Class? What's class?

So believe it or not, I'm actually attending class here in Spain in addition to traveling around and generally goofing off. However class in Spain is much different than class in the United States. I don't know whether it's because I'm not taking any science classes and am experiencing what you could refer to as a "liberal arts" education this semester, or whether it's because Spaniards in general don't take university as seriously, but whatever it is, I'm unnaturally relaxed and not-stressed about my classes this semester. It's a nice change.

I'm taking four classes: literatura española, arte español, historia de España, and el mundo árabe en el mundo hispánico. All of them are taught in Spanish, but are classes specifically for international students so all the teachers know not to get too crazy with their Spanish. However, I've understood the teachers perfectly from the get-go so a language barrier hasn't been a problem at all. I only have the classes twice each week and each class is two hours long with a 10 minute break in the middle because God forbid we learn for more than one hour straight. The majority of my grade for each class is going to depend on a mid-term and a final, which composes about 80% of the grade, then depending on the class, attendance/participation is taken into account, and I think I might have a couple presentations. So far no homework or papers yet. 


My literature class was probably the one I was looking forward to the least going in, but the only one I HAVE to take for my minor at home. It's probably still my least favorite class but it's growing on me and I really like the professor. We always seems to go into side discussions about different words or actions that are rude here in Spain (stretching in public? whoops!) which is very helpful to know. We're currently working on analyzing short stories and poems which isn't my favorite in English and still isn't my favorite in Spanish, but every once in a while must be done in the name of being well-rounded. 


I've never taken an Art History class before, but I also need one for UVM (general requirement) so I figured I might as well get it out of the way here in Spain! The class is different than I thought it would be. Apparently the fall semester does art up until the Renaissance, and spring semester does the Renaissance on. That means I don't get to study Velazquez or Goya like I wanted, since they are both post-Renaissance artists. However the class has been more interesting than I thought, and we spent the past week learning about the different characteristics of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals. This was pretty awesome since I've seen approximately 4 billion cathedrals in Europe, and now I'll be able to pick out different features in them! Of course I only know the terms in Spanish now (I had to go look up the term Romanesque to see what románico translated to in English) but it's still pretty exciting. Also apparently we get to take a field trip tomorrow to Salamanca's two cathedrals (one románica and one gótica) and field trips are always fun. 


My favorite class is my history class. I love history and wish I had time to take more classes in college. This class also started back in prehistory like my art class and we're slowly making our way forward. I say slowly since this is another class that often gets off track. We spent a large portion of class on Friday listening to Spanish music. We also are talking a lot about current politics since Spain is having a general election in November and it is widely expected that the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) is going to lose to the PP (Partido Popular) since the economic crisis has hit Spain pretty hard and the people aren't very happy with the current government. However a lot of people I know here aren't too happy about the predicted change since the PP is a more conservative party and is expected to cut a lot of the benefits that Spaniards enjoy. 


Finally mi árabe clase. I still feel like I don't have a good grasp of whether or not I like this class since I've really only had it three times. The semester officially started at 4 on Monday the first week, so any classes I had before then (like this one) didn't meet. That first week the professor was out of town or something so we had a sub on the Wednesday of that week. Then last week we had a holiday on Wednesday so I missed this class again. So after three weeks I still can't really judge whether I like it or not. All I know is that our exams are take home so I don't have to worry too much about memorizing random things which is nice. 


All in all, I'm enjoying my classes here. They're interesting for the most part and give my days some structure. However, that doesn't mean I'm not super excited to miss my Thursday and Friday classes this week to go to Paris!!! Better break my French back out so I'm prepared to deal with some Parisians! Au revoir!