Cornell viene a Sevilla (Cornell Comes to Seville)

Alrighty, well, the first week of classes are over and I know what I am taking! It was really easy compared to last semester -- maybe because I had a better idea going in which teachers to look for and which ones to avoid. Yes, the sign that I am no longer at the operational level of a first semester freshman here. I really like all of my classes, but I have a lot of work. Better said, a lot of reading, and a lot of participation. Last semester I didn´t have much work at all, barely reading, maybe a few take-home writing assignments (but only a few). This semester 3 of my 5 classes will be very reading and discussion heavy, like seminars at Cornell. I am happy, in a way, because I miss the serious stimulation that Cornell classes have. But then on the other hand, it´s stressful, and I want to still have time to roam Sevilla and be free. I think I will. I´m going to stay in my classes, it just might take a bit to figure out how to balance things. Also, I want to start trying my ´research´ in the cafes for my potential thesis ethnography. Anyway, here´s a list of my classes:

1) Anthropology of Communication with my favorite professor from last semester. We actually haven´t had the class yet -- he´s still in Cuba, I think, doing research -- but I´m sure I´ll like it. I enjoy his lecturing and there shouldn´t be much work, except for at the end. True European style.

2) Contemporary History of Iberoamerica II, which covers the 1870s until now. I really like the professor, but his class is going to be hard. 50% of the grade comes from participation in class, something that would have scared me away last semester. It doesn´t as much now, but I did fall on my face a flew classes ago when I tried to contribute something. Day three and I am already labeled as the stupid American... fantastic. Anyway, there´s a decent bit of reading for his class, too -- dense texts in Spanish -- but it´s a topic that really interests me. I want to learn more about Latin America, so this seems like the way to do it. The class touches on the political, social, and cultural aspects of a handful of countries and focuses on how the countries interact within Latin America and with Europe and America. It´s going to be a lot, but I´m going to learn. This is a good thing. The class meets one hour, four days a week.

3) History of Pre-hispanic America II: States and Empires. Not sure why it´s titled that. The course focuses on the oldest cultures of the Andes region. The Inca are of course the most well-known, but the Inca actually just take up the last two weeks of the course -- everything before that is other obscure cultures that lived in the Andes that I´ve never heard of. It should be cool. I think it´s going to be a mix of hardcore history and softcore arqueology. Good stuff. This class will be ok -- there is recommended reading, but not much, and just an exam at the end. This and anthropology are my two easier classes. The problem with this class, though, is it meets for two hours straight two days a week at night. It´s rough.

4) Real Spanish Literature is my class that is taught in the program center, but the teacher is a professor at the University of Sevilla. She´s fantastic. She was Katie´s favorite professor last semester and I can see why. She´s very intense and has very high expectations, but is also very nice. The class is interesting because it´s a mix of history and literature, connecting changing trends in Spanish novels, theater, and poems with the politics of the period. I will learn some really interesting stuff, but it is going to be an enormous amount of reading. There are 8 of us, I think. We have a decent bit of writing each week and this class is also heavy participation, but that doesn´t scare me as much because everyone in the class is from the program... but yes. Reading. A lot of reading.

5) Hispanoamerican Portrait. I love this class. It´s taught by this guy, Camacho (coolest last name ever) who has the best mutton chops I have ever seen. Not that that´s a reason I took the class, but it is impossible to see him and not marvel at his facial hair. He´s a big guy, very well dressed, square glasses, and very philosophical. He´s also, from what I can see, a fantastic teacher. The class is in the Filology auditorium, so it´s a big class -- maybe 100+ -- but his lectures are really good. He´s a nice guy, he´s funny, but he´s also really organized with what he has to say and he knows his stuff. We have to read 5 books for his class over the course of the semester. It doesn´t seem that bad, but remember that all of this is in Spanish...

Ok. That is the class overview. For now, anyway. I spent yesterday morning frantically running around from bookstore to bookstore, trying to find the novels that I need to start reading. It was amazing how hard it was to find such basic books (popularity just under Don Quijote) and it was also amazing how genuinely unhelpful the bookstore people are. They are reluctant to help and normally say they just don´t have what you want. My Lit teacher, Pilar, told us that we have to insist, be firm, and show them we mean business and chances are that they do have the book or can get it very easily. This is so bizarre to me. Don´t they want our business? I can´t imagine Borders ever acting like that. Oh, normal, well-run bookstores. How I miss you. Anyway, I finally ended up with two of the four books, but one of them is the wrong edition. Figures.

In other news, the England v. Spain game on Wednesday was not only in Sevilla -- it was also in the stadium about 10 min away from my house, which means that my neighborhood was infested with Brits. It was kind of weird, it kind of threw me off. I was walking down the street and there were Brits everywhere and I heard more than one of them discussing Spanish beer as compared to what they have in Britain. I found that funny.

My friend Jonathan from Cornell is studying in Barcelona this semester, but he´s here this weekend so I´m planning to spend a decent bit of time with him (in-between the hundreds of pages in SPANISH that I have to read). Should be fun!