my first week taking classes in Spanish in Buenos Aires...

I have
· Psicología de la Religión (USAL)
· Psicología Educacional (UCA)
· Psicología Social (UCA)
· Economía de educación (UBA FyL)
· Educación no formal (UBA FyL)
· Sociología de la Educación (UBA CS)
· Historia de la clase obrera y el movimiento obrero argentina 1878-2002 (UBA CS)
· Historia Social Latinoamérica (UBA CS)
on my class shopping list. These are actually less than what I told Cecilia, my COPA tutor since she expected me to have about 10 classes… (>_<)

So, on Thursday August 4, 2005 I started my first class-Psicología de la Religión at Universidad de Salvador, located on Avenida Marcelo T. Alvear. I wasn’t sure if Alex Dupuy would approve this class since it has no relation at all with sociology and I wasn’t sure how to justify my decision. But I decided to try it anyway.

The class was full of girls grouped in different parts of the classroom… yeah, quite an awkward situation. The class was supposed to begin at 11.15am, but the professor didn’t show up until after 11.30am. Despite his lateness (is this English word?), he was a funny professor and he wasn’t that hard to understand. He speaks English quite well hearing from the way he pronounced things. It was hard to judge if I’d like this class coz we didn’t do much and I haven’t read the readings yet… I guess I have to try it again next week.

Tuesday, August 9, 2005 I went to UBA FyL at Puan for my Educación no Formal class. The first time I went to UBA, I was shocked! It wasn’t like a university building… Full of posters and propagandas against Bush, Kirchner’s government, capitalism, you name it… The condition of the class was quite sad… some of the chairs don’t have tables attached it to anymore, the fans are not working properly. MMmmm… and people smoke in class!!!

The class began at 18.00 and supposedly it ends at 23.00… yeah, a 4 hour class! I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive the first class L The class was quite full of students, some with cigarettes on their hands of course. After a quick introduction of ourselves, we were told to do something. I didn’t understand the instructions…! The class went REALLY SLOW… I kept on looking at my watch and was trying to stay awake and look interested. I got a pretty bad headache, partly because I couldn’t understand 70% of the Spanish. HOW COME SPANISH IS SO HARD? When the class ended, I talked to the professors and I told them that I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with the class. They told me that the class would be a good experience for me especially because I’m interested in education and this class contains many field works. So they encouraged me to try again next week… Aaaaaaaaa.. what to do???

The next day, I went back to UBA FyL again for a class called Economía de la Educación. I went there and saw no classroom no, only a pencil handwriting saying 5th floor. Right, what does that mean???!! So I went to the 5th floor and found about 20 different classrooms. “Ok, there might be a paper with the course name on one of these doors.” So I went around and around and around… It was 5pm and I still couldn’t find the class.
So I went to the staff room and asked for some information. No one knew… they told me that the professor didn’t give any information on where she wanted to have the class in. HAH??!!! Now what???!!! I said to myself that if I couldn’t find it in the next 10 min, I probably should just go home…

I went upstairs again and asked a lady for the professor’s room. Thank God she knew where this professor’s office is. I got there and saw the professor. Apparently, she’s planning to have the class in her office!!! Ghee, how hard is it to write it on the notice board like everyone else??!!

We started around 5.30ish and there were about 8 people in the class. The class turned out to be quite boring and I was quite clueless, not only because I didn’t understand the Spanish, but also because I had no clue about most of the economic terms they used. I should’ve taken ECON 110, OR AT LEAST 101 at Wes… Aaaaaaa… nothing is right so far!!! Besides, I think this class is going to be quite hard for me. Although some of the readings are going to be in English, there is quite a lot work to do, plus the small number of people in the class is quite intimidating. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!

Nothing is quite right so far. Early that morning I was at UCA taking Soc. Psyc. Going to UCA after being at UBA the day before is like going from a village to a capital. UCA is such a nice university—air conditioned, clean, neat, comfortable lecture halls… J sweeeeeeeeeeeettt….

There were 3 professors in the soc psyc class. The first hour, a young professor gave a lecture on… I don’t remember anymore L I only wrote about two sentences and didn’t catch most of the things she said. Aaaaaaaaaa…. SO TOUGH! During break, some of the girls in the class came up to talk to me and explained to me about the lecture. How nice J I believe that I made friends in class better than my past experience in my other 3 classes. After 20 break, we were back in class and had práctico, which is like a discussion and exercise session. We had to do some experiment which until now I still don’t understand the purpose. The class turned out to be quite absurd, even the Argentines said so. They told me that the professors aren’t that good and I shouldn’t waste my time in that class. I mean, I have to agree with them. The professors were talking, more of gossiping, while we did our experiments and seemed to be quite reluctant L

Friday ended… my first week of class shopping ended as well and I have no class, not even one class that I really enjoy! Aaaaaaaaaaaa… I miss Wesleyan! I realized how much I like to be at Wesleyan… (>_<) next week I have a couple of more UBA classes to take, but this time they are in UBA Ciencias Sociales building, closer to my house. God, please help me find classes…