First Day at Uni - Panic!

Luckily for me I don’t have classes on Mondays in the first semester of university, so I had a lie in, I think that having 9am starts for the rest of the week more than entitles me to a Monday morning lie in! I waited for my housemates to get home and tell me how their first classes had been, I was quite nervous about classes, I thought they may be a bit intense. My fears were not alleviated when Geo arrived home from her class looking not at all happy. She told us how the class had been really hard, she hadn’t been able to understand the lecturer and was the only Erasmus student there, so felt really lost as all of the Spanish students were laughing and joking with the lecturer and she didn’t feel at all able to join in. This didn’t fill me with hope for my first class the next day, luckily her second class in the afternoon was a better and my other flatmates didn’t want to run home after their classes which could only be a good thing.

I decided to get an early night on Monday, I’m not really a morning person, so getting up at 7.30am for university was going to be pretty difficult. Unfortunately for me I didn’t sleep well at all, probably a combination of having had such a good lie in on Monday and being worried about class the next day. Waking up was hard, I hate the sound of my alarm, things got worse when I opened my blinds and it was still just as dark. The sun wasn’t up, but I was, great. I trudged over to the kitchen, picked myself up a yoghurt, there was no way I was cooking at this time in the morning, then wandered through to the lounge where Jana and Geo were already up and dressed. I ate my breakfast then showered and got dressed and skulked back to the lounge, I am so grumpy in the mornings! Then I spotted a massive cockroach next to the window – this day got better and better, Geo grabbed the bug spray and sprayed the bug with what seemed like the entire can, but it wouldn’t die. I grabbed the dustpan and brush and scooped it up before throwing it out of the window. At least I was more awake now, but it certainly wasn’t a wonderful start to the day.

I waited outside my flat for Claire who was going to walk to university with me and show me my room, she had been in there the day before. When Claire arrived she was with another girl who was also going to the same class as me, that in itself was a relief, at least I would know someone there, even if it had been for only five minutes, we chatted as we walked to class. We arrived at the room which was quite small, I had been hoping for a big lecture hall where I could hide at the back and not be noticed, but no such luck.

There were around 15 people in the class in the end, I think 4 of us were Erasmsus, the lecturer came in and started talking initially I was a bit overwhelmed and just didn’t take anything in but then I started to understand, his accent was actually OK apart from when he decided to say something really quickly and I had no chance of hearing anything. He handed out some forms, and I’m guessing from the bemused looks on our faces he noticed that there were some Erasmus students in the class which he decided to announce to everyone. He then continued on with the class, discussing the assessment methods, most of which I didn’t follow and then on to some more artsy stuff to do with the module, which was Spanish Literature from the 18thand 19thcenturies, which to be honest I wasn’t overly excited about anyway, I don’t really like literature but it was the only thing that fit into my timetable. One of the forms is something which apparently we receive for each of our classes, it is like a mini profile card that you have to complete with your personal information and a picture, I can only assume that you then return it to the lecturer to record your marks on, but I'm not really sure - will have to get someone to explain that one to me!

After an hour of talking, only about 50% of which I actually fully understood, I was ready to go home, concentrating for that long was hard, at home I usually sleep through lectures or play on my iPod. Mercifully we were given a ten minute break my brain was fried. I really didn’t fancy another hour of it, but I stuck with it and eventually the second hour was over. I understood a lot of what was said but it was all general remarks rather than anything substantial, at one point he asked the class a question, the girl who answered did so very quickly and in a rather thick accent, so I had no chance of understanding that. I did have a little moment of pride when the lecturer asked the class a question, something like what other than theatre was the main attraction for people during whatever century. I thought the answer was bullfighting (obviously I didn’t say it out loud, didn’t want to look like a fool getting it wrong haha!) no-one said anything and then eventually the lecturer confirmed that my thoughts were right – hoorah small victory for me.

At the end of the class I was out of there like a shot, I met up with Jana and wedecided to head over to the ESN office to pay for the trip to Gibraltar. I thought of it as a reward for myself for staying awake for 2 hours of classes. I can’t wait for Gibralter, Monsoon, Marks and Spencer and KFC all in walking distance of one another and I get to spend Pounds again, just like being at home! Oh, yeah and the monkeys too, I suppose they could be cute. After paying for the trip I headed home, no more classes for today it was an OK introduction to university classes in Cádiz, hopefully with time they get easier!