La vida académica

So recently I've gotten a little carried away talking about my travels in my blog posts. But there's more to life than that! In fact, I'm in Granada most of the time and I spend a lot of that time in class... so I wanted to share a little of my academic life. I promise it's not as boring as you'd think.

First off, here's the sched: Spanish Grammar (required), Islamic Art and Architecture, the Arab World and the West, Translation: Spanish to English, and Applied Information. Sounds thrilling right?

Brief summary: I'll start with Applied Information (at the University of Granada - UGR, in Spanish) since I've only been to one class so there's not much to say*. But let me say this: I guess all those typing classes in elementary school and powerpoint presentations paid off, because I'm in a second or third year college course that is going over what .doc means as opposed to .txt. We practiced changing it. And we talking about what a systems operator was for 1/2 hour. World of Computing anyone??

*The class I was GOING to take was apparently full and IES did not tell me this until earlier this week, so this is my replacement class.

Translation (@UGR, English): Well lucky for me I speak English and I don't have to translate texts into Spanish because that would be extremely hard (imagine trying to write the way native Spanish speakers write). Instead, translating from Spanish to English is so fun! Okay don't judge me, but working with Spanish students in groups (the entire class is group work) is so great -- I get to speak in Spanish (hello, fluency, here I come! no jk i am so far from that) but also I know what English texts are supposed to sound like so the half of my grade that is determined by my "grasp of English grammar, spelling and fluidity" is pretty much taken care of. (or should I say, "of which that half of my grade is taken care" -- you know about those pesky dangling prepositions...) Basically I get to make Spanish friends and it's the only time of the day I get to help Spanish students. Yay!

Arab World (at IES and in English): Sweet poli sci class about the interactions between the League of Arab Nations and the EU. It's very interesting and the growth of Islam as a religion is surprising. According to my professor in roughly 20 years Islam spread from Mecca and Medina to the entire northern half of Africa, the Iberian Peninsula and the majority of the Byzantine Empire (middle east/turkey/etc). Respect. Plus my only assignment all semester is a 10 page paper on Turkey and the EU.

Islamic Art and Architecture (IES, Spanish): Half the classes are walking tours of the city which is spectacular. Everything is fascinating and I am NOT an art history buff by any means. The Alhambra is amazing and the history of architecture in this area is incredible. Minus some boring powerpoints, this is a fab class.

Grammar (IES, Spanish): worthless. the professor is the kind that assigns a million things (all busywork) and never follows up on any of them. nothing is helpful and the class is a joke. no respect at all for my prof plus it's four days a week!

The highlights: I am meeting Spanish students, finally, and it's great! They're so awesome. My Spanish is improving and I am learning some interesting things, plus classes are mostly a total breeze.

Downside: I'm in class more than I would be at home (18 hours) and class is generally speaking not as interesting or worthwhile. But that's why I'm not taking it too seriously and THAT is definitely a plus. Turns out academic stress is a huge bummer and I am loving the relaxation and sleep!