Friday night I went out with about 100 people from the residence hall. It was pretty crazy. They has this thing called a botellon where a large group or kids get together at a park in the middle of the night in Madrid and drink, then around 3 or so they disburse, some go home, some go to clubs. Our group took one of the last trains from the UAM campus to Madrid. The train is free every night after 10pm or so, so we waited till then so we could "take advantage of it", as they all said. We hung out at the botellon for a few hours where we just talked and i met some people. Then, the group of people i was with decided to go to this club called the Inn afterwords and we were there till about 5:30 am. We waited at the entrance of the metro station until it opened back up at 6 am and took the metro and train back to campus. It is free in the early morning too. We got home around 7:30/8 am. I slept the next day and a half.
My Monday class was canceled because the teacher has a conference.
I had a class yesterday but I couldn't find it because the teacher switched classrooms but didn't post it anywhere. I was in the department Monday looking for the professor who taught the class (I found her name on the syllabus) because I need permission to take the class. When I got to her office she told me that she was only the professor for the second half of the semester and that I should come back tomorrow to find the professor woh teaches the first half. So i did, and i couldn't find him. After looking for a half hour I went to the department and asked the other professor where he was again because I couldn't find him. She said " of course you can't find him because he is not in his office, he is teaching." I said " I went to his classroom and he wasn't there. I waited for him for 20 minutes and he never showed up." And then she said " I don't know why you are coming here asking me questions i don't know the answers to. I'm just a professor, how am I supposed to know!" I got upset so I walked out of her office, I guess at the same moment she had a change of heart and told me to come back, she will help me find the classroom. She looked on the computer and confirmed that the classroom I went to was the right one. She then walked me to the classroom and on the way there said "Well, sometimes the professors change classrooms..." So, we got to the classroom I was originally at and sure enough the professor wasn't there so she asked some people where he was and they told her his new classroom. By this time the class had been going on for about 20 minutes (its only a 1 hour class) and i didnt feel like interrupting the teacher so i waited till the class was done to talk to the professor. He was really nice and said he would give me any permission i needed to take the class and if I had any questions, just call him.
Last night I went shopping because I needed some clothes to wear out to the clubs and stuff. I was also going to go to a cafe with this international student organization but I left my wallet at home so I couldn't make it. I put some money in my pocket before i left my dorm, that's how i payed for my clothes. On my way back from shopping in Madrid, I walked to the Sol train station. People were rallying up preparing for the Huelga General that has been going on all day today (September 19th 2010). The Huelga General is a Strike where basically all the workers are striking because they don't agree with some of the changes that the government is making. Due to the economic crisis here in Spain the President has decided to cut wages and raise retirement age and things like that. (http://www.huelgageneral.net http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/09/29/espana/1285714883.html) So everyone was preparing to protest last night. Here are some pictures:
Basically, today, the entire county is paralyzed. No one went to work. many people rely on public transportation and about only one train an hour was running today and only about 80/800 buses were operating. I have been watching some of it on the news and the people starting getting violent and so far I haven't heard if they have come to an agreement or not, but many people think that the President will not give in.
All my classes were canceled today but they will start again tomorrow. I have 4 classes tomorrow so that will be the first full day of classes I have had since I got here!
uneventful week?
ReplyDeleteIt seems very full of things! Well, I think it's because here we do so many things and we don't realize the quantity.
after yesterday I MUST study today. See you soon!