First Day of Class

There are some exchange programs where students are taught in English. And there are others where students are taught in the mixture of Spanish and English depending on the difficulty of the subject matter so as to ease them into the swing of things. La Universidad de San Andres is neither of these things. Full blown classes in Spanish as if I've spent the last 19 years 4 months and 7 days of my life learning, speaking, breathing Spanish. Well I haven't. No, I began my Spanish career 5 years ago in Spanish 1 at Capital High School with a German teacher who taught himself Spanish over the summer so that he wouldn't lose his job the following fall. Mr. Neunshwander. Three years of high school Spanish, 4 quarters in college, and boom, here I am. Considering this I actually did quite well; however, this is going to take some adjusting. You know how you can tune somebody out if you're not interested in what they're saying? Well it's 10x easier to tune somebody out if they're speaking a language that you have to actively listen to in order understand about 80% of it. In my marketing class there are 7 exchange students and we could barely understand a word he said, he was the Argentinean clone of Mr. Vernon, and I know some people won't get this reference but I don't care. I woke up at 6:30, left by 7:20 am, walk, bus, train, walk, arrive at 8:45 am. Classes from 9:00 am till 12:30, lunch till 2:00 pm, class till 5:30 p.m., arrive home 7 pm. That's a fairly busy day. It will get better though because this week is when you try the courses you like, therefore I'm going to double the classes I normally would because I want to find what I like. I'm thinking so far, Marketing, Operations Management (Namely because I can get UW credit for these), and then I'm between an International Contemporary History Class, a Business Case Class, and an Entrepreneur class. Another list is in order:
1) Napkins are strangely made out of wax paper and are so unabsorbant one wonders as to what is there purpose
2) No TP in the toilet. So where does it go? The garbage... not pleasant.
3) You can kill an Argentinean with the following things:
i) Any of the things you can kill a normal person with (rocks, guns, biological weapons, shovels)
ii) Any sort of spicy food or hot peppers
4) Dogs are allowed to shit only in places where people frequently walk: streets, sidewalks, pathways, roads, trails, alleys, walk-ways, lanes, bike paths, and parking lots
5) My operations management class was interupted today because a dog accidentally wandered into our class room. Instead of taking the dog outside, the professor put it in the hallway and shut the door.
6) If you miss the bus you need, the next one will arrive in less than 5 minutes.
7) Spiral note-books with line paper are non-existent
8) Milk cannot be found in the non-fat/ non-bagged variety
9) I'm apparently a coffee drinker now
10) I'm going to a Tango class tomorrow with Pizza included, the price is 15 pesos ($5)
Alright, no more list. We're visiting another apartment tomorrow that will hopefully work it. It is for 5 people and includes a small pool. I'll be up again tomorrow going to classes bright and early and on Wednesday I have soccer/basketball practice so I show the Argentineans up on the court, and then get clowned-on on the field. I'll keep you posted.