First day of School!

Hola!

Today was my first day of school. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have International Marketing Strategies from 545-725, my only class these days. It's taught in english luckily! The professor is Spanish though, so even though she can speak english she has a difficult time getting across to the class what she's asking and thinking and vice versa. The UAB program I am in is completely for study abroad students. So there are no locals in my classes. Some are from Canada, Maine, Boston, Brussels, and my roommate is in there too. The class is about 20 people. From looking at class today I can tell I'm going to learn a lot, I'll just have to make sure to listen intently. From orientation, it seemed like the professors are mean, scary, cold teachers who expect the best and are not eager to form a relationship with their students but my professor today was very personable and I can tell it will be a good semester with her. Tomorrow I have a 4 hour Spanish class and then from 340-520 or so, The Image of Barcelona in Literature. We'll have to see how this class is! I'm kinda anxious.

Coming up this weekend we have a 5 day weekend pretty much. No classes on Friday, then Monday and Tuesday we have off because Sep. 11 is like Independence day here. I was going to go to Ibiza but Yessenia's cousin is going at a later day so we'll be joining him then. So I'll have to come up with something to do this weekend! The weekend of my birthday we're going to Amsterdam! Oct 31 is a Wed, then Nov 1 we have school off then Friday is off so it'll be a nice little break.

Where I live is quite condensed with people and this is by far the loudest place i've ever lived. Just bought ear plugs though :) My room is the coolest and the only one with a balcony, even if it's just to the other side of a building. I can smell what me neighbors cook and it's satisfyingly distracting. My host mom is no Marisa, but she cooks well enough to get by.

The other day we grabbed lunch at this place in Placa Catalunya and it was sooo good! Chase and I (my new friend from the program) shared Parmesan Mushroom Ham Risotto, it was to die for. Then just a simple pasta bolognese since we were needing some comfort food. We also shared some Sangria and it was all around just an enjoyable lunch. I'm kinda digging this whole slower paced day the Spanish tend to live. One-Two hour lunches, sit down morning coffees, etc. Except we're supposed to nap during the day to help with the late dinner and staying up late but I'm still adjusting to that. I just seem to sleep reeeeally late and stay up late.

They warned us in orientation how much harder each day will be. Because here, I think okay. I need q tips, lotion, ear plugs, and a towel. Where to go? Well here there are pharmacies, markets, super markets, and department stores. In the pharmacy will be the ear plugs and maybe q tips, but towel probably department store, and lotion only a perfumeria. There are little stores for everything and no "Wal Mart" equivalents. So that will take some getting used to. They drink their coffees in the morning in the cafe, not to go. It's been so hectic here I haven't had a single coffee in almost a week! But there's a cute cafe right below my apartment so I plan on getting pretty conformable down there.

That's all for now, adios!