Hello out there!
Wow, I've officially been here for a month, how crazy is that? I feel like I've been here way longer than a month and time has just flown by! This week was kind of crazy hectic, I started my Complutense classes, moved out of my senoras, and went to Cadiz for Carnaval!
1. Complutense: Complutense classes are probably the one of the things I was/am most nervous about. I consider myself to be pretty decent at understanding when profs lecture in Spanish, but a lot of the people in my program had told me how horrible their Complutense classes were and how they didn't understand hardly anything. So I went to my first class, Historia Moderna y Contemporanea de Europa y el Mediterraneo (which is one of my back-ups) and the prof was really easy to understand! I didn't really enjoy the class all that much though, which kind of stinks, its a lot of group work.
My second class, Cultura Andalusi, was really good as well. It was a little frazzling on Monday because 4 other students and me had the wrong room number, so we ended up going on a bit of a wild-goose chase to find the right aula (classroom). We eventually found it and we were about a half hour late to the class. I had a bit of trouble following the prof (especially since we came in in the middle of the lecture), but when I went on Tuesday, I didn't have many problems. The class is really interesting, especially because we're discussing very very old history (like the 500-1000s) which is something that I learned about in like 6th grade, so I don't remember it very well.
My other class, Introduccion a La Cultura y Mitologia Clasica, could be a lot of work. I'm going to have to do a lot of reading and translating because pretty much everything I know about Classic Mythology I've obviously learned in English. I'm kind of intrigued to see all the differences in the names of the mythological characters. In my Pintura del Prado class, we talked a bit about the Roman gods which was interesting to hear the names in Spanish as compared to in English (fortunately they're pretty similar since the Roman gods are names after planets...or vice versa, whichever way you want to think about it). But, I will say that I miss Purdue's registration system; its easy and logical and doesn't usually make last-minute changes without telling anyone! Like my Cultura class, my Introduccion class changed aulas without telling anyone, so I was late to that class as well, but everything worked out pretty well.
Just a sidenote: I have to say back in the States we're very spoiled. And by spoiled, I more mean that it's expected that all of our classrooms and schools have up to date technology. At UCM, the computers look like something out of the early 2000s--they're huge desktops and unlike at Purdue, not every classroom has a projector and computer in it. Its something that I've really taken for granted; I will definitely appreciate it next year when I'm back at school! Especially because most of my professors have terrible hand writing so whenever they write something on the board its like looking at a completely new language of random scribbles. I swear, I had never been so happy to see a PowerPoint in my life when my prof pulled one up on Tuesday.
2. Moving out: On Thursday, I moved out of my senora's, into my friend's for the weekend. I can't move into my piso until Monday (the 18th) so one of my friends offered to let me stay with her on Thursday and Sunday night since I was in Cadiz for the weekend. Packing up was weird...I think that moving into someplace that is actually mine is going to solidify this whole "real life" feeling.
3. Weekly Shenanigans: I think that this section is going to become a regular, mainly because I like to use the word shenanigans [it's fun!]. Anyways, aside from class and packing this week was pretty tame. On Valentine's Day, I went out to dinner with a friend and then we got some yummy gelato as a sweet treat!
Another random sidenote: Spain is going to kill me. There are so many little chocoleterias [chocolate shops], pastelerias and panerias [bakery and pastry shops]. I swear they're around every corner and everything looks absolutely delicious and cute! Also, in the cafeteria at UCM they sell croissants, palmeras [an elephant-ear dipped in chocolate], napoliano chocolates [chocolate croissants] for like .80 euros. Its so tempting and all of them are delicious. We need to have more of these little bakeries back home!
4. Carnaval in Cadiz: My friends and I went to Carnaval through a program called European Vibe; it was interesting. The bus ride was 7 hours long, so I did a lot of reading and sleeping. But, Spain is an absolutely gorgeous country! Before I same here, I didn't really expect to see a whole lot of hills and mountains, but southern Spain is covered in rolling hills. Southern Spain is also way warmer than Madrid, I think it was in the mid-60s all weekend (Madrid is usually around the mid 50s), so that was really kind of nice. We drove through the outskirts of Sevilla and Cordoba along the way, which really just made me want to visit there even more.
Our hostel in Cadiz was awesome even though we were about 30 minutes outside of the city. It was really close to the beach and the rooms were fantastic! The showers actually had water pressure and the breakfasts we had were awesome (lots of toast and Nutella!)
On Friday night, we went to dinner at a restuarant and then we went to an "exclusive" club, which turned out to be really lame so my friends and I just went back to our room and hung out.
On Saturday, we got up and walked along the beach. My friends, Bekah and Amber, and I were the only ones brave enough to go put our feet in the water. It was freezing, but it was awesome to be on the beach in the middle of February. Before heading back to the hostel, we walked along the beach and collected lots of shells that I'm going to try to bring back with me. On Saturday night, we all put on our costumes and headed to Carnaval.
Carnaval was super fun, but I'm not sure I would do it again. If I do, I'm definitely going the first weekend instead of the second because there are parades and the like. Carnaval was basically a giant botellon. Botellones started when Franco fell, its basically a giant party where young people go out and drink and listen to music in the streets. Now, they're illegal because people started getting a little too rowdy, but Spainards still have them, just on smaller levels.
Like I've said, Carnaval was lots and lots of fun. We had some delicious empanadas [pretty much a meat poptart] from these street vendors and kabobs that weren't really kabobs, and we tried this drink called manzanilla which was basically hard sparkling cider. We also met a guy who was kinda from Purdue! He was wearing a Purdue sweatshirt, so we went up to talk to him and it turns out he is in the navy and stationed near Cadiz, but his brother goes to Purdue! Everyone was dressed up in crazy costumes, there some mobsters, people dressed up like the points on Google maps, lots of girls in tutus, and lots of people with masks!
Overall, the trip was lots of fun, but I'm definitely going to have to go back to Cadiz to actually see the historical side of it. I didn't take any pictures, but my friends did so once they send them to me I'll post them.
Andddd, that's all I've got for this week. Until next time!
Ciao,
Kelsey
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