febrero 21

I was thinking the other day about how much is different here, things I didn’t think about before I got here, and what is the same. I bought Colgate toothpaste because I wasn’t sure what the other brands contained. The food in the supermarket is different, such as there is not cheddar cheese, only white cheese from Denmark or here. There is no spaghetti sauce here either that I’ve seen. And vanilla comes in a powder, which I haven’t found yet. Instead of peanut butter there is Nutella (a great invention, might I add). The cold medicine is not in pill form, instead it is dissolved in water and the efforts to make it taste nice failed. There is a phone in my apartment, but it isn’t used ever except to answer from below the building and let someone in the door. Instead, people have cell phones and we message each other important info with text messages and there are pay phones on many corners. There are lots of small food stores/pharmacies and everything is in walking distance. I don’t even have need to use the bus.

The first weeks have not been too hard, except communication. I am not used to hearing Spanish all around me, so I have to concentrate hard to understand. I mishear things that people say a lot. Asking questions is hard for me too, but not too bad. I try to look up words ahead of time…I delayed going to the bookstore to buy books because I didn’t know how to ask the bookstore if they could order the books from another store.
I am resigned to sounding like I do (well, like a foreigner who doesn’t speak very well). I know that I am improving, little by little. There is nothing else to do other than speak the way I do, and at times I may provide humor for others. Or at least they try hard to understand me. I called a basket a chestnut the other day on accident at the grocery store. Basket=canasta; chestnut=castaña.

I have not had to buy any books except two for my Spanish class…the professors have bibliographies and everything is in the library. I haven’t had any readings to do yet, but I read on my own to gain necessary vocabulary. I still need to finish signing up for classes. I am taking four classes, and attending five. I was going to take five classes, but I realized that it would be too much for me if I want to cook and see things and talk to people. I am taking a women’s studies class, “Mujer, Educación y Trabajo,” a class about the history of education, a Spanish class for foreigners, and a religious studies class, “El Hecho Religioso.” I talked to the professor of the fifth class, “Surrealismo en la literatura y el cine” (surrealism in literature and movies) and he said that it would not be a problem for me to attend and listen without signing up for the class. That’s two less papers and presentations for me! I am enjoying all of my classes so far. It is hard for me to understand everything, but I am told it gets better. I am understanding enough to get the gist of each lecture. The class on Surrealism is the hardest to understand, but I don’t have to worry about that now. My favorite class is the Spanish class. It is very relaxed, the teacher, Javier, is very personable, and the other students all want to learn as well, unlike in the university at home. It is a better format than the classes at home also, with conversation at the base and written exercises as well.

My campus is built in a rectangle, with a green in the center and the buildings around the periphery. All of the classes are in the first building, the Aulario. The main library is the next large building (I posted a picture of it earlier). The other smaller buildings are for each facultad, or school in the university. However, there are not classes in these buildings, just labs and offices and meeting halls.

It has been pointed out to me that my English is pathetic/awkward in these blogs. So, if it is, I am sorry. I am hardly ever speaking English, and perhaps the sentences are phrased more like Spanish grammar. Maybe. Or maybe I just can’t speak English.