I think I will probably be able to finish describing the weekend in this post. Sorry that it took so long, but I did warn you that I had a lot to say. So, let us continue...
10:00. Out to the greentop for morning wake-up time. Activities as lame as usual.
10:45. Go inside to the activity/meeting room for closing activities. This is when I realize that we are not going to do any sort of hike or significant outdoor activity despite our location. Get pissed, start complaining.
10:50. Watch a 7 and a half minute video of people describing there AFS experience with single words. The video could have been produced better, but it was entertaining because the Chinese volunteer kept laughing when the different Asian people in the video started talking.
11:00. Given sheets of paper and told to write a letter which we will then open at one of the last orientations that we have. Most of us didn't right a serious letter. Looking around the table where roughly a dozen of us were seated, two were writing actual serious and in-depth letters, while the rest were writing short bits and then drawing or writing various short comments about other people sitting at the table.
11:30. We put our letters in envelopes, seal them, and hand them in. We now have free time until lunch at two.
1:00. Some of us get restless. Four of us, myself included, end up going outside. I was fine in my t-shirt, but the others got cold in their sweaters and sweatshirts, so we only lasted between 5 and 10 minutes before going back inside and once again joining the main group.
2:00. Lunch time. The last meal of the orientation consisted of chorizo, chicken, and garbanzo beans, as well as a soup.
3:15. We catch the bus back to town, thinking that we are headed to the train station to get on the train and begin the ride back to Madrid.
3:25. We do in fact go to the train station, but are then informed that the train doesn't leave for another hour, so we all break into groups and head out. Me and the kids I'm with end up walking along the streets and talking for the next 50 minutes.
4:15. We all return to the train station.
4:25. The train arrives and all but one of us get on. (The girl who didn't get on was getting picked up in the town). The train makes various stops along the way, and at two of them a girl gets out because it is in fact her town (meaning two girls got off before we reached Madrid).
5:35. We reach Madrid. Some of the group is going to go to Sol to hang out for a little while. Jón and I can't decide if we want to go with them or not, so we flip a coin. The coin says no, so while they head down to catch the Metro, we head up to say goodbye to the other students.
5:45. We realize we should have gone down to take the Metro, so now we do. We take it one stop to Plaza de Castilla, where our bus leaves from at 6:00
6:02. We arrive at our bus stop. Sadly, the buses seem to be some of the only things that don't run late here.
6:15. We are now outside in Plaza de Castilla to wander around and hang out. We promptly spot a McDonald's. We don't even have to speak as we both set out at a brisk pace for it. You know, it is quite interesting, but as an American living in the United States, you really don't care for McDonald's or Burger King or Wendy's, definitely when you live in Boulder. But as an American living in the province of Madrid in Spain who hasn't had an American style burger since leaving the States two months earlier, McDonald's and heaven are nearly synonymous. I mean, honestly, I have never been so happy that I missed a bus before in my life. Needless to say, Jón and I both go in and order Big Macs, sodas, and fries. We then spend the next half an hour eating and hanging out in McDonald's (they had free WiFi, which was quite nice).
6:45. We head back down underground to make sure that we don't miss our 7:00 bus.
7:00. We get on the bus and depart. We then ride the bus until we get off in Soto, where we part ways and return home.
I was right (like always), I did finish describing my weekend in this post.
Autumn Orientation Report Card:
Other Students: A (or since I am in the Spanish school system, 10)
I mean, honestly, I can't give them anything other than a perfect score. They are all incredibly easy to get along with and fun to be around. I can honestly say that I feel like they are some of the closest friends I have. They are all just great.
Activities: C (I would say 5 in the Spanish system)
They were neither incredibly fun or boring as hell. They were really just about average, hence the average score.
Volunteers: B, or 7
Although they were for the most part helpful and interesting, there were times where they were too controlling and would suck some of the fun out of stuff, so therefore I don't feel comfortable giving them a higher score.
Effectiveness/Successfulness (not really a word but effectively portrays the subject of this category, so I'm going to keep it there): A, or 9
I felt that the goal of this orientation was to get students in the Madrid area to connect to each other and share their experiences and know that they are not alone in their feelings, and I felt that this goal was well achieved. Now, I didn't give it a 10 because I was not sure if this was caused by the volunteers or not. There is the possibility that the volunteers are much smarter than I thought and purposefully planned lame activities in order to give us something to complain about, which would then make it easier for us to talk to each other and build rapport with each other, allowing us to open up about our experiences and feelings quicker and easier, thus fulfilling the goal. But, it is much more likely that our sharing simply stemmed from the fact that we spent two straight days living together in a hostel in the middle of nowhere. But, I can't really say. I guess it will remain a mystery.
Overall: A, or 9.5
I have said it before and will say it again: I had a great time this past weekend. Even though there were numerous faults in the orientation, I had an amazing time and can therefore not give it anything lower than a 9.5. Don't get me wrong though, I would still love to see the overall orientation improved, and because there is room for improvement I could not give it a perfect score, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless.
Well, there you have it. A near-full recap of my first AFS Madrid group orientation. Just so you know, I am going to start including class power rankings at the end of every post because I feel that some people (Mom) would like to know how school is going. But before I do that and sign out, I have two more thoughts to write down. At the beginning of this set of posts, I said I had a lot of thoughts floating around in my head, but there were two that really stood out from the others. The first was the realization that my placement was about as perfect as it can get (props to AFS). The second was that signing up for this program has become what I consider to be by far the best decision of my life. Well, with that I am done. Till next time.
Class Power Rankings: (nothing has changed since last time, so I am not going to include details)
1. English
2. Chemistry and Physics
3. Math
4. Philosophy
5. Technical Drawing
6. Sciences of the Contemporary World: just a note, but I have finally figured out that this is kind of like our earth science classes back in the States. Actually another American from AFS figured it out and then told me, but it sounds better if I say I figured it out.
7. PE
8. Industrial Technology
9. Language
Footnote: After reading those last two thoughts in the last paragraph, I have realized that they sounded a lot more profound in my head than they do in writing. Oh well...
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
AFS Madrid Orientación Otoño, Part 3
I will go ahead and jump right in:
...Well, now I will go into details. The enjoyableness of this orientation stemmed from the free time, which mainly consisted of groups of us sitting around together, making jokes, and sharing experiences with each other. I can't really make it sound incredibly enjoyable in writing (descriptive words/writing isn't really my forte), but it was fun enough that I can say that this past weekend was probably my favorite out of all of my weekends in Spain. So there you have the "details" of free time. Sorry they couldn't be more descriptive and in-depth, but that just isn't my thing. I'll try to work on it though.
