First Day of Classes

So we finally have (officially) started our Spring Semester here in Valencia. While everyone in Athens has been slaving away at UGA, the group here has enjoyed an extended vacation at home and a three day party in Madrid before we began our classes to day at the Universitat de Valencia. Yesterday we received our schedules and unfortunately we were all disappointed to find out that we had classes on Fridays. This was a blow to most of our travel plans because its pretty difficult to plan a fun weekend of sightseeing and travelling with only one full day to do activities and see the destination of choice. Fortunately, our classes are done at 2pm at the latest so we always have our afternoons free to do whatever here in Valencia. Yesterday after our orientation, I, along with Caroline and Mary Clare, ventured into the downtown/business district of Valencia to find the Corte Ingles. Now Corte Ingles is the Spanish version of Walmart meets Macy's. Each of them is about 5 to 6 stories high and has everything from designer clothes to dish washing detergent. Needles to say it is a popular shopping spot for students traveling abroad that seek all the comforts of a supermarket and a mall. They also sell cellphones so most of us have purchased our temporary cell phones there as well. After wandering around and missing the store by several blocks, we finally found it and proceeded to stock up on shampoo, snacks, laundry detergent and other sundries. It is a very convenient store and often there will be two buildings next to each other that has clothes/grocery store in one and the adjacent building will have furniture and electronics.
On Tuesday, we all had our first FULL day of classes. Even though most of us only have two per day (an unlucky few have three), each class is a solid 90 minutes. We get a short 15 minute break and/or a class period break depending on the schedule. I luckily only have one class on Monday and two back to back on Tuesday through Friday. The first class I had was Topics in Spanish Culture. Our profresora's name is Maria Estelles. She is very enthusiastic and bubbly. She said that to appreciate and understand the Spanish culture we will have to truly make an effort to interact with Velancianos and other Spaniards, learn to dance and sing traditional Spanish music, explore the city's cultural offerings and, pick up the nuanced differences between the Spanish and American lifestyles. All of us enjoyed her class. We spent the majority of the time telling her what differences we have observed since we have been here. She then proceeded to explain them and why we see things differently. I really look forward to learning the culture to improve my Spanish.
My second class of the day was 20th century history of Spain. Our Resident TA Aitor Esquerrez teaches that class. All we did today was go over the syllabus and view a slide show of some famous places in Spain. I think that class will also be interesting because I feel not that many people outside of Spain know a lot about the history of this great country. I guess I'm glad I signed up for it then. Tomorrow I have Spanish for Business and Spanish "Cine" or film in English.

Move in Day

So after a fun beginning in Madrid, the group finally started our way to Valencia. Most of us were looking forward to getting settled into our dorms and meeting the other regular students. The bus ride from Madrid was four hours and the scenery wasn't that impressive. Mostly it looked like we drove through the Iowa of Spain. Farms and some small rocky foothills dotted the roadway. As we drove through the out skirts of Valencia we noticed the poorer neighborhoods and how it wasn't exactly what we thought it was going to be. But then the surroundings started to change. The streets narrowed, the architecture turned into what one thinks of when imagining a quaint European coastal city. The building are very old and distinguished looking and all of them are complete with a balcony and french doors.
The Rector Peset (the dorm) we are staying in is deep within the oldest parts of town along very narrow one way streets, so of course the coach bus couldn't pull us up in front of it. I now know why they stress the importance of not having bags that are over the weight limit...for roughly 400 meters we schleped our bags through the winding streets to the entrance the the Rector Peset. Unless you knew it was a dorm, the buildings modest exterior would lead you to believe otherwise. As soon as we stepped in, we saw in the courtyard an assembled group of regular students cheering for us as we walked past them on our way to our rooms. This welcoming made us all of feel a little bit more comfortable because most of us were intimidated about conversing with the students in Spanish.
The dorms at UGA have nothing on the charm or convenience of the Rector Peset. Every room has its own private bathroom, the dorms also have a two lounges, several study rooms, laundry room, gym, separate breakfast and dinner cafeterias, computer labs and, a music room. The layout is still a little confusing because the rooms are blocked of in corners of the building and Im still not sure where everyone else room is. But after getting unpacked, we had our first dinner in the dinning hall, the food was OK. I wasn't really expecting anything better but its pre-paid so I can't complain. I'm definitely looking forward to classes starting and seeing the rest of the campus. I already want to start planning some weekend trips with the group. Hopefully, the classes won't be too hard or too much work.

Llegada a España!

After a long and tiring day and a half, I finally started my semester in Spain. I flew out of Atlanta on Tuesday evening around 8:30 on British Airways. It was a "quick" 7 hour and 20 minute flight according to the captain. The flight went well except the food was less than stellar. I have flown British Airways before and the service was about the same but the in flight entertainment and food wasn't exactly what it was the last time I flew with them. Luckily my friend from UGA, Diego, was also on the same flight so I had someone to talk to. We enjoyed each others company and the free wine also made the flight somewhat more entertaining. I can never really sleep on long haul flights like that so I always feel out of it when I land.
Diego and I were worried about navigating the leviathan of an airport that is London-Heathrow International. I had about a 2 and half hour lay over and Diego had about 45 minutes longer than myself. Heathrow is such a crowded airport that they park most of the planes out on the tarmac and bus passengers in to the terminal. After our first bus trip into terminal 5, we had to figure out where the Iberia departures were and the British Airways European departures were for myself and Diego, respectively. Again we were fortune enough to both be leaving out of terminal 3. So we followed the signs to another bus that took us on a short 1o minutes ride around the airport. From there we had to jump through the hoops of security and Diego made the mistake of forgetting to take out his liquids in his carry on. 45 minutes later and a completely unpacked bag, he finally made it through. We caught our connecting flights and met up in the Madrid airport. I arrived first and bought an hour of wifi while I waited for Diego. I got my first test of my Spanish conversation skills when a young cab driver started to ask me who I was waiting on and if we would need a ride. I spoke with my best ability and I think he half understood me with frequent requests to start over. This made me feel a little overwhelmed with the fact that I have to do this for the next three months to function in Spain but hopefully with time my skills will improve. I also thought the cab driver, his name was Gabriel, was a litlle sketchy. I told him we were waiting on Diegos aunt to take us on the Metro to the hotel. She lives south of Madrid and took off work to come meet us. I felt grateful that we had a friendly local to help us navigate the Metro all the way to the Gran Vía stop that was right next to our Hotel. She spoke quickly in Spanish with Diego who is quite proficient because both his parents speak it at home with him. We finally arrived at the hotel and walked around for about 15 minutes after a shower and ate dinner with the rest of the group. Everyone seemed very eager to meet each other and we all felt nervous about the new people we would meet and what life would be like for the next three months. I will post more about the night life in Madrid and our journey to Valencia to start classes on Monday. Pictures to follow when I have more internet available!

Jumping Off...

So I decided to start a blog...very typical and trite thing to do I know. But I want to eventually turn this into something useful and make it presentable to the world. I doubt I'll reach many readers but never say never. I am about to study abroad through a program with the college I attend, The University of Georgia. I will be spending roughly three months in Spain and I figure my adjustment to new people, curriculum, culture and a new city should supply my blog with some interesting material. I will be going to Valencia, Spain and immersing myself in a new world of Spanish culture...complete with the lisps they speak with....