Free Day

My fellow Stony Brook student in the Canary Islands, Beverley, pointed out to me that I neglected to introduce myself in my first post (it's never most effective to do things last minute) so here goes:

My name is Christine Bilfinger and I'm a sophomore at Stony Brook, majoring (currently) in Religious Studies and Spanish. I grew up about 10 minutes from the University and had decided in high school that it was a goal of mine to study abroad in college. I love travelling and the Canary Islands seemed like an amazing opportunity, especially because so American schools have programs here. Also, it's 70 degrees or higher year-round. Also, the island of Gran Canaria is renowned for it's beautiful preserved land and beaches. Paradise!

I've been taking spanish for several years now and continued to pursue it at Stony Brook, but have yet to become fluent. What better way than to visit Spain? My only goal coming here was to attain fluency, so I elected to study at the Facultad de Filología, which is essentially the linguistics department. I'm now torn between taking classes in the translation department and my original choice, so when I choose my classes permanently I'll probably be split between the two.

Okay, enough introduction. Today Beverley and I did some errands around town and on the way I took some pictures...

This is a view from across the street from the administration building, where the study abroad office is located.

This is the eagle, a symbol from the Spanish civil war. To the Spanish it represents the fascist regime, although they are aware that in the United States it is a symbol of pride and patriotism. We were still told not to wear the brand American eagle...

This are the "colored houses". Early in Canarian history there existed a law that each house had to be painted a different color, in order that officials could know which family owned which house. When the settlement grew this became difficult, but houses are still brightly colored.

And finally here is the main shopping street. Right now there are insane sales. Beverley and I had a hard time resisting :)

Confused.

Today when meeting with my coordinator I found out that a fellow Stony Brook student and I are the only Americans in our program. All of the sudden everything made sense-we thought we were here in a program called ERASMUS, which is specific to European students. So of course this made very little sense, and we were wondering why everyone around us spoke only French and German, or perhaps Hungarian. And then we find out that we don't really belong to the program! That we are Americans, so our credit system and matriculation are completely different, and that Stony Brook is trying something new which will be similar to the arrangements of European schools. So now I feel like a test subject, and am attempting to fill out a learning agreement which is typically used by EU students, hoping that I can meet some requirements and that some credits transfer. Wish me luck? Can classes really be valued at 12 credits?

Leaving

I'm leaving in 30 minutes for the airport, and I can't believe this is finally happening. Trying to get all the pre-trip tasks done has consumed me for the past month, and I definitely put it off until the last minute. As of now I have all of my belongings packed into a suitcase and a backpack, and in between running around trying to figure out what I've forgotten I'm writing this post. I just can't wait until I arrive at the dormitory on the campus of Las Palmas University, where I'll be staying. I've received no confirmation that I have housing, so perhaps the next post will be interesting/depressing? Maybe some photos of me dragging around my suitcase trying to find somewhere to live?