La Universidad: UPO

(First impression of my new University.... ¿¡Dónde está el césped?!)

School..... Escuela.... It is here. Ha empezado. The language might be different, but those two words, school and escuela, they don't differ in any other way. For some people it is those overwhelming thoughts of the long hours of work that lie ahead, the end of the fun, worry free days of summer that they have grown so accustomed to. For me, it is the dreaded opening week. See, I seem to have this uncanny nack for always finding myself with a class schedule that represents as stark a contrast as you will find to those classes that I thought I had signed up for. Something as different as, say, Santa Clara University to my new Pablo De Olavide University (which we will get to later). This makes those first 4 days of school a stress filled, lets take as many classes as I can because the world is going to end (and obviously thats what I would want to do if the world were going to end) week. And this one proved no different. The first three days of school I sat in on about every class offered and some more than once. I was consistently running from one building to another and I don't think I've ever walked into so many doors in such a short period of time in my entire life (as I always seemed to be looking down at a map of the school when a building suddenly sprung up before me). Aaaanyways, I'm good now. I just called my university to make sure all my classes fulfill requirements there and, gracias a dios, they do. I also had my school send me an email saying that same thing just in case they try to hold onto me for another quarter when I return by saying that these classes actually don't count - which, I've heard, has happened before.

I am enrolled in 5 classes at Pablo de Olavide Universidad: Spanish (por supuesto), The European Union, International Marketing, History/Religion of Spain and The European Economy. It seems like a pretty solid course load and the final two classes are taught in Spanish so either I will learn a lot more Spanish as well as history/economy, or nothing at all. When we first saw the campus I'm pretty sure that we all had the same thought: "we are going to jail... or at least to a mental institute... I knew that this whole Spain thing was too good to be true".

(Left: The "watchtower"

Right: The hallways - reminds me of those California highschools I                                               used to see in the movies/disney channel)

It was made even funnier that on the first day of class two of my teachers made a point of reassuring us that we are not in jail, we did not do anything wrong in coming to Spain, and that we will be allowed to go home at the end of everyday. The school consists of an outdoor hallway running for the length of about 3 football fields with buildings springing off to the sides every now and then. The buildings are all yellow and orange with bars on the windows, but the classrooms themselves are just like any classroom you would see at a university back in the states. The thing that I miss most about Santa Clara as compared to this school is the grass. In Santa Clara everything feels so inviting. The freshly cut grass calls your name - whether it is for sports, a nap or just some good, clear thinking. The flowers create an aura of warmth and acceptance and the beautiful architecture makes you want to pull out your camera everywhere you go. Not to say that you don't feel a desire to take some pictures at my new university, its just for the complete opposite reasons; like, hey, look where I go to school, its worse than yours haha not really though; its just going to take some getting used to but I know that I'll love it, im not worried. (I don't have pictures right now, but I'm planning on putting some up in the next couple of days so be sure to check back!)

(This is definitely the kind of picture that you would find in a brochure... a solid use of the only green grass found on campus... though it does look more along the lines of an all-girls boarding school with those pink buildings..)

Over the weekend about 30 of us went to the beach town Huelva. There isn't a whole lot to report from there other than we found a football and got in a good three hours of playing time. Man did I ever need that. Ok time for some tarea! I hope that the United States is still united and very states-like. I read that Obama's latest health care speech was his best since president but I wasn't able to see it. Also everybody from Spain enjoys bragging about how there economy is worse than ours.