First Class

I sit here now having had a healthy serving of each and every one of my classes in Spain. It took me two weeks, mind you, because Spanish classes have a tendency to be cancelled last minute. Classes in Spain also start around 15 minutes late, last 2 or 3 hours, and make room for (smoke) breaks.

So far, I'm enjoying them quite a bit! Granted, the pressure is off of my GPA this semester, but I think we all know that such graces would never really alter my scholastic behavior much anyway. My week began with Entrepreneurship. The professor is a little quirky - he included many stories of his own failure to start a business in his introduction - and demands that all students respond only in English to his own broken English. But class is progressing and we've developed teams and business ideas with which to begin our business plans. I'm not sure how it'll all end up, but I think it imperative to leave business school knowing how businesses begin, especially in case I have my own very spectacular idea one day.

Next on my schedule is International Marketing, my absolute favorite by far, which shouldn't be surprising though the professor hasn't really discussed any tenants of marketing as of yet. So far, we just meet twice a week for two hours at a time to watch clips on YouTube.com and to discuss forecasts of economic doom. He's big on "culture," meaning reading the newspaper, knowing current event factoids, and spending a week each year to update ourselves on relevant statistics - all of which will help us understand independent markets better. Makes sense. So now I'm really, really updated on the news. Additionally, CNN news is still the only channel on my TV in English, so sometimes I just let it run in the background.

I've only had one week's helping of Spaniard Economy, Demographics, Politics & Sociology (please note the addition of "politics," which was not included in previous posts - Mea culpa), but the first class was a very satisfying discussion all of the cultural differences between Spain and the USA - occasionally Germany, Mexico, and Finland in representation of the other international students. We discussed employment rates, religion, food, smoking, politics, gender, geography, languages, and hours of operation. Those two hours sped by. I hope future classes are this casual and captivating.

Finally, Logistics Management, which to be fair had no chance in hell of even pretending to be interesting to me. The professor's a doll, but the material's just dull. And the class is 3 hours. Oof. It's rough. So I've been bringing my laptop to class to catch up with my New Yorkers as they are just waking up. Don't worry, Mom. I'm still answering all questions correctly and the professor seems to really love the American students, probably because while "taking notes on my laptop" is code for "not paying attention" in America, "talking out loud on the back row for the entire duration of class" is code in Spain. Yikes. I mean, at least we're quiet about it. But the professor really doesn't seem all that disrespected. Yet another cultural difference, I suppose.

Fortunately, I had to duck out of Logistics Management a tad early yesterday to join all of my GBHPers for our Thesis Pitch Presentations via Skype. Best time of my life. So I'll end with a shout-out to them: Loved seeing your faces yesterday! Happy Birthday, Max and Jim! And I can't wait to see you guys in person in China!!! Out. Of. Control.

That's all, folks.

Besos.

<3