17/21-09-07FirstFullSchoolWeek

The first week of school was a little bit of a wake up call since I actually had to pay attention and start taking notes and such! Que horror! In all actuality, it was nice to get back to learning. I love the partying atmosphere and will continue to enjoy it, but this adds a new twist and life and is a great thing for the learning enthusiast. On Monday we will have fixed courses. We are supposed to take 4 or 5 depending on what you need credit-wise. Since I am working toward neither a major nor a minor, I get to do whatever I want! Mine are as follows:

Spain and the European Union (Honors) – This class is going to be excellent. It is a history of the Union to begin with and then goes into Spain’s interaction with the Union. We each are supposed to be doing a research project on a country in the Union, but I talked to my professor and was given the green light to do mine on Turkey as well as do some extra work and extent it so that I can receive honors credit for the course.

Spanish Civilization (Honors) – The professor is a little dry but I get to learn all about Spanish history from the perspective of who the Spanish are. We spend time on the normal topics (heritage, customs) and then go into depth with some very Spanish characteristics (1 week on gastronomy – food and culture – and a week on wines which includes a trip to a wine tasting facility I believe). I’ll be doing a separate project in this class comparing the Spanish life to American life to gain honors credit, but I am super interested in that topic so it should be fun. The differences are huge and there are some pros and cons that I am personally quite conflicted about.

Geography - might audit it since I only need 4 classes, but it is stuff I’d love to learn and the professor is awesome (Okay, geografía es la materia más importante, es una materia fantástica, la más bella, okay. Como se dice “okay”? Lo digo bien? Bueno! Okay…). The course will go over the map of Spain as well as cover the geo-political significance of the regions.

Social and Economic History on Contemporary Spain (Honors) – I will taking this course directly through the University of Cadiz (all the other courses are developed for our program and include only others people from our program). As there will be a much higher level of difficulty understanding the professor and the expectations will be much higher, I’ll be getting honors credit for this class too. I’m really excited, though, to be able to take a class directly because I am quite positive it’ll be more interesting/valuable.

Language I – This class is just the basic language course I’ll be taking. Due to the lack of courses I’ve been through at UW and a general struggle with grammar it is really nice that I get to take the lowest level language course offered. I feel I’m in the right place and the professor is fantastic which is going to make it really easy to fully take advantage of the course.

The next step after having made these choices is actually getting myself motivated! The beach, people, and Spanish life are much more alluring and pulling myself away is pretty damn hard. During the week I had some fun as well. Went to a movie called Murderball - It is a documentary on Wheel Chair Rugby, which is apparently a very popular sport in the quadriplegic world. Saw a concert from a local band, which had a mix of flamenco, salsa, and other styles. Also, there was some homework mixed in.