Studying? That Exists Here?

Spain’s double personality is killing me right now. I’ve gotten so used to thinking life is all smiles here—three days of class, constant tapas and coffee dates with friends, and everyone eagerly anticipating immensely fun and tiring weekends. Then all of a sudden students come back from their Christmas breaks and start acting like 4^th-year Grad students—a.k.a. studying. All. The. Time. I always hate finals at UCSB because no one ever wants to do anything but camp out in Davison Library and drink 14 cups of coffee a day. But finals there are a week, maybe two weeks tops of studying. Here, finals run throughout the month of February, which means all of January is the equivalent of “Dead Week.” No one is kidding about that name, and I feel like I’m slowly dying along with it. My Spanish friends, who sometimes go out four nights a week, are glued to their textbooks. It’s impossible to find a spot to sit in any of the billions of libraries here. Professors are canceling the last days of class so their students can study. (Well, I guess canceled class is nothing new. . . .) And suddenly, after thinking that my work level in Spain is a bed of roses, I find myself having to write several 20-page papers in Spanish (I think the longest paper I’ve ever written was ten pages, and that was in English), and study for a test in a class where I’m still convinced we haven’t actually learned anything over these past four months.

Here’s a theory: If students actually ever showed up to class, they wouldn’t have to spend a month and a half cramming their brains with borrowed notes in order to pass their tests. But maybe four months of bliss is worth one month of Hell?

To keep myself from going crazy and getting a bit down on being here at the moment, I’ve buried myself in trip planning. Since my finals are spread out, I have a chunk of time in February completely free. Instead of spending more nights surrounded by stressed-out students in Granada, I’m hopping over to Barcelona for five days to visit some friends. Then, at the end of February, I figured I’d celebrate the end of finals with a week-long trip to Italy! Visiting friends there, turning 21 in Venice, and eating pizza that isn’t Spain-itized with corn and carrot toppings is helping me get through this oh-too-studious time.