Real School. Well, at least I'm in Spain.

---

Hello err-body!

Before I begin, I didn't really have any photos to go along with school starting, so I added some photos of our intensive Spanish class. I wanted to add them a few blogs ago, but I didn't have them because I had to wait for one of the girls in my class to e-mail them to me!! I also added a few random photos for your viewing pleasure 😊

Well, classes started for me, officially, yesterday. I didn’t have class until noon which is very different for me! I was the only one who didn’t have a class to try on Monday, so I got to hear about everyone else’s first day. Some went well, most were not so lucky. Turns out that a lot of whether or not we can take the class depends on the professor and if they are willing to let us sit our exams early. In Spain the way the semester works is that we have class from the end of September until the middle of December, then they have Christmas break then they have exams all through January and February. However, the program we are with finishes the 23rd of December so that the American students can get back in time for the Holidays as well as the start of second semester.
Some professors are very willing to work with you and allow you to take the exam early, others are very rigid. Monday I accompanied Natalie to the university for her first class at 3:30 and went to sit in the library. At 3:45 Natalie reappeared. “The professor said that if you will not be here February 3rd for the exam you cannot take the class.” Harsh stuff. So I was then getting worried that my classes would also cause a problem.
Tuesday came around and thankfully I had some friends in the class with me. Hispanic Literature of Oral Tradition is a rather interesting class! Our professor is extremely nice and she told us there is no problem taking our exam early and she actually seems to enjoy having foreign students. There are only 18 kids in the class so it will be nice to have a closer connection with the professor. Us foreigners went up to meet her after class and she said that it was actually a good class to take because it is nothing that even the native kids from Spain have seen before, so we are all on the same level. Nice. She is fairly easy to understand as well, she spits a bit when she talks, but I just sit in the second row instead of the first, Haha! (Name that Movie!! “Try to get a seat in the back; he tends to spit when he talks about products liability.”). She also said that this is the only class of its kind in Andalucía, maybe even Spain I can’t quite remember, so I am very intrigued to see how it turns out.

Juan said yesterday that I may have problems with one of my professors. She teaches Spanish Pragmatics. (For those of you who are wondering, pragmatics is like how some words have multiple meanings that change depending on their context.) So, Juan suggested I find a backup class. Hayley said she was going to an archeology class that evening at 5:30 so I decided I might as well just go along. We showed up 10 minutes early and there was no one there but the door was open. We sat in the room alone for a half-an-hour until we finally decided that we were probably ok to just go ahead and leave. Haha, I guess no one wanted to take archeology! The problem was easily alleviated by a good dose of a Disney movie and some popcorn back at Hayley and Jerica’s house. We watched Aladdin!

Today I showed up for my pragmatics class even though Juan said I may have trouble with the professor. She walked in and didn’t look so scary. I had a few Erasmus kids in the class with me that I knew so I was glad that I wouldn’t be alone at least, or so I thought. She began telling us about the class and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Before I begin about the syllabus, I just want to say that if you are a foreign student, this class may be very difficult for you. If your level of Spanish is only so-so, you probably shouldn’t take the class.” Which, I can understand, however I have this sort of complex, where when people tell me I shouldn’t (with a sort of “I don’t think you can do this” undertone) I tend to guard my pride and say, “Just try and tell me I can’t pass this class.” Hence, I spend the semester stressed. Another trait I think I get from both of my parents.

Words with multiple meanings would be difficult in a new language, but I feel like this class will really help my Spanish. I could see Anna (one of the Erasmus girls) looking back at one of her friends. There is a lot of work involved in the class, but a lot of it is in groups, and our teacher offers tutoring sessions, and she said she will meet us outside of class/office hours if we need to. About 20 minutes later Anna and the other 3 Erasmus kids got up and left. However, I stayed. I wanted to hear more about the class. Turns out that in our groups, you cannot have a group of all foreign students, so I wouldn’t have been able to work with them anyways, and I talked to the professor afterwards and she is very nice and surprisingly she is going to let me sit the exam early! So, I think I am going to give it a try. It will probably be my most difficult class, but maybe it will be better for my Spanish in the end.

I had about an hour and a half between that class and my next so I headed to the Library to find Juan and see if anyone else had a break. Hayley walked up not long after and said that grades were up from our intensive course we took. We all passed. Our grades…still trying to figure those out. I got an 8 out of 10. That may be a B, but Hayley said we all had C’s on the sheet. Juan, our super director by the way, investigated it for us. An 8 in Spanish grading is a C in the European system, which is a B in the United States system. Uhg. Well, the point is that I passed and I will get 6 credits toward my Spanish major out of the way; six down, 24 more to go.

