1st Day of Classes

And so it begins...the welcome back to the real world moment, the day stress-free life and tranquility soar out the window. No matter your passion for learning and interest in education, this unmistakable feeling can only be associated with the first day of classes to start a new semester. While I have experienced this excitement many times throughout the past 15 years, today was a different experience for a couple of reasons.

First and most obviously, I am in a new environment. It is weird taking classes at the IES center. It is basically an office building with small, high-school like classrooms scattered among offices and desks. After attending such large institutions for high-school and college having everyone in a small area doing basically the same thing is a strange, new concept to me.

I also have classes at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. My classes are actually at the Sarria campus, another small building, though this looks more like a high-school and has some bigger classrooms. The main campus for the University is much further away. At the Sarria campus most classes are for exchange students and are taught in English, though students come from many different programs and are not all from the U.S. I switched out of my Congress Organization class in Spanish at the main Universitat de Autonoma campus. I believe I was misled as to how far away the campus actually is. Additionally, after signing up for the course I was given the impression that all main campus classes are for regular Spanish students. To be honest, the idea of being the only non-native speaker in a Spanish taught class that is an hour away scared me a little, so I switched to a course called "Political Economy of the EU". Taking courses as an exchange student from teachers with heavy accents with students of many varying backgrounds was another new experience for me today.

All of these new experiences were exciting and I welcomed them with open arms. However, to give you some incite into the reason for my sarcasm and for my slight bitterness of starting classes today, here was my schedule:
8:00... wake up
8:30... leave for IES center
9:00-10:30...Regional Economies of Europe at IES
10:45-12:15...Spanish
12:30-12:45...meeting to switch my UAB course
12:45-1:30...lunch/ train to UAB Sarria campus
1:30-1:45...run from train to Sarria building after not realizing how far it is, luckily not getting lost
1:45-3:30...Game Theory class
3:45-5:40...Political Economy of EU (in same room- i basically didn't move chairs for 4 hours)
5:45-6:15...commute home

So not only did I have many new and exciting experiences today, it was also the first time in my college career that my class schedule matched that of a full time job. It is slightly difficult to tell because we basically just went over syllabi's today, but my classes do seem interesting. I plan to be an expert on both the political arena and economic makeup of Europe and the EU by the time this semester is over.

It is also very interesting having classes with people from many different Universities and areas- you don't realize how multi-cultural the United States is until sitting in a classroom with people from all over.

Tomorrow I only have one class (Mediterranean History and Heritage), which I welcome with open arms. In general, course requirements seem light and teachers seem more lenient than advertised. I'll let you know how each course is as I get into them throughout the coming weeks.

As sarcastic as I have been about my frustration with having to start a new semester I should clarify that this still feels very different than a normal beginning of the semester; even after a rough, long day of class I still feel like I am on vacation. I assume this will slowly change, but have a lingering affect throughout the semester as Barcelona becomes more of a home. It will also depend on what my actual course load entails. I will keep you posted.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Martin Luther King Jr. day off and is excited to get back in the swing of things tomorrow. Let me know how the first couple days of your semester go!