Back to School Back to School

Classes started! ...well only my Spanish class and ESCI courses. Classes here with Spanish students are so much different than back home. I'm in a human resources class that is about 3/4 Spanish students and 1/4 American students, and the Spanish students talk the entire time. They don't even whisper, they just talk in their regular voices, and the teacher doesn't really seem to care. They also don't pay attention at all or take notes. They're just so much more relaxed about classes and don't seem to concerned about learning too much.

Most of my classes are in English, while 2 are in Spanish. Thankfully, I was able to switch around my schedule so Spanish is my only Friday class (hellooo weekend trips). Classes at ESCI are only about a 15-20 minute walk which is also nice since we've been walking in groups from the residencia. In a couple weeks, my CIEE classes will start which are a little further, but only by about 10 minutes.

Another difference is that during class breaks, the American students see it as a snack break while the Spanish students see it as a smoke break. It's impossible to not notice all the Americans heading to the cafe for coffee and pastries while all the Spanish kids head out front to smoke (smoking just became prohibited in public building January 1).

I still don't really know where to get my books, if I need books, what the heck this system "Moodle" is that our teacher has mentioned a couple times, or how to access the course website/slides (if the slides are even posted?) but I'm not too concerned with it for now. I figure I'll figure it all out within the next couple weeks before anything is actually due.

Also, today I finally got a camera charger so no more dead camera! So now I can actually take pictures!!

Besides all the escuela stuff, we went to lunch at a little outdoor cafe today and then took the metro/climbed a mountain (surprise!) to Park Guell,which was amazing. We got to see a few of Gaudi's works and climbed to a really high lookout where you could see the entire city and the ocean. It was gorgeous. Tonight we're going to Sutton (discoteca) for the "Official Spring Semester Study Abroad Welcome Party" (I feel like I've gone to at least 3 things called the exact same thing...) so tonight should be fun (not so much 9am Spanish class tomorrow..)