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Unfortunately, my time in Spain is not all eating, shopping, sleeping, and traveling. Although it may feel like that sometimes, I still need to attend classes and complete my homework.

Four days a week, I attend school at the University of Alcala. I am part of a program that is with the Institute of Benjamin Franklin. There are about 80 students from the US taking classes with Spanish professors. While the classes are taught in Spanish, it is a bit easier because all the students are from the US and the teachers take the time to take slowly and repeat things to make sure everyone understands.

This semester I am taking five classes: a Spanish Language Seminar, Contemporary Spain, History of Spanish Art, Spanish Cinema- Exploring the Society through Film, and Spanish Media.

My classes are all pretty interesting. Contemporary Spain, Spanish Cinema, and Spanish media have all given me a better understanding of the history of Spain and its culture. Which I must admit, I did not know much about before I arrived here. History of Spanish Art is the first art history class I have ever taken, and let me phrase it this way- I am happy I decided not to major in art history in college. My Grammar class is like Spanish 100 at Penn State except on steroids, and the teacher really means it when she says she’ll only talk in Spanish haha or jaja as they type in Spain.

I’m enjoying my classes. I can’t say they are too difficult right now, but I will say they will be a lot easier once my Spanish improves and I can understand what they are saying with less difficult.

Also, why do we have classes on Friday in the US? I’m so much more productive with a three day weekend, I swear. And – we get to take awesome field trips on Fridays. It really is the way to go ….  

Location: Alcala de Henares, Spain