4:00. Unfortunately, siesta time is now over. We go out to meet the rest of the group on the blacktop, or greentop would be a better word for it since it was green-painted cement not black asphalt. Once everyone is there, we get into a big circle and begin doing numerous different dances. One of them was new to me, the other two were ones that I did in camps at home when I was 6 or 7. While not as bad as some of the other activities, there are still much better ways to spend my time.
Somewhere between 4:45 and 5:15. We head back inside in order to do more volunteer led activities. Everyone displays an immense amount of excitement. Not really though.
5:15 ish. We split up into groups again, but this time the groups are different than before. We begin by taking a sticky note, writing down one word to describe any aspect of Spain (the directions were not very clear here), and then folding the sticky note and putting it in a small bag. We then drew a random one out of the bag and stuck it to our forehead. We then took turns asking yes or no questions to try and guess the word. One girl in our group got it right away because she saw what the girl next to her wrote and realized she had that one. She then spent the next 20 minutes sitting there doing nothing while everyone else in the group kept asking questions. Yes, everybody else either didn't get the word on their head or took over 20 minutes to. While everyone else in my group simply overthunk it, I simply had no idea what was on my head, meaning that, even if I could have looked at it, I still would have not known who or what it was. Due to the lack of clear instructions the word I got stuck with was "Almodóvar". One person in the group besides the person who wrote this knew who this was. (For those of you who don't know, Pedro Almodóvar is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, and producer. His better known works include the Academy Award winning All About My Mother, and Talk to Her. For more info, click here). To say the least, I did not find this activity incredibly fun.
5:40 ish. We continued group work, this time being given a sheet of paper with four columns so that we could write down problems with 1. our family, 2. our friends, 3. school, and 4. Spanish culture. I also found this activity rather boring because I didn't really have anything to put in any of the columns, so I wrote down incredibly minor problems in three of the columns and took long enough that the volunteer leading our group finally said I could leave the last column blank. We then cut out the columns, folded them, and put them in a bag. We then spent the next hour or so picking random problems out and discussing them within our group. This was somewhat helpful, but after awhile the solutions all kind of began to become the same.
7:45. Woops, it looks like some time kind of disappeared in between now and 4:00, but you get the gist of what we did, and the times aren't really that important. Anyway, this was the beginning of time off. I am not calling this free time because I think it was actually supposed to be used on more activities, but one group was locked in a separate room still working on the problems thing, so the rest of us just hung out.
8:30. Dinner, which consisted of some kind of soup with some kind of main dish with yogurt to finish it off. Really just an average meal.
10:00. Return to the activity room to do the last organized activity of the night. Mind you, I say organized tentatively because, once again, instructions lacked depth, which allowed creativity to run wild. Anyway, this activity had us split into three groups in which we had to create a short skit representing the average family in Spain. We had a little less than an hour to work on it before we presented. I will go ahead and list the skits with the one that met the expectations of the volunteers the most to the one that met them the least. The first skit was easily the most well done, thoughtful, and realistic of the three. It consisted of a family with an exchange student sitting around in the kitchen. Some of the family starts yelling at each other while the exchange student accidentally sets the stove on fire. Then it ends. The ending was rather abrupt and disappointing, but it wasn't a bad skit. The second one was a little more outrageous. It again portrayed a family in the kitchen, or dining room, whichever one you prefer. The thing that made this one a little more extreme was that all of the family (even the grandparents), were smoking and snorting cocaine (there was also some yelling between family members but that was a somewhat insignificant part of the skit). Not really what the volunteers were looking for. And now the last one. It started out with the women in the kitchen cooking. Then the daughters come in and people start arguing and yelling. Then the Dad arrives home with the new Arabian exchange student they are hosting. So far, it is pleasing the volunteers and meeting their expectations. But then it continued. The next bit consisted of the Dad smoking during dinner, ordering the Arabian kid to fetch him more alcohol, and physically abusing the Arabian kid. The skit ended with the Arabian kid pulling off his jacket to show he had a bomb strapped to his chest. While we, meaning all of the students, seemed to enjoy this activity a bit more than the other ones, some of the volunteers were a little shocked and, needless to say, were not extremely pleased with the outcome. Actually, I should change some to one, because there was only really one who really tried to control everything and everyone all weekend. While the other volunteers seemed to be enjoying themselves, she seemed to take her job kind of seriously, which put a bit of a damper on things. But it also gave us something to talk and complain about, which is always an important thing for a teenager to have.
11:15. Beginning of free time.
12:05. End of free time. Everyone up to bed.
12:30. Everyone in my room in bed with lights out.
Various points throughout the night. I wake up for roughly 30 minutes at a time. Unfortunately, the snoring got to me tonight. While Jón was smart enough to fashion ear plugs for himself, I was arrogant enough to think that I could sleep through the snoring another night. Needless to say, I was wrong, and, as a result, did not get enough sleep. Just a comment regarding this guys snoring before I move on: It was a very interesting snoring pattern. It would start out really quite, and then, over the course of half an hour, it would escalate in volume until the point that it was equal to someone banging pots and pans next to your ear. Then it would suddenly cease, leaving the room quite for half an hour before it would begin again. Anyway, I just thought that was kind of interesting.
8:55. I get up and start to prepare for the 9:00 breakfast.
9:15. Me and the other boys plod down the stairs where all of the girls are already waiting. We then all go in and eat breakfast, which consisted of toast, cereal, and juice.
Break time for me. I'm a little tired out from writing, so I will try to continue tonight after basketball practice.
...Well, now I will go into details. The enjoyableness of this orientation stemmed from the free time, which mainly consisted of groups of us sitting around together, making jokes, and sharing experiences with each other. I can't really make it sound incredibly enjoyable in writing (descriptive words/writing isn't really my forte), but it was fun enough that I can say that this past weekend was probably my favorite out of all of my weekends in Spain. So there you have the "details" of free time. Sorry they couldn't be more descriptive and in-depth, but that just isn't my thing. I'll try to work on it though.
4:00. Unfortunately, siesta time is now over. We go out to meet the rest of the group on the blacktop, or greentop would be a better word for it since it was green-painted cement not black asphalt. Once everyone is there, we get into a big circle and begin doing numerous different dances. One of them was new to me, the other two were ones that I did in camps at home when I was 6 or 7. While not as bad as some of the other activities, there are still much better ways to spend my time.
Somewhere between 4:45 and 5:15. We head back inside in order to do more volunteer led activities. Everyone displays an immense amount of excitement. Not really though.
