Quejas.

To give you a sense of my life this semester, I have an internship at a housing agency for 15 hours a week and take 3 classes at La Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (one is an optional language class and does not count for any credits). I have already finished one class (a daily 3-hour seminar class that finished before the regular classes at any Spanish university started). I think it goes without saying that all my classes are completely in spanish, but just in case: this school is NOT a school for foreigners, it is a real live Spanish unviersity. Now that the explanation is over with, it is time for me to throw a personal pity party.

• To register for my Spanish for foreigners class, not only did I have to personally go to Autónoma at 8:30 AM the crack of dawn (according to Spanish standards), I had to wait for an hour before being called upstairs, where I presumed I would register, only to wait in a different room for a half hour before spending literally 40 seconds registering. I was numer 37, so I do not understand mathematically how I waited so long. These events are commonplace at my university.
• To search for classes in my school, La Facultad de Derecho (roughly translated as "School of Law". HOW LEGIT IS THAT?), there is NO order to the website. The classes are listed at random, not in alphabetical order, and there is no way to sort them. I had to go to the office of international relations about 5 times to find out where and when classes met. José, the front desk guy, knows me by name. This is both funny and sad.
• Picking classes was a nightmare because:
• I had to take a class in which I knew it was possible to get an A  (by searching the BU madrid database of recommendations) in order to maintn my scholarship
• I had to take classes that count for my Political Science major (because I am a double major and cannot take any "extra classes") because our programmres said the Spanish literature classes are beyond difficult
• I had to take classes that would work with my internship schedule.
• One class I wanted to take about history and religion for which I really SHOULD have gotten credit in Political Science did not count and I had to join a class I did not want to take. Also, it took me translating my entire syllabus, begging my advisor to count it, and waiting a week to figure out it would NOT count. Thanks BU!
• Registering for classes had to be done in person, which makes no sense at all because it was all on the computer in a room full of confused foreigners.

Here is some of the crap I have had to deal with day to day:

• During my first day in the class I did not want to take, Political Parties and Social Movements, I found out the past semester no students attended class and the teacher failed them, so now the class is overcrowded, more difficult, and with random pop quizes to incentivize students to come to class. I also found out there is now two teachers instead of one. It turns out they can do that. Great.
• I went all the way to Autónoma one Monday to go to my Politics of the Euopean Union class, only to find a note on the door saying "there will be no class today because I am sick, -Fernando Rodrigo Rodríguez", causing me to literally waste 2 hours of my day.
• We were supposed to watch a movie in my political parties class one day and after 150 students waited for the projector to work for a half hour, our teacher told us to watch it on our own and that there were 3 or 4 copies to rent in the library. Well, that is DEFINITELY a sufficient number, professor, GRACIAS.
• My politics of the EU teacher has cancelled class about 4 times.
•  During my Political Parties class, I have to sit in the front row and strain myself to hear because people in the class maintain loud conversations the whole entire time.
• The 45 minute commute to school and back is no fun.
• I feel completely alone all the time. Yeah, emo, but really, I do not see anyone I know during the week and I am amongst this language that I completely understand, but cannot speak perfectly, so I have never been more timid in class my whole life.
• I miss my family. I want to meet my ny niece.
• I miss my friends.
• I am SO SICK of fried foods and sick of Spaniards telling me how healthy olive oil is. Guess what, tíos imbéciles: ITS OIL. Ergo, not that healthy. Get your shit together.
• I am sick of Madrileña food in general. Get me some American VARIETY
• My bed is uncomfortable.
• I am sick of having someone cook for me.
• I hate my family´s horrible monster of a cat that I have tried failed to get to like me for over half a year.
• I miss all the resources of the BU campus (woah. Tourguide comment).
• I miss things being open on Sundays 
• I miss the Northeast and the quaint ambience of Boston
• I miss the dollar.

Ok I´m done.

Of course, I love being abroad and wouldn´t trade this experience for ANYTHING, EVER, but I have been here for 6 months straight. I LIVE HERE. I WORK HARD HERE. I STRUGGLE HERE. This is not some 4 month vacation for me. Any worthwhile experience has ups and downs. The struggles are honestly much more important than one out-of-this-world night of clubbing or an amazing trip across Europe. This is my seventh inning stretch; I am sure the rest of the ball-game will go swimmingly.

Don´t worry, I will post my Sevilla trip tomorrow and everything will be flowers and mariposas again.