On with the research

Friday, Oct 5, 10:55am.

I jump off the bus and dash madly into the Facultad de Derecho. I have a meeting at 11am (I think) with my research advisor, Prof Rafeal Durán. I have no clue where his office is. Nor am I sure what department he´s in. Crap. Crap Crap Crap. And some choicer words than that.

Ok, calm down. ask the porter.

"On the first floor, go to your left. His office is in something something something."

What? No time, it´s now exactly 11am, which means I have about 10 minutes if he follows spanish time, 0 if he doesn´t. Run Run Run. Upstairs, left. Ok. "Department of Social Work." Er. Maybe. After checking every office in the department, I work up the courage to ask one of the profesors hanging around.

"Rafael Durán? Constitutional Law. Wait, let me check. Yes, that´s right, constitutional law. Political science." I ignore the fact that he just gave me TWO departments to search in the negative 5 minutes I think I have, thank him, and skedaddle. the Dept of Constitutional Law is locked (of course) and political sciene is a no-go. My new shoes are giving me blisters the size of quarters and I´m now 15 minutes late. Ok. Maybe the meeting was at 11:30? Please God.

Either way, I´m now convinced that Prof Durán is on his way to the department of constitutional law, so I cool my heels for a few minutes and try to figure out a way to keep them from developing more blisters. Ouch. Five minutes later, I limp downstairs to double-check that I´m waiting outside the right department. Nope. Turns out that spanish mumbling I didn´t get earlier was actually "Department of International Private Law." Argh.

Then low and behold, I see my advisor strolling through the door. thank god. my trials are over. hallelujah.

He´s a nice man, Prof Durán, and very clear about what I am and am not going to be able to accomplish in my time here (only 2 1/2 months left? Damn...). I´m going to have to write the actual report when I get back to the states, but my background research and fieldwork I´ll still be able to do here. Which means I´m legitemently doing a research project here. Which is awesome.

Niki´s a happy (and veerry busy) girl. Some things never change.

lata ya´ll

Getting it into gear

So real school starts this week, as in my class in the university. so far it´s been pretty chill. my Civilization of Al-Andalus class lasted for exactly fifteen minutes, and I don´t meet with my research advisor until fri morning. For now I¨m killing time before my spanish language class by doing things like writing in my blog :)

The last two weeks have been this crazy mix of orientation, meetings, getting lost, more meetings, grammer workshops, student exchanges, and program classes. Despite that, I´ve still managed to make it to the beach again, try to go salsa dancing (and fail, much to my frustration) and find a flamenco school.

At long last, my life is settling into a rhythm. I´m learning things like where to buy good, cheap groceries, how the drugstores work here, and where the good, non touristy clubs are. Of course, I still stumble sometimes. The different dining hours are hard to get used to, and that bottle of Febreeze has still managed to elude me. I have yet to figure out the Spanish reluctance to dance in nightclubs.

but at the end of the day, I walk down the street and feel at home here. I dodge traffic and dash madly for the bus like thousands of other university students here. I linger for copas, tinto de verano, and churros after class with other students. I look forward to tapas and bedtimes of 4:30am when the weekend rolls around. phrases like "vale," "pues, nada," and "eso es" have started to creep into my mouth even when I´m speaking english.

So yea, Spain is still hitting the spot, even with essays to write.

And on I go to Spanish.

lata ya´ll