Aventura 19: la UB

You're probably all wandering if I'm even in school here given that I've shared eighteen aventuras and haven't mentioned school once.  But don't you worry, I go to school every week (when I'm not sick) in a beautiful, beautiful building at la Universitat de Barcelona, right in the center of the city.  And I guess it's about time I give this place and classes some time on my blog!

Let me first give you a photo tour of my university.  Here's the entrance, en la plaza Universitat.  It takes about 20 minutes in metro, 50 minutes walking to get here from my house.  

http://www.gogobot.com/universitat_de_barcelona-barcelona-attraction

After entering the front doors, you are welcomed into the arched entrance of the university.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vest%C3%ADbul_Universitat_de_Barcelona.jpg

Turn left, then right, and you will enter one of two outdoor but enclosed areas.  Everyone hangs out here in between classes, meets for group projects (if not in the library), or just stays here to read.  Along with the plants, columns, and arches, there are pools of goldfish and orange trees!

http://www.iagora.com/studies/uni/Universitat_de_Barcelona

Finally, go up the stairs and enter the library.  My spanish friend told me that the library looked like it's from Harry Potter - I think I would agree:

http://estudios.universia.net/espana/institucion/universitat-barcelona

So yes, this is the university I go to every Monday to Wednesday.  My classrooms are your typical classrooms, but when I explore anywhere in the university - the gardens inside or outside, the concert hall, the library, I find surprises everywhere.

As for my classes, I'm taking four, all in castellano. In Democracia en España, we have a animated, passionate UB professor teaching us about the Spanish Constitution and the remarkable transition Spain has made from a dictatorship to democracy.  As I've never taken a political science class before, this class is as much learning about Spain's political system as about political systems in general! The professor is so open and encouraging, and we ask as many questions as we can possibly think of!

My next class is Grámatica, so nothing terribly interesting, although the profesora is nice and makes the 1.5 hour class go by pretty quickly.  I'm learning that although I think I have a pretty good grasp on the Spanish language, I've got quite a long way......

In my Novela de Barcelona class we are learning about the history of Barcelona, from la Guerra Civil until more present day through reading important novels.  La profesora is increíble.  She knows so much, and is one of those more formal teachers (we use the formal directive Usted. instead of the informal Tú to address her) but she is so funny and keeps everything so interesting.  I'm currently reading a book titled Nada, written about a girl who goes to la UB right after la Guerra Civil.  She moved in with her grandma and aunts and uncles in order to go to the university, and she discovers all these dark secrets and the dark pasts of her family and she gets entangled in it with her friend from school.  It's so wonderful to be learning about the history of the place I'm staying - it makes me feel like I'm less of a tourist and more of a cultural and historical aventurista!

Finally, my historia del arte class with the father of the above profesora.  This profesor is unlike any I've had.  He's 80 years old and is a walking library, as my director described him.  We are learning about Goya, Velazqúez, Picasso, el Baroco, el Renacimiento, and art around Spain - but really we are learning more lessons about life than just about art.  My notes are colored with phrases like:

"Your homeland, your nation, is any place where you have been happy, not just where you were born." "Absolutes don't exist; Everything is relative."
"God is the people closest to me: my wife, my kids, and my students."
"Art is the best way to understand a time."
"Music teaches us the words of life."
"Love is to think that the person you love is God."
"There isn't love without liberty."
"Your idea that God exists is correct, and your idea that God doesn't exist is also correct."
"There are no races; there are ethnicities."
"The computer has entered our lives without asking permission, and its changing our world for the worse."
And to end with an art one: "Who doesn't understand Picasso, doesn't understand the modern world."

As you can see, every day in school, en la UB, is a day full of aventuras, that if I were really to count all of them, I think I would be at Aventura 53 by now....