5:15 ish. We split up into groups again, but this time the groups are different than before. We begin by taking a sticky note, writing down one word to describe any aspect of Spain (the directions were not very clear here), and then folding the sticky note and putting it in a small bag. We then drew a random one out of the bag and stuck it to our forehead. We then took turns asking yes or no questions to try and guess the word. One girl in our group got it right away because she saw what the girl next to her wrote and realized she had that one. She then spent the next 20 minutes sitting there doing nothing while everyone else in the group kept asking questions. Yes, everybody else either didn't get the word on their head or took over 20 minutes to. While everyone else in my group simply overthunk it, I simply had no idea what was on my head, meaning that, even if I could have looked at it, I still would have not known who or what it was. Due to the lack of clear instructions the word I got stuck with was "Almodóvar". One person in the group besides the person who wrote this knew who this was. (For those of you who don't know, Pedro Almodóvar is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, and producer. His better known works include the Academy Award winning All About My Mother, and Talk to Her. For more info, click here). To say the least, I did not find this activity incredibly fun.
5:40 ish. We continued group work, this time being given a sheet of paper with four columns so that we could write down problems with 1. our family, 2. our friends, 3. school, and 4. Spanish culture. I also found this activity rather boring because I didn't really have anything to put in any of the columns, so I wrote down incredibly minor problems in three of the columns and took long enough that the volunteer leading our group finally said I could leave the last column blank. We then cut out the columns, folded them, and put them in a bag. We then spent the next hour or so picking random problems out and discussing them within our group. This was somewhat helpful, but after awhile the solutions all kind of began to become the same.
7:45. Woops, it looks like some time kind of disappeared in between now and 4:00, but you get the gist of what we did, and the times aren't really that important. Anyway, this was the beginning of time off. I am not calling this free time because I think it was actually supposed to be used on more activities, but one group was locked in a separate room still working on the problems thing, so the rest of us just hung out.
8:30. Dinner, which consisted of some kind of soup with some kind of main dish with yogurt to finish it off. Really just an average meal.
10:00. Return to the activity room to do the last organized activity of the night. Mind you, I say organized tentatively because, once again, instructions lacked depth, which allowed creativity to run wild. Anyway, this activity had us split into three groups in which we had to create a short skit representing the average family in Spain. We had a little less than an hour to work on it before we presented. I will go ahead and list the skits with the one that met the expectations of the volunteers the most to the one that met them the least. The first skit was easily the most well done, thoughtful, and realistic of the three. It consisted of a family with an exchange student sitting around in the kitchen. Some of the family starts yelling at each other while the exchange student accidentally sets the stove on fire. Then it ends. The ending was rather abrupt and disappointing, but it wasn't a bad skit. The second one was a little more outrageous. It again portrayed a family in the kitchen, or dining room, whichever one you prefer. The thing that made this one a little more extreme was that all of the family (even the grandparents), were smoking and snorting cocaine (there was also some yelling between family members but that was a somewhat insignificant part of the skit). Not really what the volunteers were looking for. And now the last one. It started out with the women in the kitchen cooking. Then the daughters come in and people start arguing and yelling. Then the Dad arrives home with the new Arabian exchange student they are hosting. So far, it is pleasing the volunteers and meeting their expectations. But then it continued. The next bit consisted of the Dad smoking during dinner, ordering the Arabian kid to fetch him more alcohol, and physically abusing the Arabian kid. The skit ended with the Arabian kid pulling off his jacket to show he had a bomb strapped to his chest. While we, meaning all of the students, seemed to enjoy this activity a bit more than the other ones, some of the volunteers were a little shocked and, needless to say, were not extremely pleased with the outcome. Actually, I should change some to one, because there was only really one who really tried to control everything and everyone all weekend. While the other volunteers seemed to be enjoying themselves, she seemed to take her job kind of seriously, which put a bit of a damper on things. But it also gave us something to talk and complain about, which is always an important thing for a teenager to have.
11:15. Beginning of free time.
12:05. End of free time. Everyone up to bed.
12:30. Everyone in my room in bed with lights out.
Various points throughout the night. I wake up for roughly 30 minutes at a time. Unfortunately, the snoring got to me tonight. While Jón was smart enough to fashion ear plugs for himself, I was arrogant enough to think that I could sleep through the snoring another night. Needless to say, I was wrong, and, as a result, did not get enough sleep. Just a comment regarding this guys snoring before I move on: It was a very interesting snoring pattern. It would start out really quite, and then, over the course of half an hour, it would escalate in volume until the point that it was equal to someone banging pots and pans next to your ear. Then it would suddenly cease, leaving the room quite for half an hour before it would begin again. Anyway, I just thought that was kind of interesting.
8:55. I get up and start to prepare for the 9:00 breakfast.
9:15. Me and the other boys plod down the stairs where all of the girls are already waiting. We then all go in and eat breakfast, which consisted of toast, cereal, and juice.
Break time for me. I'm a little tired out from writing, so I will try to continue tonight after basketball practice.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
AFS Madrid Orientación Otoño, Part 2
Well, I am done with dinner and, since I have nothing better to do, I am going to keep writing about this past weekend and the orientation. I will try to be more positive this post, but I prefer to just kind of write down what comes into my head at the moment I'm writing, so I am really not seeing my writing style changing that much, even though I am in a good mood. Just a side thought, but I feel like my postings would be somewhat hard to follow if you are not a native English speaker, but I don't know. I guess I'll have to ask one of my friends and see what they think. Anyway, time to continue.
12:45. Got back into our groups from before. This time we traced someone's body onto a huge sheet of paper. We then spent the next few years... wow, glad I just reread the sentence. I'm a little distracted right now, which probably led to the mistake right there. I'm currently trying to listen to music well I right now - and there it is again. OK, I am trying to listen to music, but I have push notifications on on my ipod, and every 5 seconds my music goes quite so that my ipod can inform me I got another friend request or was tagged in another photo. It is much more disruptive and distracting than it sounds. Anyway, to continue... We then had to right down different hopes that we had for the coming year. Sorry, write not right. On the head we had to write what we hoped to learn. On the chest and heart area we had to write down relationships we hoped to have and achieve and build and whatever other verb you would like to use here. On the arms and legs we had to write things that we hoped to see. Our groups person consisted of numerous comments about learning the language on the head, building a relationship with family, friends, and other AFSers on the heart, and seeing Santiago Bernabeu stadium on the arms and legs. We then, or for our group, I then had to cut out the body and we taped it to the wall. And then we decorated it a bit and took pictures of it. And then we left for lunch.
