First Day of School!

First Day of Classes at SLU-Madrid

 

 

 

     I survived my first day of classes at SLU-Madrid! Before our classes, Claire and I got something to eat at the cafeteria before our class at 12:30. They had some really good choices such as a sandwich on a baguette, pizza (which looked really good), salad, yogurt, fruit, and a pulga, which I had. It was a ham and cheese sandwich on a diamond shaped baguette. The bread here is so good, and apparently really cheap.
     The first class I had was Spanish 410, and it seems to have less homework then the 300 level Spanish classes at SLU which have homework due everyday and quizzes and essays and a lot of stuff! I'll just be sure to have some Spanish speakers look over my essays before I turn them in - our professor seemed really concerned with grammer and spelling. The next class I had was Ancient Art Survey (an art history class) that seems awesome! The class reminds me of the Art History class I took at CJA taught by Sra. McGraw because the teacher also mixes in Spanish words! We are going to be focusing on Pre-History, Ancient History (Mesopotamian and Egyptian), Roman, and Greek art, and how they have influenced the art we see today. We will be taking some visits to the Museo del Prado (Spanish national art museum) and our professor encouraged us to travel and see the Louvre in Paris, British Museum in London, and Rome. There are 7 people in the class, so I think it will be fun and very conversational. My last class of the day was Global Change, an Earth and Atmospheric Sciences course for my major, Environmental Science. This class seems really good too. I think global change and global warming is really interesting, and like our professor said, everyone should know the scientific facts about it. The professor was so excited when he learned that there were 4 science majors (2 environmental studies, 1 environmental science, and 1 civil engineering)...because the rest was international business or communication (at least 20 other students), or something similar to that. He mentioned us taking a trip somewhere, so hopefully we will get to see mountains, or glaciers. I really want to go on the Oceanography or Volcano fieldtrip, too. I'm hoping if I e-mail the profesors and tell them I am an Environmental Science major and like rocks and sealife they will let me go on the trip! (ok, not actually say that but basically get that point across) These 2 classes are basically Earth science 101, which I already took...so they would not have counted for anything if I had taken them, but sound awesome!! All in all these 3 classes seem like they will be fine, and fun, too. I don't have class on Friday (tomorrow - yay exploring!) so I will have to wait until Monday to see how my archaeology and history classes will be like. 
      After class, Claire and I went to Carlin, an office supplies store. I bought a notebook (I finally was able to find a lined one, not one that had graphpaper) and an eraser. We then walked to SuperSol, un supermercado (supermarket), and I bought some American Dove soap and Herbal Essence shampoo (the labels were in Spanish). I was not brave enough to get a Spanish brand of soap...partially because the bottles were huge and what was I going to do if I didn't like it? I was not able to bring much soap and shampoo because I didn't want to set my 2 suitcases over the weight limit for flying. 
      We then just hung out until dinner...for a little while we thought our senora had gone missing because her son came over and didn't know where she was. But she just went shopping and then came home. We had a sort of lentil stew and Spanish tortilla (circular potato and egg omelet which was really good) for dinner and of course a lot of bread.

Things I have learned in Spain:

• Random guy on the metro #2: guy playing an accordian
• Some Spanish people dress like Americans - baggy pants with hoody for guys, yoga pants for girls
• They sell a lot of graphing paper instead of lined paper (alone and in notebooks) in Spain
• No one really knows what the weather is going to be like, but apparently its usually sunny....well it hasn't been
• Learned this a couple days ago while we were watching TV during dinner - laser hair removal is really cheap and popular in Spain, for men too
• Spanish game shows are funny, but hard to figure out what the goal of the game is
• Madrid has a lot of Burger Kings
• Online Spanish dictionaries are really helpful...well I already knew that but they are really helpful!
• I can't shower after 11pm 
• We keep getting more land and buildings to use for SLU in St. Louis....while the reason the 3rd building of SLU Madrid is not open yet is because the city of Madrid has not approved the university to use it

¡Adios!