6 MONTHS!!

Can you actually believe it? I have been in Spain for a full 6 months! And read on for an even scarier fact…I only have about 3.5 more months in La Coruña!!! My how the time has FLOWN!!! Even though I realize I still have a full and hopefully amazing 3 months ahead of me, to all those who are planning to study abroad in the future…savour every moment, it really does go by in the blink of an eye!

So I am finally back into full swing of my new classes. I am currently taking: Political and Social Contemporary History, Interventional Psychology in a Family Context and Sociology of Health and Sickness. Those are the direct translations from Spanish to English, and don´t worry I had no idea what these classes were about when I first read the title. The History class discusses political, social and economic changes throughout history, with a special focus on Galicia. The psychology class, is in the infant education department and basically discusses the role parents play in their child´s education and how teachers should encourage and discourage certain parental involvement. The ethical discussions that we have had so far are quite interesting. The third class covers the different public health care systems in Europe….and well the ¨public health care¨ in the USA. Not getting too political or anything…but my first day in class the professor harshly criticized the USA´s lack of public services and I was quite embarrassed but also agreed. In comparison with European countries, the USA is severely lacking in social services from public health care to college tuition. Once again, the USA def. has something to learn from its European friends! My fourth class is the Holy Cross Grammar and Culture Spanish class, which in a week we are switching teachers for the second semester.

Besides classes, my ICIP is going quite well. On Mondays, I trek up one of the hills in La Coruña to a classroom finacially supported by one of the banks in La Coruña. There are 2-3 other Spanish students who help me teach the immigrants Spanish. The class usually consists of 3-8 immigrants, all of which are from Senegal, as there is a huge influx of immigrants from Sub-Saharan African to Spain. There are Spanish language/grammar classes as well as computer technology classes for the immigrants throughout the week, all of which are taught by university age volunteers. While at first it was quite difficult to teach Spanish, it is becoming easier every passing week. My other activity is teaching English lessons to a 9 year old boy twice a week. On Mondays, I have both, with 30 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other and switch my mentality of English back to Spanish!

Dato Divertido: This is somewhat of a random fun fact, but in the grocery stores the milk is not refrigerated.  In fact you don´t even have to refrigerate it until after you open the milk! This freaked me out quite a bit when I first walked into the grocery store and saw an aisle of milk cartons, just chilling on the shelves next to the bread. However, to all those concerned…the milk here is fine…especially with Spain´s hot chocolate-Cola Cao! Yummm!!!

***Also, to those sophomores back at HC (if anyone is actually reading this…) I was recently informed that a few of you have heard from study abroad and are starting to make a final decision! If you have ANY questions about ANYTHING please leave a comment here or email me at my HC email! Just type in nmmari12 in the recipient box and send! Whether, you are coming to the amazing La Coruña or those other two programs (which are still awesome) don´t hesitate to send me an email…I love getting mail and talking about Coruña…as you can see. But just let me give 1 word of advice to you guys about study abroad…GO!

¡Hasta Luego!

And apologies for the length of this post! 🙂

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2011 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “6 MONTHS!!”

1. Kelsey says:

   February 20, 2011 at 1:42 pm

   I am so happy you finally got your classes all sorted out!! And gahh – six months!! That is crazy!! And awesome advice – that is all they need!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love your dedication to Coruna!!