2:00. Lunch was... actually I can't remember. Actually now I do remember. The highlight of lunch was Spanish tortilla (I am calling it the highlight because it is the only thing I remember). It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad either.
2:45. We all are finished with lunch and now have siesta time until 4:00. I don't know if other people napped, but a group of his sat in this small area with a bunch of plants inside and spent the whole time talking and cracking jokes. I know I've said that I enjoyed the orientation, and have also said that we've had free time, but I've haven't gone into any details regarding either of these.
So I will do that tomorrow. You know, I was going to say today, but then I realized that I was starting to have to force myself to write about this, and when that happens my writing becomes incredibly shallow and bland, so I'm going to wait until I am more into it tomorrow. My brain is kind of dead right now, so that means it is time to go to bed. Till next time.
12:45. Got back into our groups from before. This time we traced someone's body onto a huge sheet of paper. We then spent the next few years... wow, glad I just reread the sentence. I'm a little distracted right now, which probably led to the mistake right there. I'm currently trying to listen to music well I right now - and there it is again. OK, I am trying to listen to music, but I have push notifications on on my ipod, and every 5 seconds my music goes quite so that my ipod can inform me I got another friend request or was tagged in another photo. It is much more disruptive and distracting than it sounds. Anyway, to continue... We then had to right down different hopes that we had for the coming year. Sorry, write not right. On the head we had to write what we hoped to learn. On the chest and heart area we had to write down relationships we hoped to have and achieve and build and whatever other verb you would like to use here. On the arms and legs we had to write things that we hoped to see. Our groups person consisted of numerous comments about learning the language on the head, building a relationship with family, friends, and other AFSers on the heart, and seeing Santiago Bernabeu stadium on the arms and legs. We then, or for our group, I then had to cut out the body and we taped it to the wall. And then we decorated it a bit and took pictures of it. And then we left for lunch.
2:00. Lunch was... actually I can't remember. Actually now I do remember. The highlight of lunch was Spanish tortilla (I am calling it the highlight because it is the only thing I remember). It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad either.
2:45. We all are finished with lunch and now have siesta time until 4:00. I don't know if other people napped, but a group of his sat in this small area with a bunch of plants inside and spent the whole time talking and cracking jokes. I know I've said that I enjoyed the orientation, and have also said that we've had free time, but I've haven't gone into any details regarding either of these.
So I will do that tomorrow. You know, I was going to say today, but then I realized that I was starting to have to force myself to write about this, and when that happens my writing becomes incredibly shallow and bland, so I'm going to wait until I am more into it tomorrow. My brain is kind of dead right now, so that means it is time to go to bed. Till next time.
AFS Madrid Orientación Otoño
Well, I have a lot to say. Or, on second thought, I better rephrase that. I have a lot of thoughts floating around my head right now, but I am not going to say them all or write them down, because that would take a while, and I am also not really in a writing mood right now. This means that I might not finish this post, but if I don't, I will tomorrow, or maybe the next day. It all depends on my mood. Anyway, we had our first AFS orientation since we got here this past weekend. It was... interesting, for the lack of a better word. But in a good way, I think. To but it simply, I enjoyed it. So, the details:
Friday, roughly 4:30 in the afternoon: Jón (the Icelandic student who is living in the same town as me) and his host mom pick me up at my house.
5:17. We arrive at Chamartin, a train station in the north part of the city of Madrid. We walk in, thinking it will take us a good five to ten minutes to find the Burger King we are supposed to be at at 5:15. We look to the right. We spot the Burger King 20 feet away - problem solved. Jón's host mom then leaves us as we go to check-in with the AFS volunteer that is there. I check-in and then look around, promptly realizing that I don't really remember much of the people here. Well, nothing I can do about that. We spend the next while warming up to each other.
5:50. We are still by the Burger King and are still missing people. Once again, realize I am in Spain.
Roughly 6:15. We finally get on the train going to Cercedilla, which is a small town that is kind of in the mountains (I say kind of because although I think it was in the mountains, the mountains are so much smaller than the ones at home that I don't really feel right calling them mountains).
Timeless gap. This was occupied by us riding the train, taking a bus to the hostel, getting assigned rooms, and probably free time, although I'm not sure if we had time for free time, if that makes sense.
9:00. Dinner. It was mashed potatoes, a filet, and soup. These were the first mashed potatoes I have had since I left the States, and although they were more... I guess fluidy would by the right description, they were still good.
10:00. We all go to a separate small building that ended up serving as our meeting room for the rest of the orientation. This was when I decided that their favorite team-building exercise is the knot one. You know, the one where everyone closes their eyes, walks into the middle of the circle, grabs somebody else's... sorry, I got distracted for a few minutes here. My computer is saying that else's is not a word, and it is making me start to doubt my English skills (there is one Austrian girl here whose English skills are quickly declining as she picks up Spanish, so hopefully this isn't happening to me). Anyway ... hand, opens their eyes, spends a minute trying to untangle themselves so that they once again form a circle, and then give up. Well, in two orientations now, we have begun with that one.
10:something. We continued to do team-building exercises, but I can't remember which ones. They all had a common theme though - they sucked. This is what led to the lack of a word to describe the weekend. On the one hand, it met, and probably exceeded, my expectations. On the other hand, it fell miles short of my expectations. I mean, I was expecting the activities to be fun. Sorry for the language here, but we f*****g went to a hostel in the middle of nowhere in the forest, miles from Madrid. At the least I expected some kind of hike or nature related activity. But no, we did shitty team-building exercises in a small building, as well as a couple of things on a square cement floor outside. I mean, feel free to explain the reasoning behind this if you see it, but this does not make any sense to me. Not in the slightest.
11:20. Done with organized activity for the night. Start of free time, although we have to be in our rooms and silent by 12:00.
12:05. One of the guys working in the hostel kicks us out of the lounge area we are in and sends us up to our beds.
12:45. Everyone in my room is finally ready for bed. Light goes out.
8:15. I am awakened in order to be prepared for a 9:00 breakfast. It doesn't really take me 45 minutes to go to the bathroom, get dressed, and put in my contacts, but can't really do anything about it.
8:20. Look over at Jón, who is one of the people rooming with me. He looks like he got almost no sleep the night before. I ask why. Apparently the Chinese volunteer who is in the room with us snores. Luckily, I didn't really notice it.
