First Week of Classes

As of 12:35  this afternoon, I am done with my first week of classes! IES Granada doesn't do Friday classes, so during the rest of the semester I will hopefully be able to travel more easily due to my free Thursday afternoons. So, here's what I'm doing (scholastically) this semester:

Spanish: Everyone, with the exception of a few people who come from bilingual households, has to take a language class. For me, it's 1 hour every day, during which we better our speaking and listening skills. Pretty standard stuff.

Lorca and the Andalusian Literary Tradition: Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish playwright, poet, and musician, who lived in Granada. Basically we  will be reading lots and lots of poems (our profa doesn't like theatre, what?), analyzing them, and even writing some of our own. I'm a little nervous about that, since I'm not the most amazing poet in English, let alone Spanish. I'm hoping she lets us write haikus, because that's pretty much the extent of my poetic ability. We also have to keep a 'diary' for the class, although we only have to write what she tells us to (she also encourages us to write personal stuff, but I have my own diary for that). This week's assignment was to make a list of twenty beautiful things.

Spain and the European Union: I think this is pretty self explanatory: we learn about the EU, and how Spain fits into it.

Islamic Art and Architecture and Its Impact: I love art history courses. I know it sounds dumb, and I even sometimes get bored during visits, but I love learning all the stuff about a building, sculpture, or painting, then thinking about its cultural and historical context. I know, I'm weird. But whatever.

The Arab World and the West: My only class taught in English (did I mention I can only speak English when I'm in this class or hanging out with my friends on weekends?) is taught by Carlos de Cueto, who is my host mom's brother. Even though he's granadino, he has the most British accent ever. It's awesome, and so is the class. We're learning about the politics and history of the Arab world (**NOT the Islamic world, only 15% of the world's Muslims fall in the Arab category, betcha didn't know that!) and its interactions with the "West," essentially Europe and America. Not only is it super interesting, but I think it's also very relevant to the world we live in.

So those are my classes. I'm not taking any at the University, because I love all of these ones (so I can't drop any) and there's no way I'm taking 19 credits while studying abroad. I did, however, buy a UGR sweatshirt, which I'm justifying by the fact that I have a UGR student card so I can use their libraries.

This weekend is the trip to Sevilla and Ronda, which I'm super excited about. We're going to see cool buildings (including Arab baths), be able to hang out, and I'm rooming with my friend Danielle in the hotel, which will be nice because I don't have another IES student in my homestay. I'll post details and photos of the trip either Sunday or Monday.

Study Abroad, round 2

Since I was very young, I've wanted to travel. The desire probably started when one of my aunts would send my sister and me postcards from places like Paris and London. Last spring, I had the opportunity to spend 4 months studying at Ithaca College's London Centre. It was an amazing experience, and you can read about it here, if you haven't already. 

Although I loved being in London, and got to travel all over Europe, I knew I wasn't done with travelling. As a Spanish major and lover of language in general, I wanted to study in Spain. Some people I know had done so with IES in Granada, so I applied for the Spring 2012 semester and got in! I'm a little nervous about being alone in a foreign country, but mostly I'm just excited. 

Right now I'm finishing up my semester at IC, and in 5 weeks and 1 day I'll be getting on a plane to take me to Spain! Only a day before that, my wonderful roommate Christina will be jetting off to Siena, Italy for the semester. (If you want to read about her adventures, comment and I'll link you to her blog). Hopefully we'll be able to meet up at some point.

I'll be posting a few more times before I leave, so stick around for some updates!