the afternoon. Both morning classes are regular university classes with Spanish students. The linguistics one is the only regular linguistics class that I could take that fits into my schedule, and depending on how it is, I might take it since I won't be able to take a history of spanish class I wanted to take if the physics class works out. The physics class is a 4th year class, so I'm a bit intimidated, but I emailed the professor and he said I should know enough to take it. It sounds like the first week or so would be review, so I'd have time to learn the Spanish terminology for everything. The professor also responded to my email really quickly and was a postdoc at MIT, so he knows what the US university system is like. He sounds like he'd be really approachable (not all teachers here are), so if he doesn't talk too fast for me to understand, I'll hopefully take that class. And if not, I'm probably going to audit a math class. I'll try out several of the classes through the university for international students on Tuesday. I'm actually not completely sure of any of my classes at this point; it will depend on how the first two days go. I'm so excited for classes to start! I'm a bit worried about finding all the classrooms though and figuring out the bus between the school of philology and geography and the school of physics.
Yesterday, my group took a trip to the Alcazar, which I would have really enjoyed, except I think I had a fever, so I was a bit miserable the whole time. I was feeling better in the morning, and I needed to go in to the office to take the tests, so I figured it would be ok. I can enter the Alcazar for free with my student ID, so I'm sure I'll go back some day when I'm feeling better. As usual, I think I liked the gardens more than the palace itself.
There were peacocks wandering through the gardens and a lot of ducks.
Oh, and the other notable thing that happened this week is that my bike card came in the mail, so I've been biking to class and back this week. The bikes aren't great (often there are problems with the breaks, seat, gears, etc.), but they're good enough to be able to bike around the city. I love bike lanes on sidewalks!
There was a welcome to the university for international students this morning, but I slept through it since I figured getting better was more important than boring speeches (the director of my program told me the only reason we go is because the university gets mad if we don't). Tomorrow we're going to Cordoba, and I'm feeling a lot better today, so I should be able to enjoy it.
Yesterday, my group took a trip to the Alcazar, which I would have really enjoyed, except I think I had a fever, so I was a bit miserable the whole time. I was feeling better in the morning, and I needed to go in to the office to take the tests, so I figured it would be ok. I can enter the Alcazar for free with my student ID, so I'm sure I'll go back some day when I'm feeling better. As usual, I think I liked the gardens more than the palace itself.
There were peacocks wandering through the gardens and a lot of ducks.
Oh, and the other notable thing that happened this week is that my bike card came in the mail, so I've been biking to class and back this week. The bikes aren't great (often there are problems with the breaks, seat, gears, etc.), but they're good enough to be able to bike around the city. I love bike lanes on sidewalks!
There was a welcome to the university for international students this morning, but I slept through it since I figured getting better was more important than boring speeches (the director of my program told me the only reason we go is because the university gets mad if we don't). Tomorrow we're going to Cordoba, and I'm feeling a lot better today, so I should be able to enjoy it.
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