9:00. Door opens to the dining room. The few of us downstairs start to go in. Then, in comes running one of the volunteers, yelling at us that we can't start until the whole group is here and ready. We grumpily shuffle back out.
9:and what feels like ages later. The last of the girls finally comes down, and we can finally go in for breakfast, which consisted of toast, some kind of cake-like food, and juice.
10:00. End of breakfast time. Off to the green cement square outside for morning wakeup time. In other words, it is once again time to half-participate in rather sub-par activities led by the volunteers.
11:00. We move into our meeting/activity room and are broken up into groups, where we talk about some impressions we've had so far and draw a web with us in the middle and other people here around us. We then put garbanzo beans on each person in order to represent the amount of "love" we feel between this person and ourselves.
12:10. Start of our half-an-hour snack and break time. Snack consisted of juice, some tasty breadstick-like food, and something that went really quickly (unfortunately I can't remember what) and was really tasty.
Well, I have to go eat dinner. I will either finish this tonight or tomorrow or sometime soon. I'm not going to proof-read it, but when I wrote it I felt like it was a little erratic. If so, I am sorry. Also, I think I came across as fairly negative in this posting, but I actually had a lot of fun at this orientation. I think it is just easier for me to write about negative things than positive things. Anyway, dinner time. Bye.
Friday, roughly 4:30 in the afternoon: Jón (the Icelandic student who is living in the same town as me) and his host mom pick me up at my house.
5:17. We arrive at Chamartin, a train station in the north part of the city of Madrid. We walk in, thinking it will take us a good five to ten minutes to find the Burger King we are supposed to be at at 5:15. We look to the right. We spot the Burger King 20 feet away - problem solved. Jón's host mom then leaves us as we go to check-in with the AFS volunteer that is there. I check-in and then look around, promptly realizing that I don't really remember much of the people here. Well, nothing I can do about that. We spend the next while warming up to each other.
5:50. We are still by the Burger King and are still missing people. Once again, realize I am in Spain.
Roughly 6:15. We finally get on the train going to Cercedilla, which is a small town that is kind of in the mountains (I say kind of because although I think it was in the mountains, the mountains are so much smaller than the ones at home that I don't really feel right calling them mountains).
Timeless gap. This was occupied by us riding the train, taking a bus to the hostel, getting assigned rooms, and probably free time, although I'm not sure if we had time for free time, if that makes sense.
9:00. Dinner. It was mashed potatoes, a filet, and soup. These were the first mashed potatoes I have had since I left the States, and although they were more... I guess fluidy would by the right description, they were still good.
10:00. We all go to a separate small building that ended up serving as our meeting room for the rest of the orientation. This was when I decided that their favorite team-building exercise is the knot one. You know, the one where everyone closes their eyes, walks into the middle of the circle, grabs somebody else's... sorry, I got distracted for a few minutes here. My computer is saying that else's is not a word, and it is making me start to doubt my English skills (there is one Austrian girl here whose English skills are quickly declining as she picks up Spanish, so hopefully this isn't happening to me). Anyway ... hand, opens their eyes, spends a minute trying to untangle themselves so that they once again form a circle, and then give up. Well, in two orientations now, we have begun with that one.
10:something. We continued to do team-building exercises, but I can't remember which ones. They all had a common theme though - they sucked. This is what led to the lack of a word to describe the weekend. On the one hand, it met, and probably exceeded, my expectations. On the other hand, it fell miles short of my expectations. I mean, I was expecting the activities to be fun. Sorry for the language here, but we f*****g went to a hostel in the middle of nowhere in the forest, miles from Madrid. At the least I expected some kind of hike or nature related activity. But no, we did shitty team-building exercises in a small building, as well as a couple of things on a square cement floor outside. I mean, feel free to explain the reasoning behind this if you see it, but this does not make any sense to me. Not in the slightest.
11:20. Done with organized activity for the night. Start of free time, although we have to be in our rooms and silent by 12:00.
12:05. One of the guys working in the hostel kicks us out of the lounge area we are in and sends us up to our beds.
12:45. Everyone in my room is finally ready for bed. Light goes out.
8:15. I am awakened in order to be prepared for a 9:00 breakfast. It doesn't really take me 45 minutes to go to the bathroom, get dressed, and put in my contacts, but can't really do anything about it.
8:20. Look over at Jón, who is one of the people rooming with me. He looks like he got almost no sleep the night before. I ask why. Apparently the Chinese volunteer who is in the room with us snores. Luckily, I didn't really notice it.
9:00. Door opens to the dining room. The few of us downstairs start to go in. Then, in comes running one of the volunteers, yelling at us that we can't start until the whole group is here and ready. We grumpily shuffle back out.
9:and what feels like ages later. The last of the girls finally comes down, and we can finally go in for breakfast, which consisted of toast, some kind of cake-like food, and juice.
10:00. End of breakfast time. Off to the green cement square outside for morning wakeup time. In other words, it is once again time to half-participate in rather sub-par activities led by the volunteers.
11:00. We move into our meeting/activity room and are broken up into groups, where we talk about some impressions we've had so far and draw a web with us in the middle and other people here around us. We then put garbanzo beans on each person in order to represent the amount of "love" we feel between this person and ourselves.
12:10. Start of our half-an-hour snack and break time. Snack consisted of juice, some tasty breadstick-like food, and something that went really quickly (unfortunately I can't remember what) and was really tasty.
Well, I have to go eat dinner. I will either finish this tonight or tomorrow or sometime soon. I'm not going to proof-read it, but when I wrote it I felt like it was a little erratic. If so, I am sorry. Also, I think I came across as fairly negative in this posting, but I actually had a lot of fun at this orientation. I think it is just easier for me to write about negative things than positive things. Anyway, dinner time. Bye.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Update
Wow, it has already been two weeks since my last post. Honestly, it hasn't felt like that long. I guess, to be cliche, time flies when you're having fun.
Because I haven't done a post in a couple of weeks, I figured I would do one right now since I can't concentrate on my homework. I don't really have anything in particular to right about, so I'll just give you a short summary of my past week and an update about school.
Day: Monday, October 10. My birthday. Day 11 of school. Approx. day 32 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: Well, it was my birthday, so that in itself makes it at least somewhat memorable. But this one was obviously different than previous ones. First off, I turned 17, although the only thing that I can think of that that allows me to do is watch R movies in the theaters without an accompanying adult. The second, and bigger, difference was that it was my first birthday away from home and away from my parents, which was a little weird but did not make as big of an impact on me as I had expected. Other than the fact that people were wishing me happy birthday, the day was really not that different than any other day.
