Putting the "study" in study abroad

Well, it had to happen eventually. Wednesday I started my regular, semester-long classes at Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Sevilla. I'm taking 5 classes, either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday - which means no class on Fridays, YES. I'm pretty excited about that particular development.

I'm taking a Spanish language class, History of Spanish Art, Contemporary Spanish Politics, The Road to Democracy in Spain, Greece, and Portugal, and Intercultural Communication in Context. Luckily, all the classes fulfill Northeastern requirements for me when they're transferred back, and I'll be done with my International Affairs minor after this semester!

UPO is a little further away than I'm used to, especially since I've only ever walked to my classes at Northeastern. It's a 10 minute Metro ride, but I'm considering renting a bike from UPO so that I can ride back and forth from class instead to save money and also start working off all the Spanish ice cream I can't stop eating!

Mondays and Wednesdays I start my day at 9am, which means getting up before the sun here in Spain. It's an early start, but I really love my 9am Spanish Politics class and the professor, so it's worth it! After that I have a break until 12, when I have my Road to Democracy class. It's a really interesting subject, but I'm not a fan of the professor so far, so hopefully it gets better. After that I have my Intercultural Communication class, which is taught by a Spaniard, so it should be full of interesting discussions about differences in cultures. I'm done by 2:50, just in time to go home for lunch and then take a siesta.

Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't start until 10:30 (sleeping in!) and I only have two classes, right in a row - History of Spanish Art followed by my Spanish language class. I'm not a big art person, so we'll see how the art class goes, but I really like my Spanish class and professor so far. I'm done for the day by 1:20.

College here is definitely different from the USA - it's a place to go take classes, rather than a place to live for 4 years, but they do still have sports teams, extracurriculars, and lots of resources for students, especially the International Student Center for confused Americans like me. Everyone seems really nice, and the Spanish students start classes next week, so it will be exciting to see what UPO is like with everyone on campus.