church, classes, and football

Church
On sunday i wanted to go to church.  I asked my host parents if i could go with them but they always go REALLY early in the morning so that the father can still go to work on time.  I didn't know anyone else who was going to go so i decided to look one up for myself.  I found a few churches listed in an orientation packet.  I decided to go to a protestant church because i'm not acquainted with catholic services and i figure that is something done better with a catholic friend next to me :)  I found a Presbyterian church close to the school that i could walk to.  I decided to go to the 11:30 service and got directions to go there.  I got a little lost getting there and i ended up arriving tired and sweaty 10 minutes late, only to discover that their website was wrong and the service started at 11:45!  Everyone there was extremely welcoming, as soon as i walked in the greeters asked me where i was from and sat me down with the other college students in the church.  It was a really good service and i really liked the people.  Afterwords they served watermelon and then i left.  When i was about two blocks away one of the college students came running down the street after me and asked me if i wanted to go out to lunch with them.  I went and it was a ton of fun, they are all really nice, and most don't speak any english.  Apparently they (the college students) all meet each saturday night to hang out, sometimes they eat, sometimes they see movies ect.  I'm going to go next week.  I also had my first political discussion at that lunch about immigration and the law in Arizona.  It was a very interesting discussion.  Several of the students go to the same school as me so i'm hoping to see them around campus.  One of them is a chemistry major and told me if i need any help in my chemistry class he can tutor me. 

Classes
Today was the first day of classes.  It started out badly, i got to my classroom for spanish grammar and nobody was there.  Eventually one other german student showed up but we were the only two.  We eventually left and tracked down the appropriate office to ask what had happened.  It turns out that the class (the whole thing, not just that day) was canceled and the lady said that we had been emailed.  I knew that i hadn't received any emails so i got her to look up my email address.  Turns out that they had the wrong email in their records, which also explains why i never heard anything from them all summer!  Anyway, after that i went to an office and talked to a lady for a while about what i could replace the class with.  It seems that a majority of the advanced spanish classes for foreigners have been canceled.  My theory is that they are accustomed to a lot more students but this year with the travel warning and all not as many people came.  They need at least 12 people to have a class but the few of us who have advanced spanish were spread too thin to fill many classes.  All i am really looking for in my spanish class is a chance to work on my writing, i'm getting way better at speaking but none of my science classes require essays so i wanted to take something in spanish where i would write.  I eventually found a class on spanish society and history that seemed like it would work and signed up for it.  Then i went to chemistry.

Chemistry i really liked, i met a few new friends and the professor is really easy to understand.  The one unfortunate thing is that the class is not exactly what i thought it was.  When i looked up the class descriptions at first i saw that Chemistry 1 was exactly like Chemistry 1 at Whitworth.  I was not worried about succeeding because i have learned much of that content in high school.  I assumed that my class was Chemistry 1 because it was the lowest Chemistry course available.  Turns out that it is more like Chemistry 1.5  I didn't realize it untill the end of class when she showed us where we could review previous concepts and i saw most of what i remember from Chemistry on the review list.  I think that they assume some level of chemistry coming into school and start teaching 1/2-3/4 of the way through the classic Chemistry 1 curriculum.  Also it turns out that there is no lab associated with the class.  I don't think its going to be too much of a problem.  Tomorrow morning i'm going to get up really early and start going through everything.  Most of it looks familiar so i think i should be able to pick it all up quickly, and if not, there is always that guy from church and his tutoring offer :)  One last weird thing about chemistry is that it is a first year course, so some of the things they talk about are pretty basic.  We spent quite a while during class going over listening/note taking/studying strategies.  It was kind of nostalgic.  Anyway, then i went to my society class.

I knew something was wrong going into the society class because one of my international friends (from new zealand) was also in the class and she does not speak any spanish.  I had double checked that all the instruction was in spanish, and she had double checked that it was all in english.  We were both assured that it was.  When we got into class the professor started to talk in spanish but he very quickly realized that almost nobody could understand him.  Turns out that four people in the class (including the professor) thought it was all going to be in spanish.  The rest of us (12 or 13 people) thought it was going to be taught in english.  The professor couldn't just continue in spanish because nobody would understand him, but fortunately he spoke very good english.  He explained that officially the course was to be taught in spanish and he was not sure what he was going to do.  He has taught the same course in english before but he has all spanish materials prepared for this semester.  He was pretty frustrated with the scheduling office.  He just gave us the first day talk and introduction in English but warned us that he did not know what the future of the class would be like.  I have a feeling that the class is going to be closed.  The school can't just expect him to switch languages on a moments notice, but if he keeps going with spanish only 4 of us will be left (and you need 12 for a class).  Tomorrow i think i am headed back to the scheduling office and i'm just going to ask them for any class, in any subject, in which i can write in spanish and pass without too much effort.  I think my major focus is going to be on thermodynamics and electromagnetic fields, i just want a class that will help me practice writing, it seems like a simple request :)  I'm not worried though, everyone in the scheduling office is really nice, i just got caught up in a scheduling knot.  Tomorrow i have thermo and E&M.  I am also going to the tennis courts because apparently i have to try out to be in the advanced tennis class, which is a good sign :)  Tomorrow will also be my first day of salsa class, and i found a frisbee club that plays on Wednesdays and Fridays so i'm excited for the rest of the week!

Football (soccer)
In the last few days i have hung out more with the 15 year old in my house than my roomate.  Javier (my roomate) seems to just want to watch tv ALL day.  I'm working him out of his shell but its kind of slow going.  The 15 year old is named Paco and he is much more outgoing.  He has learned a decent bit of english from previous study abroad students so between his broken english and my broken spanish we get along pretty well.  He loves to sing (and is really good at it) and is an incredible football (soccer) player.  He told me that for a while he wanted to turn pro and i thought it was just some kids dream till i saw him play.  He is really really really good.  Apparently not quite good enough to make the junior tour though, he tried out last year and now he thinks his chances are gone.  Yesterday and today he has given me football lessons.  Its been a long time since I've played but its starting to come back.  Today we were practicing on a basketball court near out house when two Mexican kids challenged us to a game.  To score each team had to hit the post of the opposing basketball hoop.  Paco and I dominated them, or you could say paco dominated them :)  I played pretty well, i got two of our 5 or 6 goals but it was really his show.  I had a lot of fun though.  At the end they got one goal and then quit, the final score was either 5-1 or 6-1. 

Random short story
I had my first person think i was a native speaker!  At an international student convention a photographer took my picture with some other students.  Then he went around and asked us all our names.  I told him my name was Benjamin and then spelled my last name for him.  He then asked (translated) "and you are from spain?".  It doesn't really count for much because i only said one word and some letters, but it still boosted my self esteem :)

Thats it, thanks for reading!

Ben Hamming