Day: Tuesday, October 11. Day 12 of school. Approx. day 33 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: Honestly, I'm trying to remember what I did on Tuesday, but I really can't remember anything. If I were to guess, I would say I had an average day at school, and then went and hung out with friends and got back home anywhere between 8:30 and 12:00. But I really can't remember.
Day: Wednesday, October 12. National holiday in Spain (for Columbus). Approx. day 34 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: I would have to say the most memorable moment of Wednesday was that I went out to pizza with my friends (there is a 40% chance that this actually happened on Tuesday, but I'm not positive). Eating out with my friends isn't that uncommon (probably happens once, maybe twice a week), but this happened to be the first time that I had eaten pizza that wasn't pre-frozen or pre-made since I left Colorado. I have to say it was pretty tasty. Me and two other kids split a group size pizza (the diameter was written down as 49 cm if I remember correctly) which had cheese, ham, and a spiced pieces of some kind of meat on it. The pizza was thinner than the ones that I'm used to in Boulder and, as far as I could tell, it lacked a tomato-based sauce under the cheese, but it was quite good. Actually, after thinking about it some more, I am about 85% sure this actually happened on Tuesday, in which case the memorable moment of Wednesday was that I spotted a praying mantis about 4 or 5 inches long in the backyard.
Day: Thursday, October 13. Day 13 of school. Approx. day 35 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: Philosophy class. I had multiple epiphanies in this class. It started with the teacher asking some philosophical question to the class. Some of the class disagreed with the teacher's opinion on the question, so they started arguing over the question. At this moment, my epiphanies occurred. The first was an a-ha moment that was somewhat along the lines of "Wow, I actually enjoy philosophy." The second was more of a holy-shit moment that went like this: "Holy shit, I can actually understand a fair bit of what they are saying." These two thoughts made this the most memorable moment of the day.
Day: Friday, October 14. Day 14 of school. Approx. day 36 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: When I first started thinking of writing this post this past weekend I had something to write about right here, but at the moment it has slipped my mind, so I'll take a break now and continue a bit later when I remember what it is...... It has been about 35 minutes, and it is still not coming to me. I guess it really wasn't that memorable, so I will go ahead and continue with the remainder of the posting:
Class Power Rankings (favorite to least-favorite):
1. English: This is my favorite class at the moment for a couple of reasons. First, it is the class that I am learning the most everyday Spanish in because much of the subject matter is words that you actually use in the average day, opposed to the other classes where the vocab is subject specific. The other reason is that some days it comes as a nice break from the constant Spanish as it allows my brain to relax a little.
2. Physics and Chemistry: We are currently on the chemistry part of the class, and I've always enjoyed chemistry as a subject. Also, I like the teacher, so that is a plus.
3. Math: It kind of drops off a little from the top 2 to the next few. I have to put Math at the top of the rest though because it is a subject that I have always enjoyed.
4. Philosophy: I don't really enjoy learning about the stuff in the textbook a whole lot, but it is an interesting class when we talk about subjects and questions which people aren't in agreement about.
5. Technical Drawing: The awe factor is starting to wear off, so this class sits in the middle of the pack. It has flashes where it is fun, but it is also a lot of work and can be extremely frustrating at times.
6. Sciences for the Contemporary World: This class has yet to make much of an impression, and so it is in this spot until further notice.
7. PE: It is PE. It is not extremely fun, but it isn't bad either, so it is here.
8. Industrial Technology: It is not a very fun class, and for now it is not very interesting to me, so it sits near the bottom.
9. Language: I never liked Language Arts in English, and Spanish is no different. It has just never been a subject that interests me, so it is last for now.
As I said earlier, there were no big events to update y'all on, but there is a brief look of how things are currently going. Till next time.
EDIT: It has now been roughly five hours since I couldn't remember what happened Friday, but good news - I have finally remembered. The memorable moment of Friday was that I had my first real argument with my host father. But my host brother was on my side, which was good. The thing that makes this event memorable in a good light though is the fact that the argument was over something simple and stupid - the length of the cycle of the moon. While Dani and I argued that a New Moon occurred roughly 28 days, Lorenzo claimed that it happened every 7 days. It's good to know that I have nothing real to argue about with my family. It's also good to know that my Spanish has come far enough that I'm able to have a argument. Anyway, just thought I would update this since I finally remembered.
Because I haven't done a post in a couple of weeks, I figured I would do one right now since I can't concentrate on my homework. I don't really have anything in particular to right about, so I'll just give you a short summary of my past week and an update about school.
Day: Monday, October 10. My birthday. Day 11 of school. Approx. day 32 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: Well, it was my birthday, so that in itself makes it at least somewhat memorable. But this one was obviously different than previous ones. First off, I turned 17, although the only thing that I can think of that that allows me to do is watch R movies in the theaters without an accompanying adult. The second, and bigger, difference was that it was my first birthday away from home and away from my parents, which was a little weird but did not make as big of an impact on me as I had expected. Other than the fact that people were wishing me happy birthday, the day was really not that different than any other day.
Day: Tuesday, October 11. Day 12 of school. Approx. day 33 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: Honestly, I'm trying to remember what I did on Tuesday, but I really can't remember anything. If I were to guess, I would say I had an average day at school, and then went and hung out with friends and got back home anywhere between 8:30 and 12:00. But I really can't remember.
Day: Wednesday, October 12. National holiday in Spain (for Columbus). Approx. day 34 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: I would have to say the most memorable moment of Wednesday was that I went out to pizza with my friends (there is a 40% chance that this actually happened on Tuesday, but I'm not positive). Eating out with my friends isn't that uncommon (probably happens once, maybe twice a week), but this happened to be the first time that I had eaten pizza that wasn't pre-frozen or pre-made since I left Colorado. I have to say it was pretty tasty. Me and two other kids split a group size pizza (the diameter was written down as 49 cm if I remember correctly) which had cheese, ham, and a spiced pieces of some kind of meat on it. The pizza was thinner than the ones that I'm used to in Boulder and, as far as I could tell, it lacked a tomato-based sauce under the cheese, but it was quite good. Actually, after thinking about it some more, I am about 85% sure this actually happened on Tuesday, in which case the memorable moment of Wednesday was that I spotted a praying mantis about 4 or 5 inches long in the backyard.
Day: Thursday, October 13. Day 13 of school. Approx. day 35 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: Philosophy class. I had multiple epiphanies in this class. It started with the teacher asking some philosophical question to the class. Some of the class disagreed with the teacher's opinion on the question, so they started arguing over the question. At this moment, my epiphanies occurred. The first was an a-ha moment that was somewhat along the lines of "Wow, I actually enjoy philosophy." The second was more of a holy-shit moment that went like this: "Holy shit, I can actually understand a fair bit of what they are saying." These two thoughts made this the most memorable moment of the day.
