Class and the New Piso

September 2nd.

I have my ILP class every day from 9am-2pm.  Covering a wide spectrum of material, we are studying grammar, history, literature, speaking, and comprehension.  In regards to grades, homework, and overall difficulty, I'm not quite sure what to make of it, as the classes seem to ebb and flow in the degree of strain and amount of work.  We haven't actually done that many out of class assignments, which makes me think that the focus will be on the final exam.  We could choose to have this ILP count between 3-6 upper division units.  I chose to take it for 6 units as it will motivate me to do my best.  The risk is that 6 units can significantly help or hurt my GPA as it essentially counts for one and a half normal classes.

For grammar, the main focus has been on learning the "vosotros" form.  This is translated in English to be a "common you-plural form" like "y'all."  In the Spanish of North and South America, the vosotros form is not used nor taught in American Spanish classes.  It is not that difficult to use, although the conjugation is more confusing than the other forms.  In history and literature, we've jumped back in forth in time, but have more or less established the foundation for which we will continue the subsequent analysis.

That afternoon, I went with my monitore group to a cool coffee shop and jazz club.  It was similar to the discotheque that I had visited on my birthday as it was decorated with many American 1920's photos. 

After dinner I went back over to my new piso to pay my deposit and first month's rent.  I met my apartment-mate Heiko, a 23 year old German sporting a spiked blonde faux-hawk, black dress shirt, and white capris.  He speaks nearly perfect English, although his Spanish is worse than mine.  Heiko is an "Erasmus" student; a program within the EU that allows EU students to study within the different countries.  He is a from a little town near Frankfurt.  Like my University of California ILP program, Heiko is going through an equivalent German ILP program.  He too was living in a residencia, but decided to move in to his room in our apartment.

I paid my landlord and then joined Heiko and three of his friends that he had invited over at our dining room table.  These other students were also Erasmus and were from Germany and Italy.  It was fun talking to all of them as I got a different perspective of studying abroad.

Heiko's friends left at about 10:00pm and I stayed to talk.  We agreed to make sure that only Spanish would be spoken in the living room and kitchen as we both wanted to approve in Spanish as much as we could.  Our conversation was in Spanish but when we didn't know a word we could keep the conversation going by saying the word in English.  

I said goodnight to Heiko and walked the half and hour back to the residencia (whose distance is further emphasized as my apartment is in such a good location).  Although I could sleep over at my apartment, its easier to sleep at the residencia as I have class there in the morning.  If my other apartment-mates are as half as cool as Heiko, it will be an even more amazing year.