Some Stereotypes are Universal: First Impressions of Classes

I have a grand mishmosh of classes over here which confuses the Spaniards to no end. Here you only take classes in your respective college, or faculty as they call it, and not across multiple colleges within the university. For example, I am an engineering major so if I were a Spanish student I would only take classes within the engineering college. However, I have a classes within the faculties of: Languages, Law, Economics, Humanities, and Engineering. As a result of this I've gotten to observe a variety of students within different departments and I've come to this conclusion: some stereotypes/personalities are universal.
What I mean by this is at the end of the day an engineering student is an engineering student and a business student is a business student just as an engineering class is full of engineers and a business class is full of business students.
That may seem like stating the obvious but consider this. How often do you see a female engineering student go to class in heavy make-up, mini skirt, and heals or shorts with tights and heals? Now how often do you see a business student or humanities student not do this? This may not seem significant and perhaps it's not but I was amused nonetheless.
In my non engineering classes the girls are very liberally dressed and you can tell they spend a great deal of time getting ready in the morning. The guys just as in the U.S. where jeans and a t-shirt. The teachers also seem to have a livelier personality and are upbeat in the non-engineering classes. This is the same impression I have of the U.S. They also are often younger. However, in my engineering class I have an older professor and the students are very conservative. I was quite possibly the only girl with make up on and felt horribly underdressed. About half the guys were either in suits or collared shirts and nice sweaters and the girls looked very professional.
At the end of the day none of this matters. I was merely amused by the similarities amongst the steroetypical personalities of the engineering student versus non-engineering student.
On a different note my classes are interesting for the most part. There is only one I am not that enthused about but I've only gone once so it deserves a second chance. I am taking SPanish for Exchange Students which is a lot of fun. I also am in one class in English which is called Spanish History and Culture through Cinema and Visual Arts. I think this one will be particularly interesting and easy :). I also am in Power and Politics in Modern Spain which is a three hour lecture in Spanish and there were no visual aids last class just a teacher talking in Spanish for three hours. Also, I didn't know that modern meant 15th-18th century and not present day. I'm also in a Spanish class on European Union Policy which I expect will be rather interesting and fairly easy. My last class is on the Economics and Exploitation of Transportation and is in Spanish as well. I'm glad I decided to take one engineering class to get a sense of what that is like over here.
Anyways, that is all for my rant on classes and stereotypes. Adiós!

UWH Spain Style

So I decided on a whim to go to an underwater hockey tournament this weekend-or as they say here hockey sub. I'm really glad I decided to go it was an absolute blast. I got to know some of the girls better and play as well.
I played for Castilla y Leon because they needed players and Madrid didn't. I ironmanned the entire tournament...we didn't have any subs. They don't play co-ed here or rather guys cannot play on the girls teams but girls can play with the guys if they need players. It was an interesting change of pace. I was the most experienced player on my team which also made for an interesting tournament. We played with three underwater rugby players two of which have only been playing hockey for a month. The other has been playing hockey for awhile but only occasionally. Another one of girls is from Canada and only in Spain for the year. She's only been playing since September. The last is 16 and has been playing about as long as me. I played center forward the whole tournament without subs and it was very different playing just girls teams. It was also interesting to play where the other players were not significantly physically stronger than me.
Another cool thing for hockey players reading this: they take the colors of the team a lot more seriously than we do in the U.S. For example, we wear dark or light colored caps and use the appropriate colored stick. They all have team suits and they are either reversible or they have two. They change their suits based on what color they are for each game. They also were very amused by my polo ear caps connected directly to my mask strap. None of them have ever seen this before. It is because they all wear matching water polo caps with the team logo and change the head gear depending on color as well. They also do this because each player has a number and they write it on their arms for tournaments. The table then keeps track of who scored the goals.
I also got to see a final sudden death game. The final game for the boys was tied at the end of the alotted time and so they played an extra five minutes. They were still tied so then they did the best of three penalty shots for each team and that decided who one (Madrid). I've never seen a game end like that before and it was very exciting to watch.
I also don't know what they use in the pools here but after twelve straight hours of play it was still crystal clear that you could watch the game from the pool deck.
Anyways, that's enough hockey talk for now.
Hasta Luego

