Segundo Cuatrimestre

I still don't even have all of my grades from last semester, but the new semester is well underway. I think I have a workable schedule. Ani has a rule that there can only be 3 Georgetown students in a class, which luckily has turned into 4. I've never been so unhappy to see other Georgetown students in my life. I was not going to cede my classes. There are only so many interesting classes in Ciencias Políticas, and a large number of us are government majors or in the SFS. Here's what I've got:

Lunes-Martes
8:30-10 Pintura Española en el Museo del Prado
17-18:30 Ideologías Políticas en la España del s. XX y la Idea de Europa
18:30-20 Seguridad y Cooperación en Relaciones Internacionales
20-21:30 Relaciones Internacionales de Asia-Pacífico

Miércoles
10-13 Literatura y Política
17-19 Tutoria Museo del Prado

I really really didn't want to have another late class, but it looks like it's my most feasible option. The professor has another section of the same class at 13 h that I could attend, but I hate Somosaguas so I like to do it all in one golpe. Apparently we over-hyped how bad Somosaguas was to the new Georgetown people. It is pretty bad though. I was starting to think that the prison business was just a rumor, but Monday one of my professors said that it really was a women's prison.

I'm not sure about the lit class, but I think I'm going to do it anyway because I need it for my schedule and it might count for the English major. Let's just say I couldn't follow him yesterday, and I don't think it was the language barrier. He didn't give us a syllabus or anything so I'm very unclear about how the class is going to be evaluated, but we are reading Hamlet (in English) and a 900 page beast of a novel that he wrote.

The trip to Extremadura was nice, although I was very tired for most of it. Our 8 am departure turned into more like 8:35 so we could wait for people. Three still missed the bus. We had to make an emergency pit stop early into the bus ride, and our bus driver Santiago removed his shirt for the occasion. Ayyyy.

Our first stop was Mérida, where we saw an old Roman theatre and ampitheatre. In the afternoon we went to the Roman Art Museum and the Alcazaba where we saw an aljibe!

We then made our way to Cáceres, the capital, stopping at the Aqueducto de Milagros. We walked around the old town part of Cáceres before having a really long and late dinner.

I got no sleep that night through no fault of my own.

Sunday we went to the Archeology (sp??? that doesn't look right...) Museum where we saw another aljibe! There were also a lot of cigüeñas (storks).

From there we made our way to Trujillo, a small town that gained fame as the hometown of Pizarro, el conquistador. There was a very cool fortress on top of a hill. Also, another aljibe!

Next weekend is Tangier with Allison. We are going to Italy for 8 days for Semana Santa, then flying back to Madrid on Good Friday (ridiculously expensive to stay in Italy for the rest of the weekend).

My pictures uploaded backwards. You would think I would have figured this out by now, but no.

In Trujillo:
Cigüeñas en Cáceres:
Antiquity meets modernity in Mérida:

More old things in Mérida:

Friday the 13th

Tomorrow I am going to Extremadura with the Georgetown group. I'm not eexcited about how early we are leaving. My host family tells me that the name of the province applies to the weather...it is very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. It is not very touristy, although it is supposed to have some of the best jamón ibérico in Spain.

Real classes start Monday, which is not very exciting.

I think I cut off about two pounds worth of hair this week.

The past two days I have been catching up on the latest from Hollywood at the nearby theatre that shows movies in their original language with subtitles, a rarity here, and offers a student discount for the first show of the day. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" made me cry. "Revolutionary Road" wasn't a bad movie but it made me kind of just hate life.

Halfway done with my year in Madrid...

I've finally finished with exams and such. The Reunidas classes have already started, which is a pain because I have to get to the university at 8:30 and then don't have any other classes afterwards, but I'll live.

Spanish exams are strangely stressful. Even though my grades don't matter so long as I pass, in the U.S. if you regularly attend class, can follow the material, and write something relevant to the class on the exam, there is pretty much no way you can fail. Here, there is absolutely no grade inflation and failing is rather common, since you can retake the exam in September. I'm pretty much hoping though that since my professors generally seem to know who I am and that I'm American, they won't fail me.

I won't know exactly what classes I'm taking until I go to the first day and see if the professor seems decent (and there aren't more than three Georgetown students, hopefully I won't have problems along these lines). There is a new policy forbidding Monday-Tuesday only schedules (although no one from the Dean's office has ever contacted me), and apparently a two-hour tutorial in the Prado doesn't count. To comply, I have found a Wednesday-only class in Ciencias Políticas called "Literatura y Política". I'm not sure this will end up counting for my English major, but I'm considering dropping that anyway, so I don't really care.

Here would be my schedule:

Monday-Tuesday
8:30-10 Pintura Española en el Museo del Prado

15:30-17 Política Exterior de España
17-18:30 Las Ideologías Políticas en España del s. XX y la Idea de Europa
18:30-20 Seguridad y Cooperación en Relaciones Internacionales

Wednesday
12:30-14:30 (tentative) Prado Tutorial
15:30-18:30 Literatura y Política

Apparently the woman in charge of the Spanish department told one of the new students that the Prado class wouldn't count towards the Spanish minor, which is outrageous, because they are supposed to count any class taught in Spanish (um, they all are here...) about Hispanic culture. Also she signed next to this class on everyone's academic proposals. I guess if that were the case I could just count one of these hispano-centric government classes since only a total of two for the whole year will count towards my government major anyway. Basically everything I'm taking here is just going to be elective, which is unfortunate since I would rather take electives at Georgetown, one motivating factor for dropping the English major.