Routine

Everything is finally settling down and routines are kicking in.  Boy does time fly by here!  I’ve been here for about a month and a half now, and it seems like I just arrived on the streets with my mom yesterday, but I guess a lot has happened since then.  At SCU and IES they tried to prepare us for the emotional rollercoaster of the study abroad experience.  They even gave us charts on how our emotions would progress.  Here’s an example of the main one:

I shrugged my shoulders and never thought this thing could ever be true, but man, was I wrong.  The different stages are occurring like clockwork.  If I were to say that everything here has been a fairytale and wonderful I would be lying, so I’m not going to say that.  There have been ups and downs through the adjustment of moving across the world.  A lot of deciphering who I am and determining my place here.  But through all that, so many amazing things have come out of this experience so far.  And there’s only an upward slope to go. 

I said before that I would tell you about my classes, but I guess I never did that, so here it goes.  I’m taking 4 classes: Spanish 202 (Intermediate), Mediterranean Oceanography, Sport and Society in Spain, and The Business of Sports in Europe.  All of them have actually been super interesting and I really enjoy going to class.  The way IES sets up their classes is excellent; all the courses are Spain/Barcelona oriented and consist of “field studies” around the city.  For example, for Oceanography we went to the Aquarium on the second day of class:

For Spanish we go on Scavenger hunts around the city and go out interviewing people on the street in Spanish:

For my Sport and Society class we had Castellers (human towers.  It's a Catalan tradition) come into our class and we built towers of people INSIDE the classroom!  Seriously, these people are amazing!  They build towers of people 9 stories high all standing on each others' shoulders then a child (5-7 years old) climbs to the very top to finish off the tower.  Incredible.  You have to look them up on youtube or something!

And for my Business of Sports class yesterday we went to the 1992 Olympic Basketball Stadium to meet with players and marketing people from Club Joventut Badalona, a professional basketball team right outside of Barcelona.  http://www.penya.com/noticia.php?id=12028&lang=es.  We talked with the American players on the team and then with the marking director for the team.  And guess what a small world we live in?!  One of the players we talked to, Pooh Jeter, went to my rival high school and his sister is Carmelita Jeter, the fastest woman in the world, and used to be our high school track coach.  So all the way across the world I meet this professional basketball player from my hometown and I know his sister.  So neat.  Here’s a picture in the press box at the Olympic Stadium:

Those are some of the neat field studies I’ve been on so far and there are many more to come for all the classes.  The teachers are great and the content is enriching!  I just hope to get the units to all transfer correctly once I get back…