Leaping Before You Look Leads to an Interesting Lunch

So I went to the school cafeteria for lunch today and decided to order from the Menú del Día instead of a la carte items. And so far when I've gone out to get food and just sort of ordered at random its been okay. Tried some new things and been fine.
Today I ordered callos de Madrileños for the main dish--translation: tripe or stomach lining stew. I have to say I like to try new things and all and tend to be of the opinion that if you tell me after I eat it then it won't gross me out.
Callos is not for me and looking it up after I tasted it was an even worse idea. The waiter noticed I didn't like it and asked me if I wanted something else instead so I ordered codillo. AKA knee. I asked what it was before ordering this time and figured it would be worth a try. It tasted good enough but I have to say having an entire knee with bones and everything put on my plate kinda freaked me out after the tripe. Aside from my lunch experience today though I love msot of the food I've tried but needless to say I don't know if I'm going to be as comfortable ordering blindly for awhile.

Words of Wisdom for the Morning

So if you want to dry your hair with an american hairdryer after you shower, and it has a switch on it to switch the voltage but you can't get the switch to work, don't assume that means it's okay to use it in another country! Almost burnt down my room this morning. The hairdryer came on with way more force than any hairdryer should, started smoking profusely, and now doesn't work...I think I fried it literally!
Anywho, good morning from Spain. Here's a bit of what I've been up to.
My first day I just wandered around the neighborhood and took photos and the like. I'll post some here soon but they are pretty much all on facebook although I haven't had time to tag or put captions on yet.
Then Tuesday Ariel (the other girl staying in the house with me :D) braved figuring out how to go on the Metro without asking anyone first (we were proud of ourselves) and went to Parque de Retiro. It's this absolutely gigantic park near the center of Madrid and is gorgeous. I can't wait to go back a little later in the Spring when everything is in bloom. We went when it was upper 40s and my host mom was like oh but it's so cold out you should go when it's warmer lol. She's 73 and really sweet but also a your stereotypical Grandmother. She just knocked on my door, noticed I was barefoot, and told it was cold and I need to put something on my feet.
The first day of school, or rather the orientation, was a bit of a mess. I overslept because I set the time on my alarm clock off by twelve hours and got hardly any sleep because after two days the jetlag decided to set in when I had a placement exam at 9am. That led to really screwing up the language exam to the point that I ended up in the Spanish class for students some of which only started learning Spanish last semester. But after spending about four hours going from one person to the next I think I am getting switched into a higher class and then everything in theory will be fine with my schedule.
Tonight we're planning on going to the opening parade for Carnaval and I'm super excited :D. Expect pictures to follow...then again it's me we're talking about always expect photos or something is wrong hehe.
Oh and for those who are curious a cultural difference or two I've noticed so far. For one they don't seem to refrigerate meat much unless it's going to not be eaten for over a day. For example, I didn't finish all of a chicken breast with lunch yesterday and asked to save it for dinner. My host Mom left it on the plate and just put it in the microwave for later. And she makes me a little sandwich with ham or turkey to take with in the mornings but she makes it the day before and leaves it out over night. This is different for me to get used to. Also, doors seem to open the opposite here than in the U.S. You have to pull them to open instead of push a lot of times and that led to some funny moments the first couple of days. Anyways, have to get to that meeting to fix my schedule and the like so hasta luego!

Llegué Ayer

Hola! It's 7:45 in the am, still dark outside, and I'm wide awake. I got here yesterday and so far everything is great. My host parents are so so nice. They have been hosting exchange students for the past twenty five years every semester and Nieves (my host mom) told me that before me 50 other students have stayed in my room! Today is a pretty relaxed today and then tomorrow is my orientation so kind of like my first day. Not much else to say now so hasta luego.