Escuela and Life

My Madre and I with my birthday cake

Now that I have a few days of class under my belt, I feel like I can talk about it. UVA owns a building here called UVA Valencia. I think of it like a another UVA campus, like UNCW or UNCA...UVA-V. There are about 75 Americans in my program that attend my school. School's located really close to the other Valencia universities (there are a lot of other universities) so there is always students walking around the neighborhood.

School has a Spanish Only Policy, absolutely no english even when hanging out in the cafeteria. IT's difficult but it definitely helps my spanish. Classes are in Spanish and I'm pretty sure that the professors don't speak english. I'm taking 4 classes (Spanish Culture and Civilization, Latin American Culture and Civilization, Picasso, and Spanish 20th History). Spanish Culture and Civilization and Spanish History are taught by the same professor who seems really legit. Latin American Culture and Civilization is taught by a guy who is pretty nerdy/goofy but he loves to laugh so that's fun. The only problem is he is pretty mumble-y which is hard in English but harder in Spanish. My Picasso professor is odd, but I feel like that's a prerequisite

to being an Art Professor.

It seems like the homework is going to be minimal. The bulk of the work is going to be papers. For example, Latin American Culture and Civilization is 6 (2 page) papers with an 8 page paper at the end. Spanish Culture and Civilization has 40 (1 page) papers and a 15 minute presentation with a partner. I was assigned my topic today: la sistema de educacion (the education system). He said the topic was so hard that he's assigning 3 people to it. We present on Feb 8 (so soon!!). We're the second to go which I feel is a good position.

Life

I can't see myself having a hard time here. Sure, there are differences to adjust to, mainly transportation, but overall it feels very easy. Transportation is difficult because I'm not used to relying on others (bus drivers) to get around. It's difficult to calculate how long it's going to take to get somewhere so I've been late to meeting friends before. It's not difficult to take the bus nor a cab but it's simply another thing I don't have control over.

Losing parts of my independence is the most difficult aspect of living here. I don't have control over food, so if I don't like it I can't go make myself noodles. I can't dictate what time I want a meal. Living in a homestay is a fine line between living in another person's home and a hotel. I do pay to live here so I have to expect to get my money's worth while at the same time, respecting the most sacred place a person can have: a home. So far, it has been easy as my host family is fantastic and my living situation is really ideal.

I haven't been upset by anything yet but I'm sure if I have a hard day in class and have fish with eyes for dinner, I'm sure the culture shock will set in. And yes, the shrimp I was served last night had a head and eyes and red stringy tentacle things. Anything I don't like, either Madre eats like she did with the shrimp or it goes to the dog. So I feel bad saying I don't like something but at least Blue gets a good meal!

Love you and thanks for reading!!

Love,

Lizzy

Ps. Thanks for all the birthday wishes and thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate (in Spain or Cola). I had a blast and couldn't have asked for a better 21st birthday!