Took these pics awhile ago, on my first your of the Somosaguas campus at Complutense. Never posted them, but Somosaguas is the hippier campus, it has the facultades de psychology, sociology, political sciences, social work, etc... The campus is a lot different than Oxy, lots of graffiti and posters for demonstrations. The bathrooms are notorious for be being gross and never ever having toilet paper, rarely having soap, and sometimes, the water in the sinks doesn't even work.
I expected to make some Spanish friends in class, but my class had fewer than 15 people (there may have been more that just never showed up) and none of them were very friendly. I made one friend, Jana, but she was on Erasmus and is Canadian, but ended up being a savior to explain to me some of the points for the big trabajo I have to turn in. There was one boy in class who was nice, but always asked really annoying and unrelated questions and took up about 20 minutes of class time every day with his silly "preguntitas."
I took a psych class there, "Emoción, Cognición, y Salud" that met once a week for 3 hours (but really only 2.) I picked this class because it seemed interesting, but also because the once a week meeting would allow me more free time to explore Madrid. I am glad I picked it, the Professor was really nice and smart, but it was kind of boring. Lie, it was really boring. However, it was great that it only met on Tuesday of all days, because all Spanish holidays and days off happen to be Tuesday! Also, the student strike on May 22 (a Tuesday) made it so that our last day of class was canceled. So, in one semester of about 15 weeks, I had class cancelled 5 times, which is pretty typical Spanish.
Also, there is no homework, except a few easy trabajos at the beginning, but then I have to turn in a big psych evaluation of someone, where I got access to all of these psych tests that I never ever would have access to in the states. But, they were on the virtual campus website, or available for check out in the library. Also, there are two finals, one on the campus virtual, and the other in class a week later, that are 30ish multiple choice questions. I'm super nervous since I've never really done a multiple choice, or a psych test in Spanish before!
Also, having my exam on the 6th of June gave me a good excuse to stay in Spain free of charge and add some more trips, like Morocco, Valencia, and Barcelona.
I met with my Professor sometime before the first final, Profesor Antonio Cano Vindel, to chat about the exam and hopefully mitigate my nerves. He was very nice, told me everything would be more or less general topics, and that I have been in every class (unlike most of the students) and that if i study, he thinks I will be okay. After, we chatted a bit, I told him about my major and summer research, and he even offered me a ride home, since we live close to each other. I cordially declined, since I had some errands to do anyway.
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| Somosaguas building, that looks like a prison. Apparently it used to be a prison! |
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| Very liberal and open school! |
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| Student bookstore |
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| typical graffiti everywhere, these gems are written on the inside of the bathroom door |
Here are my excuses:
1) The test was a lot more detailed than I thought. Sad thing is I DID study, just not quite the right stuff.
2) It was a 36 question multiple choice "tipo test" in SPANISH
3) It was online and I only had 30 minutes to do it.
4) A little clock followed me around the whole page making me anxious and nervous and reminding me that I had very leeetle time left. For a class that talked a lot about anxiety and stress (and health) and used many examples of anxiety when taking tests, I think this was a very ironic point.
5) THE CLINCHER: Tipo test is like the SAT: you answer wrong, you get points taken away. OOPS! Lily didn't know that! No one explained it to her and I didn't even think about asking. (Fault on both sides.)
Anyway, I knew the first evan (worth 25%) didn't go well. Didn't think it went THAT bad until I saw my grade. But with the homework grade (also worth 25%), and a hearty 6.33 (which is a good grade in Spain, here they don't inflate/bs grades like in the states (for better and for worse)) on the second and more valuable final (worth 50%), I think I will at least pass the class, which is all I really want at this point in life.
WOOHOOOO! Summer vacation!
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