high five me?

wow, i officially fail at life when it comes to updating this thing.

so much has happened since i last updated: finished ilp with flying colors, mini vacay to mallorca with friends, wild nights out in madrid, two trips to the santiago bernabéu for real madrid games (both champions league, it was awesome!), adjustment to the spanish school system, successful tryouts and games with both the ucm (complutense university) and facultad de farmacia (farmacy department) fútbol sala teams, nerve-wracking group presentation in my latin american short story class, fiesta de halloween with roomies and friends, broken appliances (toilet, shower, and fridge?!) in the apartment... up next: 6 day trip to portugal!

now, where to elaborate... the biggest change for me, by far, has been getting used to the spanish school system of higher education. classes start 10-15 minutes late, as everyone arrives casually and fashionably late, even professors (if they decide to show up?) the cafeterias serve food to be eaten with a fork and knife, beer and martinis, and an insane amount of café con leche. color photocopies are a new fad, readers are non-existent (you must buy readings separately), and no homework is given... ie, you're expected to read and look up information on your own time, which obviously means i won't do anything semester long? also: students take notes on either blank printer paper or graph paper. in my mind, that's just a big WTF?!

initially, i was taking five courses: three in spanish literature (hello major requirements), one in elementary portuguese (to keep meu português fresh my mind), and one in spanish grammar (it's always necessary). the subject matter of the literature classes are just what i expected, but teaching methods... not so much. por ejemplo:

el cuento hispanoamericano: 20th century latin american short stories, we're reading some really good shit. too bad the professor doesn't actually teach; i think she has two days of lecture the entire semester? the rest of the class periods are divided up into group presentations (interpretation of the story + explanation, analysis, etc.)... my group presented on rubén darío, a nicaraguan cuentista, sometimes considered el príncipe de las letras castellanas. my american friend and i presented on El pájaro azul, in which a young poet characterizes his (in)sanity as a blue bird that fights for its freedom from the cage of his brain... in the end, he commits suicide and we had to portray it front of the class and give a 20 minute presentation of themes, analysis, etc. i was ridiculously nervous to be speaking in front of a large group of people, but it turned out ok. we had a future professor in our group who picked up our slack and shaved his head in front of the class for the last part of our presentation... pure dedication. extra credit?

next, literatura española desde 1975: post-franco literature, evidently with anti-fascist, liberal undertones... sounds interesting, right? our professor is without a doubt incredibly intelligent, talks for an hour and half off the top of her head, throwing out dates, statistics, names, facts about anything imaginable. she just can't teach. no structure, no organization, extremely difficult to follow, doesn't go over any particular readings? literally everyone is confused in the class, even native speakers. we'll see how the final exam goes.

literatura y cine: in other words, a deeper look into the cinematic portrayals of don quijote de la mancha throughout the years. the first couple films were in black and white from the 1930's and 40's... in addition, the class starts at 16:30 (4:30 pm) and the classroom is always warm... aka nap time for miss allie browne. the fourth film we watched was a musical adaptation starring sophia loren... purely ridiculous. i stayed awake for the majority of the film, since there were some humorous lines and hilariously cheesy songs.

gramática avanzada: advanced grammar class through our education abroad program, ie solely made up of students from the UC system. it's by far my favorite class, our professor, nieves, is so sweet, enthusiastic, adorable and undoubtedly helpful. we actually get homework, discuss pertinent information and LEARN (unlike the rest?)...

finally, portugués 1 (nivel elemental): by far, the biggest waste of time of my life. class was in a computer lab, with the imminent distraction of having the internet at our disposal. our teacher wouldn't speak portuguese, assigned us no homework, and only paid attention to the front row and/or native speakers of portuguese? she would play slow, monotonous recordings meant for foreign students, but in actuality i think i've learned more from listening to a brazilian samba song with a dictionary in hand. needless to say, i abandoned ship and have set up an intercambio with a french girl who wants to learn english; she has studied portuguese for 6 years and knows her stuff. we'll meet for coffee once a week or so, talk 45 mins in english and 45 mins in portuguese. can't wait!

what else... fútbol sala. who knew it would be so different from full field fútbol 11? the coach makes fun of me because i don't understand the different runs and am completely lost when we try to attack in a unique formation... but somehow when i stop thinking and play the way i always play, i manage to create opportunities and score goals. good enough for me.

i'm sorry this entry is so long, i've been putting it off and i just had to get it all out there. i'm sorry i went into such great detail about classes, it's not that interesting but it's pretty much what's on my mind these days... in addition to the fact that i miss california weather, mexican food, and retail stores (trader joe's, target!)...

more to come. portugal on wednesday! a great opportunity for me to practice my third language, enjoy some cheap eats (pasteis de nata, bacalhau), medieval castles, take some awesome jumping pictures, and enjoy the cultural diversity of the iberian peninsula.

i'll update again soon, i promise.