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| ENTRESEMANA: The Wednesday night cena tradition lives on. |
I haven’t had a quiet moment to myself in months. Studying for midterms, going to international student events, competing in sports, and teaching my girlfriend English (fruitlessly, I might add) all make up the university lifestyle at UC3M which leaves very few moments for meditation and reflection. I’m glad Facebook is keeping a steady record of my study abroad experience because the time is flying by and sometimes I don’t even know what day of the week it is. I’m halfway through my stay and I leave in nine weeks, though it feels like I just got here.
Having survived midterms, I can offer a few tips
for students who are planning on studying abroad. At this university, there
exists a treasure trove of solved problem sets and exhaustive study guides that
is guarded carefully by a network of Spanish guardianes. I would say it’s well worth your time to
befriend your classmates, especially those wearing a Castilla-La Mancha emblem
on their right shoulder (see right). Just
kidding! Look for the kids who get called on to solve problems in front of the
class and end up with the right answer without doing the right preceding steps.
Another point to consider is what you want to get out of
your time abroad. For me, this is my first and likely last extended stay in
Europe, so it’s worth my while to travel almost every weekend. This is
practically impossible if you take notoriously difficult classes like
international trade and econometrics. Matt studied his butt off for 2 weeks and
got a 60 and 45 percent on the midterms for those classes. He’s a smart kid, so
this was likely due to A) not being a part of the Spanish Knights Templar Inner
Circle of Solved Problem Sets and B) there’s not a lot of help to be found
outside of the classroom, especially for the extremely challenging classes. By
contrast, all my midterms were “tipo test,” which means multiple choice, and
they were definitely manageable except for tricky Spanish vocabulary from which
the professor prohibited me using a Spanish-English dictionary.
In other news, I had the chance to give a presentation in a bilingual
high school about why one should study abroad. The kids were really funny and
it was an awesome experience. I will post the video once it’s uploaded to the
website.
Also, an exceptional opportunity to consider if you’re
studying abroad in Spain is the Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera,
otherwise known as the DELE, which is a Spanish language certification. I recently finished my preparation course and am currently touching up
my written and oral exposition skills before taking the exam on April 11. I will be taking the C1 exam, which is the second highest level and is the minimum that is required to work in the Spanish government. It’s fairly difficult, which has motivated me to study my grammar like never before. I have often
complained that what one learns in a university language course has little to
do with how native speakers actually converse. The irony is that now I find
myself striving to avoid the beloved slang I’ve painstakingly learned and
instead use exclusively formal, academic language. But let me tell you, come
April 12, I’ll get right back to my reggaetonero
roots, güey!
This past Saturday, there was a noteworthy riot in the heart
of Madrid. I saw the demonstration during the day when it consisted of
thousands of mostly sane, slightly elderly people protesting loudly but
peacefully. However, as night fell, the violent hooligans descended like a hive
of agitated wasps upon the city and the resulting chaos is something to behold:
To conclude, one pattern that I’ve observed here in Madrid
is the fact that America is in fashion. Everywhere I look, I see NBA and NFL
jerseys, sweaters embroidered with the American flag, t-shirts of The Ramones
and Jack Daniel’s, hats with NYPD… the list goes on and on. This contradicts
the notion that Spanish citizens don’t like Americans, because in reality our
culture pervades theirs on many levels and representing the stars and stripes is
trendy. It’s rare that I don’t hear at least one comment anytime I wear my
Boston Celtics t-shirt, and it’s always a great conversation starter. So even
though advisors will tell you to leave your loud American clothing at home, I
suggest you be proud of where you’re from and represent your home colors,
because the people here admire America and appreciate our culture.
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| PRIMOS: My best friends from Asunción, Paraguay and my fiercest fútbol competitors |
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