It's fine time to talk about how classes are going at San Pablo CEU, our university here in Madrid. I've enjoyed the experience of taking both Colgate-administered classes and enrolling in authentic classes while here. This is a lucky opportunity that we have in the Madrid program: to be enrolled with fellow Madrileños. The attitudes, the classwork, and the professors here have all proven to be highly interesting as they cover a whole spectrum. Talks with my host sister and cousin have also given me more insight into how students approach universities in Madrid as a whole too.
To begin, I'm currently taking two Colgate classes: our director's, Poetry in the Golden Age of Spain, and Madrid and the Arts, taught by three different professors. Poetry is by far my favorite, with class discussions being the best part by far. We've studied poems by Garcilaso de la Vega and Quevedo, and also took a look into the first modern novel, Lazarillo de Tormes. Quevedo is my favorite poet with his hidden eroticisms masked behind story lines. Interestingly this class probably requires us to do the most work per class per week, but the minutes fly by very quickly and I can't say I've ever been bored.
Madrid and the Arts is a miniature continuation of our classes from Santiago in the sense that the professors have a very short time to teach us whatever they can on the topic we're studying. We began with Eugenio and Spanish films, studying famous ones such as, El crimen en Cuenca, Solas and Los santos inocentes. The hardest part of this class was approaching it in an analytical way instead of merely watching the films for enjoyment. Eugenio had some hilarious mannerisms, but truthfully this class was difficult to follow because of how quickly it went and the time we were allotted to learn how to analyze cinema effectively. I'll admit, I am still confused on how to comment on the effectiveness of the guión.
Currently we're taking the second part of Madrid and the Arts which consists of Spanish artists. Carmen Ana is a splendid lecturer, and I love how she builds up to a point with the histories behind each painting we study. My only problem with this course is that it's very easy to lose attention since we studied the same artists in Miguel's class back in Santiago. The up-side is that every Wednesday we take a trip to el Prado, the extremely prestigious art museum of Spain, where all of the paintings we study in class are held. Seeing Las Meninas in person was very satisfying! I'm positive one of my souvenirs will be a poster of the famous painting by Velazquez.
The two electives I chose were Contemporary Spanish Literature and a History of Propaganda. Both offer completely different moods.
In our literature class we are currently studying authors of romanticism in Spain from the nineteenth century. Our professor enjoys showing us recordings of famous plays and having class discussions with us every few minutes into the video. The students in the class are a very strange mix; there are some that would easily fit into a Colgate classroom, and others that would stick out like a sore thumb. Yet each one of them contributes to class as best they can, and our discussions on tricky topics in literature have been absolutely enthralling.
It's the students that make this class interesting, especially because of their varying view points. (Actually, we've noticed that on occasion the professor's class materials look strikingly similar to wikipedia articles...) Some of our peers are Spanish punksters, others are very preppy in contrast, and one of our classmates is a nun our age! On Friday we discussed Don Juan Tenorio by Zorilla, and we brought about the topic of marriage and how our generation is different from that of our parents and those younger than us already. In terms of morals and how we live for the moment while in college we discussed how only after we graduate do we begin planning the rest of our lives. Our professor understands that it's difficult for us (the four Americans) to express ourselves equally in class, and she has been very forgiving in helping us earn a satisfactory grade.
In complete contrast my propaganda class is one of the most intense classes I have ever taken. To keep up is an extremely demanding task, as everyone speaks very quickly and the professor is very sharp. Yet her knowledge of material from the various eras we've talked about is astounding, and the manner she shows us the culprits of each occurrence has left me in awe. Her favorite subject by far is Napoleon, and she used his techniques to help us along in understanding the terminology we're using to study various affairs.
The Spanish-American war that we discussed today was changed completely in my mind, and she warned us that this would happen too; she told us that while we came into the class with previous prejudices against certain groups, we had to keep an open mind to each group's needs. And in the case of the Spanish-American war today, I have a new perspective on who was truly behind for the start of the war, and it certainly wasn't Hearst and Pulitzer. It is perhaps this class that has stood out to me the most, and I'm sure I'll walk away with the biggest impression of CEU from here.
Between classes it's also interesting to note the different mentalities between students. Above all it's noticeable that there is a huge difference in the way that we approach classes. In the US, and especially at Colgate, we believe firmly in getting the best grade possible and striving for A's. Unfortunately we often beat ourselves up too hard in an attempt to get the perfect GPA, when we should be enjoying the fact that a B is not, in fact, the equivalent of a D or failing.
On the other end of the spectrum, Spaniards view their coursework differently. What matters most to them is passing their classes, not so much the exact grade they get. This mentality was most noticeable at the beginning of September when the university students were all huddled together in groups studying intently to pass their remedial exams from the summer. And apparently almost everyone takes these too. Their approach to schoolwork is so different that my host sister has occasionally gawked at the sight of me staying in to do work on a given night during the week.
At the beginning of this semester we had virtually no work whatsoever, but November suddenly seems to be crawling with it. My only concern right now is that we're getting to the point where we get antsy writing a paragraph for class--adjusting to Colgate in January is going to be a shocker!
Hasta luego,
Natalia
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