10/4- 10/6/10 Semana de escuela

These three days can all be kind of summed up with a routine… Breakfast, class, lunch, class, dinner, watching TV/ reading.  I could write about each one individually, but it would probably put you to sleep.  I’m guessing your reading this blog either:

A) because you’re my parents or Ben and have to

B) because you are genuinely interested or

C) because you are procrastinating from doing work/ homework (Let’s be honest…that is why I would be reading it)

For everyone who picked C, I don’t want to put you to sleep, because you have important work to get done when you finish reading… so I’ll abstain from reciting everything I’ve eaten in the last few days (even I get bored writing about that).  Anyways, nothing remotely exciting to fill you in on for the last few days, aside from being here which is always exciting.  Pepita has had a cold, but that hasn’t stopped her from her day to day schedule, other than the fact that she hasn’t been taking care of her grandkids after school. 

Hmm… what else?  Emily and I have booked everything for Rome and we leave tomorrow!  Not letting the State Department warnings keep me from traveling, but definitely paying more attention to my surroundings.  Today I took the purple line to school instead of the red line, because it is practically the same distance, but purple is less crowded… maybe that is going too far, but better safe than sorry.  Watching the news every night during dinner, I haven’t seen anything on the Spanish news regarding the potential terrorist threats in Europe.  I have pretty much come to the conclusion that whatever news we watch is useless when it comes to broadcasting issues of importance and that they consider fashion and runway shows more important than terrorist threats… at least I have the NY Times to fill me in on everything the Spanish news doesn’t cover.  I’m not sure what else to write, since it has been a pretty boring week, so instead of boring you with every mundane minute of my life, I have come up with a list of intriguing things I have noticed in class over the past few days.

Observation 1: PAPER- Everyone here uses graph paper.  Stores don’t even sell notebooks with white lined paper.  Maybe they think it helps their handwriting, I’m not sure.  Although I am pretty sure that graph paper is a European thing and not just Spanish.  Also, the paper is longer than the normal 8.5”x11” that we have. I’m not exactly sure what the size is, but it is obviously too big to fit in the folders I brought from home.

Observation 2: NOTE TAKING-  As much as I try to make my notes look neat, they never do.  Even the graph paper hasn’t helped the cause of my awful handwriting, which I had hoped it would.  Despite my messy notes, all the native Spaniards in my Game Theory class take perfect notes.  I think they strive to take perfect notes.  Both guys and girls take out every color pen and little rulers to make perfect lines and matrices in game theory.* Every pen they write with, matches the color marker that the professor uses on the bored.  Even after writing the notes perfectly, I have noticed a few people next to me pull out rewritten copies, that make the originally perfect notes look like they just got pulled out of a garbage can.  I cannot and will not live up to this note taking standard…

*Side note (that isn’t important enough to be its own observation):  They use parentheses instead of brackets for their matrices.  I refuse to do this, so I still use brackets in my notes

Observation 3: ENGLISH- In my Game Theory class, I bet about a third of the kids are foreign.  Aside from all the U.S. students, there are about 10 of us; I have also noticed another group of Dutch kids.  How do I know they were Dutch?  They were complaining about the results of the World Cup, ragging on Spain pretty badly and still complaining, 3 months later, about how the Netherlands should have won.  Even though they speak English, I don’t have any plans to talk to them.  One kid sang Lion King songs throughout our whole ten minute break between the first and second half of class.

Observation 4:  FOOD-  Food in class is not allowed.  I found this out when my History of Spanish professor stopped the class to tell me that in Spain people don’t eat in class.  At Bowdoin, all my classes are during lunch time, and I eat the whole time.  I was kind of mad that he stopped the class to tell me not to eat, when he could have waited until after.  I was the unlucky one to get called out for eating, because other people definitely eat in that class.  I simply apologized and stopped eating, but I really wish I could have said, “that when I start learning something in the class, then I’ll stop eating, until then, I need something to keep me awake.”  Clearly, this observation about food in class was a reason for me to complain about the class in general. The only reason I’m taking the class is to get Spanish credits.  This class ranks pretty highly on my Worst Classes Ever Taken List, probably coming in second to Fiske’s Calculus 172.  It is pretty hard to learn when the professor plays a movie in class and then tries to talk while the movie is playing.  Result: not hearing the movie OR the professor = bad teaching.  I’ve gotten over the fact that I’m not learning much, because he only ever talks about the which Spanish king married which who.  Whether I hear him or not, Wikipedia will be my best friend when it comes time to review for this midterm.

Observation 5:  TARDINESS- In the beginning of our trip, the director of the program told us that the stereotype that Spaniards are late to everything is a myth.  Thus far, the professors are just reinforcing this stereotype and the tardiness legend continues...  Most of the professors show up about 10 minutes late.  Although I’m used to taking classes that are an hour and half long, so I definitely have the potential to pay attention for that amount of time.  I can’t complain about these shorter classes though.  I’m constantly checking my watch throughout class, so 10 minutes less of watch checking is a bonus.  The time passes extremely quickly in Game Theory, because we start late and get a break in the middle of class.

Observation 6:  LESS IS MORE-  The vacation days just keep on coming… Dia de la Merced, La Huelga (Strike) and next week no school on Monday or Tuesday.  Tuesday is el dia de Pilar (patron of Spain).  Because the holiday is on a Tuesday, we clearly don’t have school on Monday.  I feel like this system is work one day, holiday the next day, work again, holiday again… Still not complaining.  And yes parents, despite the lack of school here, your money is being well spent—I am learning the ways of the culture, which just happen to be fiestas all the time.

Okay, I can try to get this list to 10 observations, so that it is a nice even number, but it is late and I don’t to B.S. things that I haven’t actually seen.  I’ll the list at 6 (my favorite number) and continue to bore you with other observations in blogs to come.  Until then, stay tuned for updates from my Rome trip!