"poco a poco"

well, vacation is officially over and classes at the university of granada have decided to step into its hard to fill place. in all honestly, it is quite difficult for me to describe what has been my first "week and a half" of university life, spanish style. i'll try and figure it out by breaking it down...let's start with week 1: monday--classes cancelled for ceremonial reasons. tuesday--one of two of my classes cancelled (plus, spanish professor came a solid 20 minutes late and proceeded to make up for lost time by talking a mile a minute aka no entiendo nada). wednesday--countrywide strike and classes cancelled. thursday--one of two classes cancelled. friday--teacher didn't show and no class. obviously the first week was a joke...thanks for the memo, spain. i would have loved to get in on this little secret before i literally had to pull out my aggressive, pushy persona to fight for a place on the bus. i have never seen buses so jammed packed with students carting it up the near vertical hill to the land of Cartuja (where the different university buildings are) now, while you may be thinking, 'adrienne, come on. your school life is obviously a piece of cake. don't even bring your sass about a hill over here,' i must say this week has been a different story. and that the hill is HUGE. i will have buns of steal at the end of the year when i start ditching the bus and taking the 50 minute hike from my piso.
***above is my UGR (university of granada) student card. my spanish street-cred it now legit. flash this bad-boy and i get 10 cents of my bus ride and can borrow books from library.

now that spain has started to get it's rear in gear (as much as it is possible for the land of españoles), my classes usually start around 8:30am and i head home around 3:00pm (with various scattered breaks suck at the top of the hill). here's my list of classes for you, dave: spanish theater and performance, linguistics of the golden age, spanish literature from 1939 till today, psychopathology, and psychology of learning. (as i mentioned before, since this is spain, the teachers of two of my classes have yet to show their faces...rumor has it they're coming next week. why not an extra week or two of vacation?) but the classes that i have attended...wow. let's just say the teachers do not believe in syllabi, writing anything legible on the chalkboard, or repeating any of the homework or crucial information regarding the class. therefore, my strategy is to latch on to any spanish person semi-willing to repeat basic info, look confused and grateful for the help, and then find my next victim for the following class. i know it will get easier with time, but it is so hard to figure out what the teachers even want, and the content of the actual class, of course. my vocab of fruits, beachy-things, and articles of clothing from my previous college and high school classes just aren't quite cutting it. and for those of you who know me, understand my need for organization, putting assignments in my calendar, and just being on top of life, can probably predict my slight freak out mode.

at santa barbara when i was stressed and needed to relax and put life in perspective, i had my various places of serenity (usually with an ocean view...so spoiled.) i am on a mission to find these places in the land of Cartuja as well. here is attempt number one.
maybe the best bit of advice i have literally received from every spanish person i have encountered and related my school insecurities to, has given me the same line: "poco a poco" (little by little). i need to remind myself that my education here extends far beyond the classroom and i will get in the loop with effort and time. for now, i'm tackling each class one at a time (hour by hour) and finding ways to educate myself on the best tapas bars and open air tea markets in town :)