Back to College

I've just started my classes in Castillano (Spanish) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. The class is a mix of people from all over. There is one women from Turkey, one Pallestinian, 4 people from Germany, one from New Zealand, one from China, 2 Americans (me and my wife), and two Italians and an Austrian. The instructor, Pilar, speaks a little bit of English and a little bit of German but tries to only use Castillano.

Getting into the class was a bit of an ordeal. The school has about 15,000 students, so just finding the building for Idiomas Modernas (Modern Languages) took us a while. Once we found it, someone at a desk told us we had to show up again for an information session two weeks later. When we came back for the information session, we waited for about half an hour to be taken into a class room with a group of about 30 students. The profesora collected everyones passport number and then started describing the matriculation processes. After she talked for about 15 minutes an English guy raised his hand and said, “You just described what people who have never had Spanish before should do, maybe beginners would have trouble with what you said because it was all in Spanish”. The teacher looked at him like he was an idiot, and said (in English), “It appears like you understood what I said, but if you like, I'll say it again more slowly.” at which point she started repeating stuff more slowly, but still in Spanish. As she was repeating absolutely everything, the guy interrupted her and said that it wasn't for him, that he understood, at which point the teacher said, “good, if you understand, please let me get through the material” and then she went on to giving new information. I thanked the English guy after class for trying.

Once the session ended, we were able to find out that we had to come back later in the afternoon for a placement test, and then, once again, in another week to register. I skipped the test completely knowing what I would get on it, but my wife tried it. After struggling through the grammar section she thought that maybe she should start in the beginner section too.

We then waited the week before the next hurdle, formal registration. We showed up at the appointed time and there was a line through the building. We ended up waiting an hour and a half until it was our turn at the window. We were then taken to a back room with a person that was sitting in front of a computer. They typed in our name, confirmed that we were going to be in Castellano 1, and then printed out an invoice that we had to bring to one of 3 banks to pay. The whole processes was very mysterious because I couldn't understand why any of it was required, but being a good sheep, I waited my turn. Most of the students waiting seemed to be in very good spirits and the wait didn't seem to phase them at all. I guess this was just a part of university life.

So off we went to the bank and another line. When we finally got to the front, they wouldn't take my bank card to pay the bill. They kept saying, “cash only”. I had the women repeat it a couple of times because: 1 – I didn't think she really spoke English, and 2 – The bill for me and my wife was a little over $1,000. It seemed unbelievable that the bank wouldn't accept a transfer. In the end, I went over to an ATM, got the money, got back in line, and handed over my wad of 20s.

Just to end on a positive note, now that the class has started, I'm very happy with it. The instructor, Pilar, is great (much better than the head of the department who did the orientation). She keeps the class upbeat and interesting even though we all have a very limited Spanish vocabulary. The first day she asked everyone what pais (country) they were from. That is, she asked everyone except the Italians. They showed up about 10 minutes late looking a little disheveled with what looked like 5 O'Clock shadows at 12 in the afternoon. When they came in, before they said a word, she said, “Ah..., Italianos, Si.”