Primeras impresiones: La primera semana de clase

After spending a week taking courses with Spaniards and other international students at USAL (university of Salamanca), I have a lot of stories to tell, from successes to failures, from excitement to worry. Here are some anecdotes/thoughts from this first week (divided up by class)!

Literatura hispanoamericana del siglo XIX (Latin American literature from the 19th Century): (Mondays from 1-2, Thursdays from 11-1)
Day 1: The professor for this class speaks REALLY quietly and a lot of students whisper throughout the class, which made it difficult for me to hear her although I was in the third row. Any time somebody coughed or turned the page to their notebook, I thought to myself "whelp, there goes another comment that I missed", because the teacher speaks so softly that even a gentle clearing of the throat will cover her words. I arrived to this class a little early, and at 11:00 a.m. sharp (the time the class should start), there were only foreigners in the classroom (I met a French girl and an Italian girl). At 11:15 a.m., a massive group of Spaniards comes in, all speaking loudly and excitedly. Unknown to the foreigners, classes scheduled for "11", actually start at 11:15.
Day 2: Today, it was easier for me to understand the professor because I sat closer to the front. She lectured the whole time, giving a lot of information and jumping around a bit, therefore, my notes are ridiculously sporadic - but I think I got the gist of what she was saying! BONUS!

Portugués: (Mondays & Wednesdays from 6-7pm)
Day 1: Well, I went to my Portuguese classroom ten minutes before class started, and nobody was in there. I waited a few minutes, and nobody arrived, so I thought maybe something was up because usually there is at least one other student waiting for a class 5 minutes before it starts. So, I went down to the "conserjería", or concierge, and - SURPRISE - there wasn't anyone there either. What help! So, 15 minutes after 6 p.m., when my class started, the concierge arrives and tells me that my class isn't in A-23, as my schedule said, but in A-15. The university is a little disorganized in this sense because many students have had the same issue. So, Katie, miss never-late, always punctual to the point that she gets there 10-15 minutes early and is "late" if she arrives 5 minutes early, walked into the Portuguese class 15 minutes late. The scandal!
Day 2: Arrived on time to class this time! I understood everything the professor said in Portuguese, but cannot for the life of me remember how to speak Portuguese, aside from a few sentences here and there. Also, she has a very Portuguese accent compared to mine (if you can even call mine an accent ;)), which is from Brazil (seeing as my professor in Boulder is Brazilian), and she pronounced words differently, so I'm going to come with the accent of a confused American who can't decide between Brazilian and Portuguese pronunciation (that, or she's just forgotten which is which).

Gramática para la enseñanza de Español (Grammar for teaching Spanish) (Tuesdays 11-1pm): 
Day 1: My grammar class is in the same classroom as my literature class, but luckily this professor speaks more loudly. He's a very awesome professor! The first day, he said that he is very lucky to have found a job that he loves, because not everybody gets to do that. He recognized, however that teaching does have it's one flaw, which it suffers more than any other profession - it is the profession in which one most feels his own aging. Ever year, the students are "the same", and each year, he is one year older. He's a cool cat, very intellectual and very friendly.

Francés (Tuesday and Wednesday from 8-9 p.m.): 
Day 1: The professor speaks really REALLY fast and in a very colloquial manner (and by American standards, is really vulgar....he says "coño" in practically every other sentence), which makes it a little hard for me to catch everything, especially the jokes. The only one that I understood (he made various regarding the nationalities of the students in class) was when he said that the boys from Denmark look like cheese.
Day 2: We finally got down to er, learning French? yesterday in class, but since the teacher went on so many tangents, or as he calls them "parentheses", we basically learned three words and how to pronounce them with a musical French accent. These words are : Bonjour, Bonsoir, and Bonne nuit. Practical.

Some general observations: Classes here are WAY bigger than I'm used to (like 30 or so people in my French class, and probably 40-50 in my Literature class). I've definitely realized how spoiled I've been at Boulder with literature classes with 9 people.

MEETING PEOPLE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES IN SPANISH HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST MAGICAL EXPERIENCE EVER. HANDS DOWN.

And finally, a little "success!!" moment for Katie:
Yesterday, after I got the photocopies for my grammar course, I saw a girl in the stairway who looked a little lost, so when we made eye contact, I asked her "¿Qué buscas?/What are you looking for?" She told me classroom P-1, and I gave her directions because I actually knew where it was! BAM! (granted, I have two classes in there and the room would be a little hard to miss given that fact, but details schmetails). Moment of pride in the life of Katie Odens.

Hasta pronto,
Katie