Day: Friday, October 14. Day 14 of school. Approx. day 36 of school in Boulder.
Memorable moment of the day: When I first started thinking of writing this post this past weekend I had something to write about right here, but at the moment it has slipped my mind, so I'll take a break now and continue a bit later when I remember what it is...... It has been about 35 minutes, and it is still not coming to me. I guess it really wasn't that memorable, so I will go ahead and continue with the remainder of the posting:
Class Power Rankings (favorite to least-favorite):
1. English: This is my favorite class at the moment for a couple of reasons. First, it is the class that I am learning the most everyday Spanish in because much of the subject matter is words that you actually use in the average day, opposed to the other classes where the vocab is subject specific. The other reason is that some days it comes as a nice break from the constant Spanish as it allows my brain to relax a little.
2. Physics and Chemistry: We are currently on the chemistry part of the class, and I've always enjoyed chemistry as a subject. Also, I like the teacher, so that is a plus.
3. Math: It kind of drops off a little from the top 2 to the next few. I have to put Math at the top of the rest though because it is a subject that I have always enjoyed.
4. Philosophy: I don't really enjoy learning about the stuff in the textbook a whole lot, but it is an interesting class when we talk about subjects and questions which people aren't in agreement about.
5. Technical Drawing: The awe factor is starting to wear off, so this class sits in the middle of the pack. It has flashes where it is fun, but it is also a lot of work and can be extremely frustrating at times.
6. Sciences for the Contemporary World: This class has yet to make much of an impression, and so it is in this spot until further notice.
7. PE: It is PE. It is not extremely fun, but it isn't bad either, so it is here.
8. Industrial Technology: It is not a very fun class, and for now it is not very interesting to me, so it sits near the bottom.
9. Language: I never liked Language Arts in English, and Spanish is no different. It has just never been a subject that interests me, so it is last for now.
As I said earlier, there were no big events to update y'all on, but there is a brief look of how things are currently going. Till next time.
EDIT: It has now been roughly five hours since I couldn't remember what happened Friday, but good news - I have finally remembered. The memorable moment of Friday was that I had my first real argument with my host father. But my host brother was on my side, which was good. The thing that makes this event memorable in a good light though is the fact that the argument was over something simple and stupid - the length of the cycle of the moon. While Dani and I argued that a New Moon occurred roughly 28 days, Lorenzo claimed that it happened every 7 days. It's good to know that I have nothing real to argue about with my family. It's also good to know that my Spanish has come far enough that I'm able to have a argument. Anyway, just thought I would update this since I finally remembered.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
School: First Impressions
I have now completed my first three weeks of school, over the course of which I have been to school a whopping 9 days. This is do to the fact that there have been ongoing strikes by both the students and the teachers regarding school hours, teacher wages, and other things that people like to complain about in relation to school. I think that there is going to be at least one day this coming week where I won't be going to school, and the strikes have the potential to go on for the next couple of months, which would be great in my opinion.
Anyway, school is set up quite differently here than it is in the US. The first difference in school is the hours that it runs. Contrary to what you are probably thinking due to the fact that they are protesting the hours, the days are shorter here than in the US. Instead of going 7:30 - 3:00 (or whatever it has now changed to), we go 8:30 - 2:20. So instead of having 7 classes 55 minutes in length, we have 6 classes 50 minutes in length. And yet they are still protesting how long the days are.
The next difference is the schedule. At Boulder High, a student has 7 classes corresponding to 7 periods that they take every day in the same order each day. Here, we have 9 different classes, but only take 6 a day. The schedule is different each day of the week. For example, you could have Math, Philosophy, PE, Physics and Chemistry, English, and Industrial Technology on Monday, but on Tuesday have Math fifth, English first, Philosophy fourth, and not have Industrial Technology, Physics and Chemistry, and PE at all. You have each class a certain number of times each week depending on which track you are on. I am on a Sciences/Technology track, so I have classes relating to these subjects more often than I have classes such as English and Philosophy, but there is also a Humanities, an Arts, and I think some kind of Language-related track. Instead of rotating classrooms and classmates like in the States, you have a single group of classmates and a single room in which almost all of your teachers come to teach you in. The only exception are the periods where you have one of your two elective classes. During this period, the class splits roughly in half and usually goes to another classroom, where they combine with one other half-group. I just realized that I have yet to tell you what classes I am taking, so here goes:
The classes I have four times a week: Technical Drawing, Industrial Technology, Physics and Chemistry, Castilian Language, Math
The classes I have three times a week: English, Philosophy
The classes I have twice a week: Sciences of the Contemporary World, PE
In case you were wondering, the two electives I am taking are Industrial Technology and Technical Drawing, which are instead of Biology and Geology and Informatics, respectively.
The third difference is the grading scale. Instead of having A, B, and C as passing grades and D and F as failing in a letter-based system, Spain uses a number based system: 5 and above is passing, below 5 is failing. It is too early for me to tell if I like it more or to give you more specifics about it, but I'll let you know more about later on.
The last, and most obvious, difference is the language. Clearly, it is pretty much all in Spanish, which makes it a little more difficult, but it should get easier as the year progresses.
And now, my first impressions, class by class:
Math: Opposed to contrary belief, the Spanish do not appear to be more advanced than the US in math, at least that's my impression. In fact, the highest level of math I will be learning this year is roughly equal to the highest I learned last year. In other words, this year I will be taking roughly the same math class that I did last year.
Philosophy: Honestly, it is hard for me to have a first impression of this class due to the fact that I have little-to-no idea of what is going on in it. Philosophy is hard enough to understand in one's native language, but when you're just learning the language, there is little point in trying.
English: Before this year I never thought I'd say this, but so far English is my favorite class. Of course it is a British English, so it is not super easy, but it is easy nonetheless. But also, it is fun. The activities we have done have been fun so far, and it is kind of funny listening to all of the Spanish kids trying to pronounce different English sounds that they are not used to.
PE: It is PE. It is really not that different than in the States.
Industrial Technology: It is really to early to tell whether this class will be hard or not (although I am thinking yes), mainly because the teacher hasn't showed up more than 4 or 5 days (I think she broke her arm, but I'm not sure).
Technical Drawing: This class is going to be hard, but it will also probably be one of the classes I try the hardest in. So far it has been quite fun, but I don't know if this will continue or wear off, so we'll see.
