overdue

i've never really talked about school, and well, maybe it might be good to confirm the fact that i am in fact enrolled in one in this continent.

the complutense is one of the best public universities in spain. but things are just a little... different here.

general observations about a semester and a 1/2 old news:

-clocks are private property only. they are not to be found anywhere except the shrunk ones, on bands adorning human wrists in various degrees of color and shine.

-printer ink is like a constantly hungover student. like, sometimes it makes it to school.

-no-smoking signs are code for "well whatever, just try not to be caught ok?" the choice to smoke is a complete monopoly chance card whose consequence is a "take it outside" reprimand. but oh, a complete "pass go" for professors.

-sometimes i feel like i'm watching the graffiti scene from free willy on constant rewind... it just never stops here. but i've only witnessed it actually happen once. these grafartists are good.

-the buildings are pretty... we'll say vintage. however, in between the buildings in which i have class are 2 immaculate brand new buildings separated by a weird zone of mazed shrubs and benches and what appear to be portals to another world.
it's like falling into a sci-fi wonderland on the walk in between classes. speaking of wonderland, alice never would've got there had she been on the complutense campus originally. no clocks, and well, where are you hiding the rabbits, spain? the pigeon wildlife is getting a little old. i mean, come on, i've seen the same limping pigeon twice now. lame.

ok, ok done with the awkward sci-fi and wonderland combination.

the classes:

so last semester i studied feminisim in spanish literature, took a crack at spanish theater, improved my sintax, and attempted to follow a chaotic presentation of security and defense in europe since 1945.

this semester?

-spanish dialectology with a man who sounds like professor snape. sometimes i wish he'd stop talking about open vowels and aspirated h's and just show us how to bottle fame, brew glory and stopper death.

-historical and cultural perspective of islam in spain with the jolly and renowned andaluz juan m.q. he refuses to be able to give class for the full 90 minutes or take attendance, but somehow in the reduced class session and story-breaks, why, successful learning does occur. si señor.

-ethnology of mexico and central america with mr. gutierrez. a daily bow-tied man with more experience and genius than he probably knows what to do with. his prefered teaching position is crosslegged, dangling his almost non-existent ankles to the tune of his deep philosophical tangents, which, often involve godparenthood, latinamerican legends, and drawers. man, is this man fond of drawers for ascension metaphors. 2 days ago i found my notes about societal ascension looking like a cake... so naturally, i felt obliged to decorate it with frosting roses and candles. and while i try to take this class seriously, it often poses challenging since profe gutierrez happens to be the identical twin of professor porter from tarzan...

-spanish literature & film is taught by a man with a dry sense of humor who speaks to us via mic... which has me hoping he'll just break out into stand-up someday. the class itself consists of reading a novel weekly followed by the viewing of the film. our professor openly admits the novels lack... well, what makes a good novel, but of course we read them because of "how they've been adapted to film". anyway, by the time the class is finished i'll have read 5 novels in spanish, and conquered don quixote. well, ok, read most of them anyway.

-history of contemporary islam. my favorite class by far. mrs. soha abboud scares me, but in the best way possible. on monday, i was called on in a complutense class for the first time ever... to explain the ba'ath party. i never expected the ba'ath party would carry a personal stigma for me, but now that it was my first calling-on answer ever... oh man, how things change. soha often rolls a: "rrrrright?" in my direction after stating a fact in class, looking for confirmation i have comp-re-hended. it's rrrrrefreshing to know she cares about the non-spanish population in class, something that is not always consistent throughout complutense classes. anyway, this will be the last class i finish this year, handing in a 15 page paper on the iraqi revolution and x-aming up on june 19th. yujuu.