Los primeros fines de semana tranquilos: Parte 1

Midterms came. Midterms sucked. Midterms were conquered. I spent the third weekend of October studying, and only studying, for my four midterms. I have not talked about classes at all (I DO go attend them and they ARE challenging), so here is a little rundown. Note that all of these classes include no English, except Translation, which obviously requires a little of both Spanish and English. 

(Monday/Wednesday 4:00PM) La Novela Española Contemporánea- My contemporary Spanish novel class is ridiculous. My teacher is one of the most insane people I have ever met. None of us know what to make of this guy. I will give him credit; he makes for a very lively class. The class is composed of about 20 students that sit confused, awed, disgusted, and intrigued at the things our professor says and does. We take turns each class, two at a time, explaining certain chapters and have a midterm and a final, one about each book we read. This may sound organized, but let me assure you; every day of this class is more or less a farce to us.

(Monday/Wednesday 6:30PM) Traducción a través deñ cine y del teatro- Translation through film and theatre might be my favorite class I have ever had. My teacher is so laid back, but the class is still challenging. There is a lot of memorizing, of course, as we have to translate pieces of movie scripts on our tests, and I have already found myself learning and remembering so much from phrases of certain scripts we have translated (Flirt, Annie Hall, American Beauty, Antz). My favorite part though, is how much we argue in class about how certain words and phrases should be translated; people argue when they care about the subject matter, so it's pretty clear most people enjoy the class as much as I do.

(Tuesday/Thursday 10:30AM) Política Española Contemporánea- Contemporary Spanish Politics is hard. In English. In Spanish it is near impossible. This 10 person class is sort of beyond explanation. At the beginning of class, our professor asks if we have questions about current events (so we always have some ready) and we spend about 45 minutes listening to him answer. During the other 35 minutes, he lectures. We started at the beginning of the Franco regime and are jumping back and forth from present time to decades back. I haven't gotten my first midterm back, so I still have no idea how "difficult" this class is. One thing I do know for sure, though, is that I have a headache at the end of every class.

(Tuesday/Thursday 1:30PM) Cervantes y Don Quijote- I have had some very excited teachers, but I do not think any have been as excited about the subjects as my Cervantes and Don Quixote professor. During this class, about 15 of us listen to our teacher yell, jump, pound his fists on his desk and get generally very excited about Don Quijote. The class is EXTREMELY difficult as the book is written in old Spanish. Our version of the book is heavily annotated, which is necessary, but it makes for even longer reading time because we have to look at the margins after every other line.

Physically, the school is precious and a two minute walk from home-stay which I am incredibly grateful for.

Outside! From picture found online       

THUS, although I am having the time of my life in Madrid and throughout Europe, I still have class and studying to do. Also, all my grades transfer, they are not pass/fail like some abroad programs. which is extremely unfortunate.   

Part 2 coming to you soon.