I finally caved and got a blog.

I suppose it's a little odd that I'm just now start this when I've already been in Spain for 23 days. But I finally caved and got a blog for three reasons:
1) I need to organize my thoughts in English to keep from going insane
2) I have too much to say to fit in Facebook status.
3) I kinda hate writing notes on Facebook

But on to the stuff about Spain:

I'm gonna start with school because that's what I'm thinking about right now. School is... interesting. I have 8 classes: Historia de Espana, Ingles, Matematicas, Economia, Geografia, Filosofia, Psicologia, and Lengua Castellana y Literatura.

I should also say that like most schools in the world, but unlike schools in the US, I don't have the same classes everyday. The classes are 50 minutes long and all in the same room, except for geografia and psicologia which are in desdouble 4. We also have two recreos a day which are 25 and 15 minutes respectively. My schedule is as follows;

Lunes Martes Miercoles Jueves Viernes
8:30-9:20 Geografia Ingles Economia Ingles Mates
9:20-10:10 Filosofia Economia Lengua Psicologia Historia
10:10-11:00 Mates Mates Geografia Geografia Geografia
11:00-11:25 Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo
11:25-12:15 Psicologia Historia Historia Filosofia Economia
12:15-13:05 Economia Lengua Psicologia Historia Lengua
13:05-13:20 Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo
13:20-14:10 Lengua Psicologia Mates Mates ---
14:10=15:00 Ingles --- Filosofia Lengua ---

(Before I go any farther I am going to post this link to a translator. It's easy to use and pretty reliable. I would advise bookmarking it because I will post somethings in Spanish that I won't feel like translating for various reasons.)

Historia de Espana is SO different from US History. We spent the first 2 days talking about the evolution of the different races which came to inhabit the Iberian Peninsula. I understood almost none of what the teacher was saying, but after the first few days I found people who I can sit next to (we sit where we want) that will let me copy their notes. So I understand most of it more or less. The only down side is the teacher kinda scares me (she's really intense all the time).

Ingles is hilarious. They whole english book is full of articles about Shakira or Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) and activities that any painfully easy. It's good for a laugh though and it's made me realize how stupid we all must have/do look in Spanish class. The teacher gave me permission to skip class, which I do occasionally, but I usually go because for those 50 minutes I am God.

Mates is odd. We're learning about the different types of numbers (integer, whole, rational, etc.) which I learned in the US during the first week of 9th grade. But at the same time the entire class has the quadratic formula memorized... I get most of it but the teacher has a really odd accent and is even hard to understand for the Spaniards, so I get lost easily.

Economia is probably my favorite class. The teacher is really nice (she occassionally lends me her book so I know what's going on), and I usually understand that class the easiest. The only bad thing is I completely understood one lesson and so now she has an overly-optimistic (all false) view of my Spanish skills.

Geografia sucks. I know we're talking about the different soil types throughout the Iberian Peninsula... but that's about all I understand. I mostly just look at the pictures in the book and copy whenever some shoves a paper at me and says "Luca, escriba esto. Lo necesitas."

Psicologia: where should I start? For one this is the one class that I have a male teacher for, and he is kinda temperamental. Today he got mad because people in the back were talking and he just walked out. Of course I had no idea why he walked out and was EXTREMELY confused. I also wasn't there for the first class because I had trouble figuring out where to go (actually I wasn't the only one). But none of the classrooms over here have handles on the outside. They can only be opened by key or from the inside. Anyway, he didn't let us into class. So we went to the park. It was kinda nice.

Lengua. I don't have a clue what's going on in this class, and to be honest, I've stopped caring. I basically just open my book and ignore the teacher. Not to say that I don't learn! I probably learn the most in this class because this is when I learn various slang terms/swear words. So at least I'm working on my Spanish!

Filosofia is complicated. Some days I get it, some days I don't (like today). But the teacher is what I suppose would be called our homeroom teacher or at least the Spanish equivalent. She always asks me how everything is whenever she sees me in the hall, and if I really need something I can ask her.

Anyway, that's all for now. I gotta get up in 8 hours and I still need to get ready for bed. Not to mention the fact that this Spanish business is just flat out exhausting.

Buenas noches mundo de EEUU