First Day of School!

For the Dartmouth Language Study Abroad (LSA) program, we take 3 classes, and today was the first day. I'm lucky to live close to the University so I can walk. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to walk along La Gran Via, which is a busy street but there is a pedestrian walkway in the middle. There were lots of spanish students in and around the University when I arrived this morning. All of my classes are in the Faculitad de Filologia building.

First, I had gramática, which is essentially the same as Spanish 3 that you can take at Dartmouth. The professor is a younger guy who speaks spanish very clearly and slowly. I think he will be a good teacher because he has taught Dartmouth students before and understands which grammar rules the hardest for American students. 

After that I had the conversation portion of Spanish 3 which is taught by a different professor from the University. The professor for the conversation class took us on a tour of the University. She showed us where we can make photocopies, how to get to the library, the cafeteria, and the bathrooms. The University of Barcelona has a bunch of campuses throughout the city, but this one is pretty much just one really big city block, but it is made up of several interconnected buildings with courtyards. So those two (gramática y conversation) are distinct, but together they compose Spanish 3.

The next class I had was literature. This class is taught by our Dartmouth professor who is the faculty director of the LSA this term. He is lively and entertaining and clearly knows a lot. Interestingly, his spanish is much harder to understand than any of the professors from the University of Barcelona. In this class we are going to read and discuss short stories written by famous spanish authors.

Last, I had "Historia Cultural de España." I liked the professor for this class a lot. By this point, I was pretty wiped out because all of the classes were exclusively in Spanish and I have to concentrate really hard to understand anything. Each of the professors noted that the first week or two are the hardest, so there's hope! But I feel like I already understood more today than I did when I got here. 

I walked home after classes and mi mama was already cooking lunch. Today we ate macaroni with meat sauce first and then chicken. After lunch we watched a little TV and then I went back to the University to meet my friend Eve. She is on a different exchange program because she actually speaks spanish well, meaning she was over-qualified for the Dartmouth LSA. Eve and I walked around some touristy parts of the city, including Las Ramblas. We parted ways and I walked back home. After the time change, it doesn't get dark until around 8:30pm which is wonderful. I stopped in the supermarket near my apartment to buy sunscreen for the beach tomorrow. The supermarket was cool because they have all kinds of weird foods that we don't have in New Hampshire and reading the labels was a good way to practice my food vocabulary!

We are going to go the beach tomorrow after classes because it's going to be 70 degrees! My apologies to everyone in Hanover, I hope it doesn't snow ;)