oh yeah... it's STUDY abroad

I'm more than half-way into the semester, so it's probably about time I at least mention the school part of study abroad.

I'm taking five classes which are all in Spanish. On Monday and Tuesday I have Spanish Art History, Syntax, Social Changes in Spain, and Philosophy. Thursday and Friday are just Theater. There typically isn't class on Wednesdays, but for the art class we have to go to the Prado Museum every Wednesday morning for the practical portion.

Honestly, I'm having a lot of issues with the classes so far. First of all, there is nothing even remotely related to psychology that I can take. A huge reason I wanted to study abroad was to learn about my major from the perspective of another culture. Plus, since courses from my major aren't offered, almost none of the classes I'm taking count for credit back at Cal Poly. Don't get me wrong--I love having free electives and being able to take whatever the hell classes I want outside of my major, but I'm wasting them all here on classes that really don't interest me in the slightest. The minimum course load for a semester is four classes, but the CSU program requires us to take five. If these classes aren't even helping me graduate, why can't I just take four and have more free time to enjoy my short year here?

Another huge problem is the demographics of the class: 100% Americans. I was under the impression that some classes would be with Spaniards, and the others would be with other international students, but I was obviously mistaken. Our program director really only encouraged the native speakers in our group to take the "much more rigorous" classes with other Spaniards, so I chose to wait until the next semester, afraid I'd be overwhelmed (I regret that now). The other classes are with other study abroad students, but they are all from American universities. I still can't even fathom how ridiculous that is. If I wanted to be in school with Americans all day, I could've stayed in San Luis Obispo.

I'm trying to be a good student, but it's pretty hard to stay motivated when everything you're learning just feels irrelevant; then add on the infinite distractions from living in Spain and it's almost impossible to study. I'm pretty disenchanted by the academics of our specific program so far, but next semester I will for sure be enrolled in classes with Spaniards, so hopefully there will be an improvement. This is really the only complaint I have about my experience thus far, and despite these problems I'm still learning more here than I have anywhere else.

It just isn't happening in the classroom.