Hi, everyone! Sorry it has taken so long to get to this blog post (it’s been about a month), but final exams have just wrapped up here in Madrid and we have just started our second semester this past week. Needless to say, things have been pretty hectic and I’m hoping life will calm down for a bit until the first batch of midterms set for mid-March. Nevertheless, I owe you all an update (and special thanks to those who have been Badger-ing me [pun intended] to update!).
On the academic end, final exams went well but there is such a difference between the educative system here and in the States. While in the US professors value and encourage critical thinking and application of the concepts learned in class, the Spanish professors here seem to focus only on rote memorization. That is to say, while studying for my exams, I had to remove myself from the material that I was studying and tell myself that it was not my opinion that mattered, but instead the professor’s. On the exams then, it was important to refer to the different readings I had done if I wanted to disagree with something stated in class. For instance, on my picaresque novel exam, the professor asked us to write about whether there existed a “feminine” picaresque novel and to justify our answer. To answer the question required that I cite different authors who shared my view (like a paper), but I was not allowed to put in any personal analysis if I did not have an academic that shared my thoughts. That is not to say that the system in the US is any better or the system here is any worse, they’re just two different models. As of now, I’m waiting on the official results from my classes, and I hope to come out ok!
The sad part about ending first semester is that a lot of the friends I have made from different countries in the EU are returning to their home institutions to finish up their academic year there. To say goodbye to one of my friends, we went out to an Indian restaurant and had dinner with a big group of people from France, Italy and the US. It felt very bittersweet to know that I had to say goodbye to some friends, but hopefully I’ll be able to meet just as many new and interesting people during the second semester.
With the end of one semester came the start of another. This past Monday classes restarted at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. I’m still not sure which classes I will end up taking, as I have a variety of options and a lot of professors I would be honored to study with, but a limited amount of time to study with all of them. I’m heavily considering taking a class about Spanish theatre in the Golden Age (c. seventeenth century) because I really enjoyed the professor’s picaresque novel class last semester. She seemed really excited to see me in her class for a second semester—hopefully that’s a good sign! I have two more options to explore tomorrow and Friday in the Spanish Department and one more to see on Monday when the History Department’s classes start.
Aside from classes, teaching English and volunteering have been keeping me busy. I teach English to a 14-year-old Spanish student named Jorge once a week, supplementing what he has learned in class with spoken and written exercises that I prepare for him. He is very bright with a good command of English. He really tries to free himself of his Spanish accent when speaking English, imitating my accent to the best of his abilities. Sometimes I can’t even tell he’s a non-native English speaker. As time goes on, I’m sure he’ll be able to improve even more and be confident enough to speak English while he travels to the US, Canada, and the UK. He has traveled to some of these places before, but told me that he was too embarrassed to even attempt speaking English because of his accent. I tried telling him that that fear is normal, especially if you’re traveling abroad. I then told him to consider what I do every day: speak in Spanish to people whose native language is Spanish. I still get embarrassed when I realize I made a grammatical mistake, but that can’t stop me from speaking Spanish all together. I encourage my friends to correct me when I make a mistake otherwise I’ll never learn! Jorge has gotten a lot better about this lately.
In terms of volunteering, which I have been doing since October, I have had a wide array of experiences, both positive and negative. I work in a women’s center, helping school-age children with their homework for a few hours a week. The center is in a more disadvantaged area of Madrid, so the kids sometimes lack the resources that they need to succeed in school (a supportive home environment, school supplies, etc.), so the other volunteers and I try to provide them with what we can. The kids are great overall. They’re a happy bunch of youngsters that just need a little positive reinforcement to do their work, although sometimes they can get a bit rambunctious. Last Friday, for example, I went in with another friend of mine for one day of unstructured activities with kids. While we assist them on Mondays and Wednesdays with homework, Fridays are days with games and other activities for the kids to relax after a long week at school. This past Friday we helped the kids decorate some masks for the Carnival here (in celebration of the last weekend before Lent). While most of the kids were really excited to get to work on their masks, others were instigating arguments and provoking conflict among some of the other students. Once we were able to resolve the situation by talking to those who were bullying the other students, everything went fine. It’s hard remembering how it was when I was a kid sometimes. I know bullying happens at most schools, but dealing with it in English is one thing; dealing with it in Spanish is another. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all and I’m going back to the center tonight to assist the kids with more homework.
Lastly, I have some new travels to report. Maintaining my promise to myself that I should see as much of Spain as possible while I’m here, I spent one day last weekend in Salamanca, about 2.5 hours away from Madrid. The city is much smaller than Madrid and it is very much a college town, but I was excited to visit it because of its relevance to my picaresque novel class that I had just finished. One of the books we read, el Lazarillo de Tormes is partly based in Salamanca, so it was nice to walk around and see all the sites mentioned in the novel: the Roman Bridge, the Tormes River (where the protagonist was born), etc. I even got a picture with two of the most famous residents of the town—El Ciego (the blind man) and Lazaro (the protagonist), both characters from el Lazarillo de Tormes. It was a truly rewarding trip and I’m glad I finally got to go!
