El Primer Día En La Fundación

Hola, Todos!

I just returned from my first complete day at the Fund, and boy, was it crazy! My day started with me catching the bus at 8:15 this morning, which is apparently an obscenely early hour in Spanish culture. The streets looked practically deserted, and the sun hadn't even completely risen. I met up with a few other ND girls on the bus, and then we hopped off to begin our first day at the Fund.

During our entire preparation for Spain, our various advisers have stressed the placement exams that occur prior to us officially selecting our classes. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed about this process, especially because there was both a written and oral portion. I was pleasantly surprised when the written portion consisted of writing a mock pen-pal letter to an American teenager, and then 60 multiple choice questions that were either so clear or so hard that I just picked an answer and moved right along.

Between the two portions, we had some time off, so my friend Hannah and I went to the main plaza in Toledo and had some "Coca-Cola Lights" as they call them here. It was fun to just casually talk (in English) and watch all of the people going by this busy area.

The oral portion was consistently my larger worry for the placement exams, but this turned out to be a breeze as well. It's really enjoyable to talk to professional Spanish educators, especially those with experience in teaching non-Spanish-speaking students, because they speak at a pace slow enough for you to understand and fast enough to feel like you aren't being treated like a complete rookie. Basically, the oral portion consisted of reviewing the scores from the written portion, which turned out to be OK, and then picking which classes we wanted to take. As of now, assuming no classes are so completely impossible to deal with, I am taking a history class, a literature class, a culture class, a philosophy class (gag), and an art class. The best part of all is that if I keep my schedule as it stands now....I only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!! Those 4-day weekends will be great for traveling! Granted, the days I DO have class will be pretty packed, but I'll take it.

After the placement exams were all over, we basically had the rest of the afternoon to relax and connect with other students and the city of Toledo. A large group of us went for a walk around the perimeter of the entire old city portion, which took about an hour in the blazing heat. It was really interesting to see all of the old-fashioned architecture, but it was difficult to focus on anything besides the insufferable heat. Fortunately, the entire group has a guided tour of Toledo on Friday, so I'll be sure to pay more attention then.

Finally, our day ended with a final orientation, where our faculty members gave us the final tips and then we had a huge fiesta. The Fund had all sorts of finger foods and desserts for us to try, all authentic Spanish food. I'll be honest, the desserts were a big attraction for me, as chocolate has been sort of a rare treat over these past three days. The party was held in a Spanish courtyard, so we had nothing above us but the stars. A mariachi band (or whatever the Spanish equivalent is) played and sang for us, and I think it's safe to say we all felt authentically Spanish for that brief period of time.

Hasta luego,
Jill