Ocupada

I know it has been a while since my last post; this week has been a pretty busy one! I successfully made it through the first week of classes.  I am taking five classes total, and in each of them there are other international students so I don’t feel too alone.  From what I have heard from the students that have been here for a semester, it gets easier in about a month.  Some of my professors are definitely easier to understand than others.  My favorite course is “Political History of Latin America”.  The professor is so relaxed, and there are less than 20 students.  Basically, we just pick topics that we want to discuss that relate to Latin American politics.  My toughest course will probably be “Hispanic American Literature”.  The professor is so formal and old-fashioned: he threw someone out of the class for being late and yelled at another that took a sip of water from her water bottle.  He said the first day of class, “Don’t raise your hand if you don’t have something important to say.”  It’s a little intimidating, but I’m sure it will just take some getting used to. 

Needless to say, the weekend has been a welcome break from the excitement of school starting.  Last night, my roommates and I went to a concert.  The concert was supposed to start at 10:30pm which is late to begin with, but ended up not starting until 12:30am.  This is so typically Spanish: no one is ever on time or in a hurry.  Not even classes start on time! The professor walks in 10, 20, or 30 minutes after the scheduled start time.  It’s a bit of a culture shock for me because at my school if the professor isn’t there after 20 minutes, everyone gets up and walks out.  Likewise, I took my phone to the phone store to get it fixed, and they were like, “Oh, just leave it here and come back for it in two days.”  They didn’t even take my name or e-mail or anything.  I come back two days later, and they were like, “Oh, come back this afternoon.”  Long story short, I went to that darn store five times.  They weren’t even apologetic; it was like this was a completely normal situation.  I just need to learn how to chill out and be as relaxed as the natives.