Mi primer día de clases

It turns out that I didn’t have to take a placement exam this morning because I am in graduate level classes…can’t complain. ; ) Everyone in the program met around 9:00am and we heard from the four directors of the program at Universidad Complutense. After our bienvenida (welcome), we met briefly in two classes: Evolución Histórica del Español y Semántica Española. It is so interesting to learn about how language evolves! The highlight of my second class was that our teacher read us a poem—there something about a poem being read in Spanish makes it sound so much more beautiful! Side note, I heard the word cretino several times today, which is another way to say tonto (stupid). After our classes we were given a brief overview about Madrid in the main auditorium. We saw a slideshow about La Plaza Mayor, La Escultura de Felipe IV, La Torre Windsor (which actually burned down in 2005), La Puerta del Sol etc. I am so glad that we took a walk yesterday, because I was already familiar with a lot of what the speaker was talking about. Then there was a reception in the cafetería at the university for all of the students in the program. There was a lot of tasty food and drinks—tortilla española, gazpacho, patatas, queso, jamón serrano—riquísimo. Yes, that’s right…beer, wine, and sangría are all available in the cafetería at the university. You would never see that in America! ; ) Another difference in the culture involving food is the time that we eat…breakfast at 8:00am, lunch at 2:00pm, and dinner at 9:00pm (and that is EARLY). The day is definitely longer here, there is much more sunlight so it doesn’t seem as late. But I was starving, I’ll definitely have to buy some snacks to hold me over! I can’t go six hours without eating! : ) We took a walk again around Madrid. Ay, we have covered some ground the past two days! Enjoy the video from my first day of school in Madrid!

Consejo del día del Dr. Celestino Ruiz, “There are two words that sound the same in Spanish discoteca and biblioteca...make sure that you spend enough time in the latter of the two!”

This video is of mi amiga Nikki at the reception on our first day of school and also on our walk today at Templo de Debod, on Calle Limón. ¡Qué bonito!