On a normal week here, I have 4 classes that each meet once a week for 3-4 hours. Two meet on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. This is definitely a more relaxed academic schedule than I am used to, and that was exaggerated even more this week.
Universidad del Salvador--
The cancellation of my social psych class was actually announced in advance to permit the celebration of "día del estudiante". This falls on the calendar just after día de la mujer, día del niño, día de amigos, and día de la secretaria, holidays to honor women, children, friends, and secretaries respectively. Next up are the days of third cousins, great aunts, aquantainces, and postal employees (just kidding).
Universidad de Buenos Aires--
As of Tuesday evening, the students were still on strike (see previous post for details). This classroom lacks heating and air conditioning, so it is a bit much to expect a notification by email (or text message, shoutout to Penn Public Safety) about the status of that day's classes. I showed up on time and sat in the classroom for 30 minutes with 2/40 of the other students in the class until it became obvious that neither the professor nor the other students were coming. Oh, and we were supposed to get our take home midterms that day...go figure.
Universidad Católica Argentina--
The professor of my UCA class emailed us the day before citing a personal problem/conflict and cancelling class. This was the second week in a row this class was cancelled (the week before was for school-wide olympics, apparently). This also means that our midterm is pushed back a week.
My fourth class, however, is my Spanish/Argentine Culture class run by the study abroad program, so it is less subject to the whims of the Argentine university system (or lack thereof). I definitely am getting the real academic experience here, which includes classes cancelled at the last minute and even without any notice (we are still responsible for the work by the way). It certainly makes me realize how lucky I am to be at Penn!
In other news, tomorrow morning I am getting my Argentine student residency.***
More to come soon!
***Subject to unannounced changes in appointment, any strikes that may happen between now and 10 am, and my navigation of a bureaucratic nightmare of an office.
This post reminds me my amazing trip to Buenos Aires, a fascinating city where you can find much kind of activities to do. I took a week Spanish course in Buenos Aires during my three weeks vacations in the city and it was great because it allowed me to arrange all about when to start the course, at what level I should start and which days I would go. I started the course a week after having reached to Buenos Aires, and I only had to go two hours per week. The schedule was the best thing; because it allowed me to do all the things I had in mind. Finally it helped me to talk on the street, to know more about the culture and to make friends!
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