Physics and Chemistry: Luckily, we have started out with chemistry, so it is fairly easy because it is review from last year, and the names of most of the units and elements are very similar to the names in English. I am expecting the Physics to be difficult because all of the Spanish kids are much more advanced at it than I am, but we won't be starting it for awhile and I should have a pretty good grip on the language by the time we do.
Castilian Language: This is basically a Language Arts class, but it is in Spanish. The reading level is, of course, advanced, so it is going to be one of my hardest classes. Luckily the professor has offered to work with me and give me easier assignments, so there is the chance that I pass this class.
Sciences of the Contemporary World: I am still not really sure what exactly this class is, but it seems like it will be interesting and not incredibly hard.
I know I haven't really said anything about the teachers, but that is because, for the most part, it is too early for me to tell if I like them or not. There are two that stand out to me though, but not because they are ones that I like. The first is the math teacher. She knows her material which is always good, but she is not very good at teaching it. Also, she doesn't like anyone talking if its not to her, even if it is to ask a neighbor a question, and as a result she has moved around roughly half the class. The last part also applies to the Philosophy teacher. I cannot say if the first part also does, because, as I have said before, I have little idea what is happening in the class. The thing that she does that I really despise is she starts off be spending roughly half the class asking random people to read the notes from the past couple of classes, which isn't too bad. What makes it bad is the fact that she interrupts roughly every three sentences to criticize the students notes, which is incredibly annoying.
Well, I am done for now. I have to start on my homework for the weekend, but am looking forward to what will hopefully be a short week.
Anyway, school is set up quite differently here than it is in the US. The first difference in school is the hours that it runs. Contrary to what you are probably thinking due to the fact that they are protesting the hours, the days are shorter here than in the US. Instead of going 7:30 - 3:00 (or whatever it has now changed to), we go 8:30 - 2:20. So instead of having 7 classes 55 minutes in length, we have 6 classes 50 minutes in length. And yet they are still protesting how long the days are.
The next difference is the schedule. At Boulder High, a student has 7 classes corresponding to 7 periods that they take every day in the same order each day. Here, we have 9 different classes, but only take 6 a day. The schedule is different each day of the week. For example, you could have Math, Philosophy, PE, Physics and Chemistry, English, and Industrial Technology on Monday, but on Tuesday have Math fifth, English first, Philosophy fourth, and not have Industrial Technology, Physics and Chemistry, and PE at all. You have each class a certain number of times each week depending on which track you are on. I am on a Sciences/Technology track, so I have classes relating to these subjects more often than I have classes such as English and Philosophy, but there is also a Humanities, an Arts, and I think some kind of Language-related track. Instead of rotating classrooms and classmates like in the States, you have a single group of classmates and a single room in which almost all of your teachers come to teach you in. The only exception are the periods where you have one of your two elective classes. During this period, the class splits roughly in half and usually goes to another classroom, where they combine with one other half-group. I just realized that I have yet to tell you what classes I am taking, so here goes:
The classes I have four times a week: Technical Drawing, Industrial Technology, Physics and Chemistry, Castilian Language, Math
The classes I have three times a week: English, Philosophy
The classes I have twice a week: Sciences of the Contemporary World, PE
In case you were wondering, the two electives I am taking are Industrial Technology and Technical Drawing, which are instead of Biology and Geology and Informatics, respectively.
The third difference is the grading scale. Instead of having A, B, and C as passing grades and D and F as failing in a letter-based system, Spain uses a number based system: 5 and above is passing, below 5 is failing. It is too early for me to tell if I like it more or to give you more specifics about it, but I'll let you know more about later on.
The last, and most obvious, difference is the language. Clearly, it is pretty much all in Spanish, which makes it a little more difficult, but it should get easier as the year progresses.
And now, my first impressions, class by class:
Math: Opposed to contrary belief, the Spanish do not appear to be more advanced than the US in math, at least that's my impression. In fact, the highest level of math I will be learning this year is roughly equal to the highest I learned last year. In other words, this year I will be taking roughly the same math class that I did last year.
Philosophy: Honestly, it is hard for me to have a first impression of this class due to the fact that I have little-to-no idea of what is going on in it. Philosophy is hard enough to understand in one's native language, but when you're just learning the language, there is little point in trying.
English: Before this year I never thought I'd say this, but so far English is my favorite class. Of course it is a British English, so it is not super easy, but it is easy nonetheless. But also, it is fun. The activities we have done have been fun so far, and it is kind of funny listening to all of the Spanish kids trying to pronounce different English sounds that they are not used to.
PE: It is PE. It is really not that different than in the States.
Industrial Technology: It is really to early to tell whether this class will be hard or not (although I am thinking yes), mainly because the teacher hasn't showed up more than 4 or 5 days (I think she broke her arm, but I'm not sure).
Technical Drawing: This class is going to be hard, but it will also probably be one of the classes I try the hardest in. So far it has been quite fun, but I don't know if this will continue or wear off, so we'll see.
Physics and Chemistry: Luckily, we have started out with chemistry, so it is fairly easy because it is review from last year, and the names of most of the units and elements are very similar to the names in English. I am expecting the Physics to be difficult because all of the Spanish kids are much more advanced at it than I am, but we won't be starting it for awhile and I should have a pretty good grip on the language by the time we do.
Castilian Language: This is basically a Language Arts class, but it is in Spanish. The reading level is, of course, advanced, so it is going to be one of my hardest classes. Luckily the professor has offered to work with me and give me easier assignments, so there is the chance that I pass this class.
Sciences of the Contemporary World: I am still not really sure what exactly this class is, but it seems like it will be interesting and not incredibly hard.
I know I haven't really said anything about the teachers, but that is because, for the most part, it is too early for me to tell if I like them or not. There are two that stand out to me though, but not because they are ones that I like. The first is the math teacher. She knows her material which is always good, but she is not very good at teaching it. Also, she doesn't like anyone talking if its not to her, even if it is to ask a neighbor a question, and as a result she has moved around roughly half the class. The last part also applies to the Philosophy teacher. I cannot say if the first part also does, because, as I have said before, I have little idea what is happening in the class. The thing that she does that I really despise is she starts off be spending roughly half the class asking random people to read the notes from the past couple of classes, which isn't too bad. What makes it bad is the fact that she interrupts roughly every three sentences to criticize the students notes, which is incredibly annoying.
Well, I am done for now. I have to start on my homework for the weekend, but am looking forward to what will hopefully be a short week.
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