The first week of school was pretty crazy, but not horrible. People here are nice, I've chatted with a good handful of Spaniards and an even greater handful of guiris (foreigners) alike. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but apparently Granada is the number one destination for European students that travel abroad. There are a fucking LOT of foreigners. One one hand it's great; professors know that it's quite probable that half of the class will be composed of non-native speakers, everyone's a little confused like you, and everyone wants to meet people and party. On the other hand, it's sucks; everyone speaks fucking English. Everyone. Speaking Spanish and being spoken to in Spanish is an act of willpower. I want to learn, dammit! But when someone speaks to you in English that is better than your Spanish, it makes it pretty hard. Plus, two of my classes are in English, but I am hoping to drop one of them.
As far as classes go, well, I haven't even been able to go to two of them still! And those two classes happen to be Spanish language lit classes, which is really what I need in my schedule! I've already more or less decided to drop one class: Literary Languages and Audiovisual Languages. The subject sounds fascinating, and I would love to take that class in English but the prof asked us all about our background in Audiovisual studies and even mentioned that it was probably not the best choice for foreign students... I think I'd be a lot more willing to confront the challenging subject matter if it hadn't been for the discouraging comment about foreigners... Oh well.
My North American Lit class is a little boring, but at least I get to read fiction. The other English class actually seems a little more challenging (the English teaching one) but the subject matter is obviously a lot more removed from what I'm actually majoring in, so I may let it go. My Spanish Pragmatics class was actually really fascinating, though. It seems simultaneously challenging and doable, and the professor was this awesome energetic young woman who seemed really supportive of foreigners. She had us read paragraphs from a text out loud, which was embarrassing, but I felt like there was a nice sense of humor in the room that diffused a lot of the discomfort.
As far as weekend activities go, this was another good one. One of my compañeros del programma, Dan, celebrated his birthday Friday by having a nighttime potluck in a park, and there was a really good turn out of people, food and booze. I also introduced my housemate Lucas to some of my friends, and he really hit it off with one of Laurel and Amber's housemates, who is also French. Later that night I ended up going to a party at this house known as la Terraza (because it had a big ass terrace) with the two French boys, another of their housemates, this really sweet German kid named Leon, Felix, from EAP and one of his housemates, as well. I spent my hungover Saturday at Laurel and Amber's, which was a lot of lazy fun, because everyone in that house is awesome.
That night, instead of going out, I crashed at Christina's so that we could wake up early and meet up with a friend she made at school, this guy Karim who speaks almost perfect English and it's pretty much one of the sweetest people you will meet, to drive to a nearby village called Monachil where we went for a hike with his girlfriend, their ADORABLE dog and a little group of friends through los Cahorros. It was BEAUTIFUL, truly. I really hope my dad comes and visits because he would have loved it; kind of dry, rocky terrain that winds around a clear little river with cold, fresh water... There were a lot of rock climbers around, too. The dog was the huge slobbery Great Dane mix, Leto, who was only nine months old but fairly mellow. It was a really nice day; we got home in the evening exhausted and sweaty but contented.
In other news, I'm slowly beginning to get back to work for Barber Insurance, aaand, I figured out my (horrible) scanner, so all my Fujifilm instant photos are on the interwebs! For example:
Our little group of picnicers!
Week two of school officially begins in an hour, so I'm off! I promise to (try) and be less of a slacker this week.
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