Any Questions? Yeah, can you start from the beginning... in English?

As a student of IESAbroad, we have the option to take classes at the University of Granada. I thought about it, decided not to because I enjoyed all my classes at IES, and then Celia mentioned the class she was trying to take: a translation class. The idea of translation has always interested me and I have looked into taking one at Ithaca. When Celia mentioned it, I had two thoughts: If I take this translation class I don't have to watch the 3 hour movie about Mohammad for Islamic Civilization tonight, and that it sounded like an interesting/useful class.

We met today outside the room that we thought the class was taking place in... until about 10 minutes past 4 when a professor showed up and apparently told us to follow him, because that's what all the native speakers were doing. I've learned to do what the natives do if I don't understand something. We are taken upstairs to a different room where we proceed to listen to the professor explain the class for 2 hours. I didn't understand much of what he said as he spoke quickly and hardly moved his mouth. I found myself wondering if I really speak that fast when I speak English. I also realized what a great opportunity a class at the University would be as being immersed in Spanish spoken at a normal pace is so much better than at the slowed-down pace the professors at IES use. What I did understand was: the class involved translating English to Spanish, you would work in groups and each pick a text and translate it. An ENTIRE text/book/libro whatever you want to call it. No wonder it was a 9 credit hour class. We realized we were not in Traducción 1, we were in Traducción 12... big difference.

After the class we searched for the class we should have been in, thought we found it on the main schedule but when we went to the classroom it was level 7 translation of French. We looked at couple different rooms and ended up going to talk to someone who worked at the University, who knew no more than we did. I'm not sure what happened, but long story short we sat through a 2-hour level 12 translation class, and though it sounded interesting, I'm not quite ready for that type of class :P We're not even positive that the level class we're looking for exists. Now we must talk to the adviser (who so far has been very little help to Celia) and find a class we can do successfully. It's not a huge deal for me, worse comes to worse I just stick with Islamic Civilization, which is interesting, just not my favorite class, but Celia only has 4 classes, and she needs 5. If this class doesn't work out she has to find another class that will work for her and her school. It's too late for her to pick up an IES class, though I suppose if she had to she would have to do so and just make up all the work. I really hope the new class works out, though we won't know for sure until Thursday, and time is running out to sign up for a University class!

So, I attempted to take the class, am still attempting to do so, and still have to watch the 3 hour movie... luck is not with me tonight. ¡Hasta pronto!