The Set-Up, Part 1

The Program: I am participating in the Knox College Progam at the University of Barcelona. The director is Tim Foster, a professor at Knox College, and the assistant is Susanna "Suzie" Stone, a graduate of Knox and a former participant in this program. They are very cool people, and fortunately so because I see them on a daily basis as they help me with everything from classes to visas, residency cards to advice on what bars are worth visiting.

The School: The University of Barcelona was founded in 1450. I go to school in a castle. Pictures are forthcoming. It is located, more or less, in the heart of Barcelona. It is a very short walk from Plaza Catalunya, which is the ground zero of activity for many businesses, including tourism, and all public transportation originates, ends, or passes through this area. The department I am enrolled in is the Philology department, which is roughly equivalent to Knox´s Modern Languages department. It is mostly a commuter school, there is no 24-hour computer lab (like Founder´s lab at Knox -- which I never thought I would miss!), but there are a few courtyards and gardens, and I have yet to find any of the libraries but once I do I´m sure I´ll have a lot to say about them.

The Classes: The year is divided into trimesters, and each student takes three or four classes (one on audit), with only one required class, Syntax and Composition. I am taking four classes this trimester. And no, it´s not very difficult. They are: History of Spain, Contemporary Spain, Art History 1, and Syntax and Composition 1 (audit). The classes are all 1.5 hours long, and all of them are lecture-oriented. (The S&C class obviously has more of a participatory element, but that´s because it´s a grammar course.) All the classes are taught in Spanish.

The Professors: All are faculty of the University of Barcelona.
-Professor Bertrán is the only man I´ve ever met who´s eyes sparkle when he talks about Roman history (Barcelona is a Roman city, after all). His excitement is contagious and it makes his classes terrifically interesting (yes, an interesting history class, I know. It really exists).
-Professor Reyes is my professor for Contemporary Spain. For those of you familiar with the Knox community, he is a smaller, Spanish version of Xavier Romano, sans the bow tie and with more hair. For those of you who feel left out at that statement, he is a round, well-dressed man with a bubbly personality, a penchant for talking with his eyes closed and for making small gestures of emphasis with his hands. Their voices even sound similar.
-Professor Moreno is my professor for S&C. I know by now that she speaks English, even though we only speak Spanish with her. She has a very warm, comfortable presence in the classroom, which is good because it makes you feel less awkward as you verbally stumble around phrases in Spanish. She is even gracious enough to resist cringing at the most American of accents. (For the record, I cringe at my own accent.)
-Professor Losada is the Art History professor and is thus the most entertaining personality. His favorite tangential monologues center on the themes of love, old age versus youth (and his preference for the former), and how being old means knowing the difference between lust and love. His classes are the most philosophical in nature, and usually leave me reeling with all kinds of ideas and perspectives to think about. That is probably just because I tend to overanalyze things though. I have the feeling that other kids in the class are not so profoundly affected.
In any case, I love my professors. I even think I´ll adore them in 7 weeks, when final exams will be looming threateningly.

Part 2 will be coming next... since this was all academic, the next bit will be about "la vida cotidiana" (daily life).

written by  achavero on October 10, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain
from the travel blog: Amanda in Barcelona
tagged School, Professors and Program
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