Carlos III

1/18/11

Today was my first day at Carlos III University. It started off with me waking up a 6:20 to walk to Sol to catch the cercania or train. I have to say, at first I was afraid to make my 10 minute walk in the pitch-black morning to Sol, but it turns out that I had nothing to worry about. I thought maybe there would be creepers roaming about looking for female prey, but the only other people I saw were college students, probably on their way to take their morning classes.

Traveling from Sol to the school isn't hard (I just have to take 1 train all the way there), but I was glad that I didn't have to travel alone my first day. We have a little Carlos III group on Facebook, and we found out that a few of us lives near and around Sol so we decided to travel together. I met Angela, Nayely, and Ariel (not the mermaid...this one's a guy). On the 20 minute train ride we got to know each other a little better. Angela and Nayely go to UC Berkeley (most of the students do), and Ariel goes to UC Riverside. They're all really nice. We got to Las Margaritas in Getafe where the school is located, and we were supposed to find a parking lot. We got off and all we saw was darkness. There was a creepy man standing by the wall, and beyond there was a dark field next to a wall covered with graffiti. For a while we didn't know what to do. Then the train finally moved, and we could see the opposite side - where the parking lot is. We crossed to the other side and followed the signs to Carlos III.

At 8:15 we met the rest of our group at this big red sculpture in the middle of the school courtyard, where we met Rocio, who is in charge of our program. She gave us our I.D. cards, and Martha (who is a graduate of Carlos III) gave us a tour around campus. Compared to UCSB, this campus is SMALL. It took us less than an hour for her to show us around. They have some nice facilities, and they even have a brand new gym with state-of-the-art systems, a spa, sauna, swimming pool, and tennis and soccer fields. I was thinking, "Yay, I can actually exercise!" when I found out that as a student I get a discount, but I have to pay every single time I want to use the gym. So everyone at UCSB: appreciate your gym and use it...because it's free. I have to pay. Sad day.

Next we got our UC3M (when I say this it means Universidad Carlos III Madrid) email accounts, and of course I had problems. We had to enter our passport number, and right before I came to Spain I got a new passport but I had registered with the old one. So I had to wait until I got home to actually get an email account and hunt down my old passport number.

Then death happened. We had to take our written tests. Everyone has to take language classes, and we take tests to place us in people who are about in the same level language-wise. We had to write a few short paragraphs and take a multiple choice grammar test. I haven't really focused on Spanish grammar intensely since last summer, so I had forgotten some things. It was a little difficult, but I'm just glad it's over.

After lunch, we then had lunch at one of the cafeterias, and the food is surprisingly cheap. You can get a sandwich for 1 to 2 Euros. It may not get you stuffed, but if you want to save money it will tide you over until dinner. Then we went to a reception where they had fancy glasses of refrescos, in this case Fanta and Coca-Cola, as well as water, little sandwiches, and sweet cookie things. There we had a chance to mingle with the other 200 students from the U.S. in our program and meet some of the professors. Then we made our way to the auditorium and heard presentations from the professors about all the courses we could take. They said what they were about and what kind of work it would require. I loved getting the presentations because I can see which professor speaks a million miles an hour and which one has a lisp so ridiculous I can't understand him. Also it was nice because the courses that I previously would never have taken looked interesting after the presentation so that was cool.

Overall, it was a nice first day, and it was really nice getting to know my fellow students better. At the hotel, we were one big group of students and it was bit daunting, but getting to talk to them in tiny groups is a lot easier. I just want school to start already so I can get a routine down! Yay school.