Back to school...

This week has been . . . Interesting? Frustrating? Trying my patience? All of the above. It was the first week of classes, and even though I spent about 6 or 7 hours of the previous week planning my courses, I was still running around the city like crazy, missing classes, having classes cancelled on me, and redoing my schedule every day (sometimes twice a day.) Here’s a little taste of my week:

Monday @ 11:00am – I took the bus to the other campus for Social Structure, found the classroom and sat outside and waited for about 30 minutes. I knew that classes wouldn’t typically start right on time, but at around 12:15 I started to wonder if something wasn’t right. So I checked the schedule on my computer and found out that I had missed the class by an hour. That was the only class I had on my (then) schedule for Mondays, so I just went home.

Tuesday @ 9:00am – I took the bus again to the other campus and waited outside the classroom of Spanish Language for Mediums of Social Communication. I met up with two other international students and we sat in the lobby and talked for about 15 minutes. After about 20 minutes after our class was supposed to start, we went to the information desk and asked if the professor was coming – the woman told us yes, that he would be here soon and to go wait in the classroom. About 5 minutes later a man came in and said, “Your professor for this class is on leave until March, but in the meantime you’ll be doing work on the online virtual campus.” Well, since I’m not officially registered in the system and won’t be for 3-4 more weeks, I can’t access the virtual campus. So I would be a month behind when that class started.

Tuesday @ 8:00pm – I went to Phraseology & Translation with a few people. It sounds boring, but it’s actually really interesting to me.

Wednesday @ 8:00am – Went (again) to the other campus to attend History of the Modern World. You guessed it – it was cancelled. When will I learn?

Wednesday @ 10:00am – (Back at the city campus) I tried to go to Syntax/Semantics of Spanish – cancelled.

Wednesday @ 7:00pm – Literature Theory – postponed.

Thursday @ 11:00 – Went to Applied Linguistics. It seemed really interesting and useful, so I put it in my schedule.

Friday @ 9:00 – Tried (again) to go to Syntax/Semantics. The professor never showed up, so about 45 minutes later the whole class started to leave.

Friday @ 11:00 – I went back to Applied Linguistics for the first day of lecture . . . and I realized that I was in waaaayyyyy over my head. During the break, I left, practically running.

Since then, I’ve sat down and talked to a few other international students. My friend Julie recommended a few classes to me, so I think I finally have a schedule set. Through this whole thing, I’ve tried to be flexible – things are bound to be disorganized during the first week. However, I’m really happy to have everything figured out – especially now that I won’t have to go to the other campus for any classes. I think it’s been a stressful week for a lot of people here. It’s all part of the experience, I suppose. :)

Tomorrow my roommates and I are going to visit my friend Alvaro in Santiago de la Ribera. A nice day trip after a long week.