¿Porqué, clases, porqué?

(El Museo Caixa Forum in Madrid, Spain)

Yesterday, after waking up early, I headed off to Ana's class at Universidad Complutense. We learned about the declination of the Spanish/Austrian empire after the Catholic monarchs, so in other words, some pretty scintillating stuff. I did participate in class, though, and said something about how the deficit led to the decline (which I'm sure sounded all the more brilliant as I said it in Spanish). I actually got nervous while I was speaking, because I felt like Ana was looking at me funny. I thought that maybe Dan, who had spoken right before me, had said the same thing as I, (I was too busy practicing my comment in my head to listen to what he was saying). But no one else seemed to notice anything, so I think I was safe.

I then sat through 2 hours of Historia. I realized that I would have to leave a half-hour early, so that I could be back at Julia's for my registration time. The professor is a talker, and I ended up having to sneak out of class, as she was still talking 10 minutes into our break, which was when I needed to leave. I flew back to Julia's and prepared myself for registration. I had my spreadsheets assembled, my codes neatly in order, and the UIS program open. As soon as it hit 2 pm, I started typing in the codes of the classes I wanted. I got the first three with no problem. The fourth, a marketing class, wouldn't let me register, but I knew my advisor could take care of that one, so I wasn't worried. But my last class, my fun class - Broadcast Programming and Promotion - wouldn't let me register either, and since it is a Communications class, is outside the power of my advisor. I tried about seven times, but I wasn't getting any closer to outsmarting the system, so I went back to the course listings on the Internet. The course wasn't full and I didn't see any reason for why the system wasn't letting me register. The only thing listed next to the class number was the name of the TA, Maj Restri. Then it clicked. Maj Restri is not a person, but rather an abbreviation for Major Restricted, a funny little saying which means that a Marketing major can't register for that Communications class, no matter how many times she types the code into the system. So now I needed to find another class and quick. I tried to think of fun classes I have heard of people taking, but I couldn't think of one, so I started searching the course listings. I perused the Psychology, Music, Art, Sociology, Communications, and Language departments, but most of the classes had Maj Restri as a TA, or were with lousy teachers, or at conflicting times with the rest of my schedule. I settled on a Psych class, Emotions, but later changed it, as the Emotions professor has the worst evaluations I've seen at BC. So, I am currently enrolled in Vocal Performance, and am watching the registration system to see if my Broadcasting class is still open, (as the department head whom I emailed said that I could take the class if it were still open at the end of registration). So now we wait.

I then took the train back to Carlos III to meet Jennifer for lunch. She had invited me over for lunch, so I was awfully excited. She made a salad, a pizza-like dish with crust, cheese, caramelized onions, and tomato slices, and a cheesecake. She is officially the best Intercambio ever. I brought her chocolates as thanks. We ate at her family's house in Getafe, which was really nice and she gave me a tour of both the house and the neighborhood.

We then headed back to school for class. I went to Economics, where the professor decided we would discuss our essay topics individually with him. We were free to leave after we chatted, so I was out of there after 20 minutes. I was heading home on the metro when my metro card stopped working (at least it popped out of the machine this time). It wouldn't let me through any of the tourniquets. I asked a security-lady what to do and she said something which I translated to mean, "Wait until tomorrow and ask someone at a ticket window," (I've since tried this strategy and it actually worked, so I was glad it wasn't too big of a problem). Then it was back to Julia's for dinner and homework until 4 am. Ugh.

This morning I was up by 9:30 to finish the rest of my homework. This week in Spanish class, we have been split up into groups of two and assigned a Spanish city about which we must create a visitor's guide (that will all be compiled in a class book). Lilia and I were assigned Toledo, and since we had to skip class yesterday to register for classes, we had to do some research at home before class today. I made a list of things to do in Toledo, places to eat, etc. and designed a page layout for our guide.

While I was working, Julia left to do some errands, and Baquita came in and complained about Julia for a good 10 minutes. Apparently those two are really getting on each others' nerves. Julia is being Julia and Baquita is actually standing up to her, so there's some definite tension in the air. They had a fight today about the which is the right size of macaroni to buy. I'm trying to remain neutral.

After lunch, I took the train to Getafe and sat down in Spanish class. Lilia and I got to work right away on our guide. Lilia had already written almost everything we needed, so we just edited and then I arranged everything nicely in my layout. Mónica, the professor, came over towards the end of class and complimented me on my graphic design skills. She then asked me to design the cover for our class' guide book. I was flattered, but realized afterwards that I should have bargained for some extra credit.

All the BC kids were going on a class trip to El Museo Caixa with Ana, but we had some time to waste before we needed to leave. Therefore, Nick, Callan, Lilia, and I headed over to the nearby wonder of a sandwich shop. For 3 euros, you can get a sandwich bigger than your head and the walls of the shop are covered with different ingredient combinations. I had eaten lunch not long before, so I didn't get anything, but on our way back to the train, I did grab a bag of cookies from one of the vending machines, (imitation Spanish cookies, of course).

We took the train to Atocha, having an interesting conversation about Dominican gangs in Spain, and then walked to the Caixa. The museum is only 2 years old and is in a really cool building that used to be an electricity plant. There are these nifty old brick walls and modern metal-work that is supposed to resemble an Arab window design. There is also a vertical garden that covers the whole side of the building next door, so that was pretty cool.

Unfortunately, the tour of the exhibit was pretty dull. The displays were about Palladian architecture; Palladio came up with the idea of mixing styles from different eras together. We got these funny-looking headphone sets that made my neck hurt, and I had a hard time focusing on and thus understanding the guide. I think much of the tour was lost on me.

Lizzie and I headed back to Atocha together, stopping at a souvenir shop to do some browsing, and met up with Lindsey, who was also heading back to Nuevos Ministerios. At Nuevos Ministerios, I got on the metro and went home. After my dinner of macaronis (which Baquita will argue are too large and Julia will argue are just fine) I've been fairly productive, so I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.

Lauren and Melinda are coming tomorrow! I'm going to meet them at the airport and take them to their hostel (at least, that's what I'm going to try to do). It will be a fun and utterly unproductive weekend. Yay!