I had Oral Tradition again today, and we started on actual class, class. It was pretty interesting, but I can tell that I am going to be forced to really improve my listening skills because she reads the stories out loud, we don’t have them in front of us. Guess that’s the point of oral tradition! I still very much like the professor though.
I still had time before I needed to head home for lunch so I went down to the copy shop to pick up my pragmatics homework. It was pretty dang long. I decided to head to the library to go ahead and get started. I ran into Juan on my way into the lib. I had a good talk with Juan about this class. She assigned a reading for tomorrow which is like 26 pages long and all about language theory, it is something I think I would have trouble with even in English. I know this because I would look up a word in Spanish, and then I would be like, “Um. I don’t even know what this means in English.” So I would have to look it up in the dictionary. I’ve never taken a language theory class (like linguistics, pragmatics, syntax, rhetoric, etc.) before, so it is an adventure in more ways than one. Juan sat with me and read a part of the reading and was helping to explain some of the sentences with multiple meanings. He said that if I ever need help he would sit and help me with it, and the teacher also offers tutoring sessions. I will go back tomorrow and see how it goes, I guess.

After a very delicious lunch, I headed off to my final class of the day: Romance Linguistics. Now, may I point out that at Clemson I usually take all science classes and one Spanish class per semester. This semester I am taking ALL language/Spanish classes. One would think, “Oh, Devin. What a break from all of that science!” And you would be right. I was thinking the same thing. It’s not so easy though! So much thinking abstractly. Ay! Just give me the answer gal darnit! Hahaha! My Romance Linguistics professor is super awesome, I like him already, but I can tell he is going to be one of those were there are all these multiple answers and that there is no “right” response. For my Mom’s side of the family, which is mostly science based folk; you can understand how uncomfortable this can make us science studiers. However, he seems really willing to work with us and I think it will be a really good class. A lot of the class is not just about language, but history, and ancient history as well going back to Latin studies and stuff, which will actually be very interesting. The whole time I was thinking, “You know, if my Dad could understand what this guy was saying, I think he would be really interested in this class.” This suspicion was confirmed when at the end of class our professor said, “Tomorrow I am going to put up a map of Europe and a list of languages, dialects, minor languages, and a few other topics and we are going to discuss where they are, where they come from and what exactly makes a language ‘Romantic.’” Ah, a MAP. This is definitely a “Rex” class. 😊 Miss you, Dad! 😊 Hope you are still enjoying your Father’s Day gift Conor and I got you! (Which was a new atlas by the way, because his old one still had East and West Germany as well as the Soviet Union.)

Tomorrow I have pragmatics again, I am going to go try a new class called Mythology and Roman Religion and I also have Romance Linguistics. Now I am just at Chamara about ready to continue with my pragmatics homework. Phew. Wish me luck!! 😊

Elisabeth, thank you SO much for my postcard!! It was very sweet of you to think of me! It is now hanging above my bed 😊 I am so excited to come visit in December, just ask my Mom and she will tell you that I mention how excited I am to go to Germany almost every time we talk!

Grandma and Grandpa Heiden I got your note as well! Thank you very much!! I appreciated the donation to my internet café fund 😊 Your card is also hanging by my bed.
Love always,
Devin 😊

---

Photos

Nivel 8
This is the lunch we had with our Nivel 8 (Level 8) intensive Spanish class professors. The one making the hand motion is Jose, professor number 1.

My German Teacher!
Do you see the girl in the blue tank top? That is Anna-lu. She is the girl that has been helping me with my German!

Alberto
The older guy behind me is Alberto, professor number 2. The girl to my left is Anna, a German girl who has become a fairly good friend!

Safety Kitty
Jerica's boyfriend gave her "Safty Kitty" to protect her, the ears are really pointy! "Don't hate on safety kitty!"

Cathedral of Seville
From the outside.

Roof or Ruf?
The ceiling of the Cathedral sparked an English debate: "What do you call the top of a building?" "A Ruf!" "Its a Roof." Life's great questions.

Single
A guy rowing a single on the Guadalquivir river.

River walk
So beautiful, and so wide!! I bet I wouldn't get clipped by a bike here!

More of our class
They were a fun bunch! I'm going to miss them!

Luisa, Anna, and Me
Luisa was yet another German girl in our class, but very very nice!

Comments

[TEEZA]

I just emailed you, using your Clemson email address. Then thought you might\'ve changed & I forgot. Soooo I will repeat myself! We were up at 5am, runners left at 5:30 for Lincoln. Heather is updating me. They placed pics of you & Kyle in the van. Collin Lindley replaced John Matson...Collins new nickname: C-Train. Cute! They\'re having fun. I\'m picking up g-kids at 3. We\'ll meet FLIK Who at the finish line! Love you! Aunt T