I still love America.
The Spanish public education system makes me appreciate the UC system SO MUCH. I started class at Complutense on Monday and it was definitely a cultural experience. First of all, I'm not officially enrolled in any classes yet because EAP doesn't allow us to matriculate until a week after classes start. We also wont know if the classes we attended during the first week of school are even on the "approved course list." Disorganized much? Anyways, here's a run-through of my day:
Cervantes, my first class- I've never fought so hard to stay awake in my entire life.
Teatro griego- couldn't find the classroom, gave up. Would it really break the bank if the university put some signs on the front of their buildings?
Mitos (Myths)- professor doesn't show.
Literatura española desde 1975- professor says the class will be "mierda" if all the foreigners try to take it.
Literature hispanoamericano I- professor says the class will be too difficult for you.
The second day was much better. Cervantes was slightly more interesting. I attended a history class of the americas, very interesting from the spanish point of view. The mitos professor showed up and told us class was cancelled for the next two weeks (woo hoo)! (Who does that?) And I plan to take an anthropology class at the other Complutense campus starting next week!
Campus reminds me of a scene that should have been in Inception. The literature buildings are modern looking, with clean lines and lots of stairs and there is a large courtyard with overgrown weeds and randomly a few beds of roses. The mixture of modern architecture, with weeds, roses, benches, and graffiti everywhere is just kinda spooky.
Most of the graffiti I see everywhere is about women's rights, Latin America, or Israel. I had no idea that there are Spanish people who think that the government should be helping Latin America. It's an interesting topic and I want to look into more. Also I didn't know that there was still a strong anti-Jewish sentiment in Spain. I thought that was over centuries ago, but apparently not. The graffiti about Israel basically accuses the country of committing genocide.
Anyways, as my last post said, I was supposed to be in Brussels right now. But thanks to the Belgian and Spanish national strike, I have been deprived of the waffles I so seriously desired. Who is begging to go to Brussels? Uh, I guess I was. I think everyone should just boycott Ryanair instead of going to work. Ryanair es mierda. My roomies and I had to call 5-6 times before they promised to refund our flights... and I had a bad feeling that's not even going to happen. So much for going to Brussels. I don't think I'm going to try again... I already spent all the money and time I had in me for Brussels. I hope Easyjet is better.
