I am traumatized

Okay, I know I said I'd just edit the other post with updates for each day's classes, but I think that post is going to be waaayyy too long if I say all this there. Besides, I feel this level of trauma deserves its own post.

Today, my first class was Cartografía Básica (Basic Cartography). The paper that they had hung up on a bulletin board said that it was in room 422. I was at room 422 at 10 when the class supposedly started. There was no class there. Thankfully about 4 other people were also sitting around, so when the professor finally came to tell us we were in room 408, we were all looking stupid together. It's bad enough in the states when you aren't sure if you're in the wrong place for your class, but it's about 35 times worse when you don't understand what in the world is going on and you can barely speak the language well enough to ask someone around you.

So then the professor starts talking to us about stuff and going over the syllabus. He seemed pretty cool, and the material on the syllabus sounded interesting even though I didn't exactly understand it all. Next, he decided to call roll. Who can guess what happened? Yeah, I wasn't on the list. I kind of stand out (being a gringa and all), so he noticed right away that he hadn't called my name. He asked me what was up, and I had absolutely no idea how to explain it in Spanish. I think I mumbled something about "I signed up for the class but I don't know if I'm in it and I don't know what's going on and I was told to come here" but I think the only concepts I communicated successfully were "No sé" (I don't know) and that I was very foreign and very confused. Since the class was full, the teacher told me to go across the hall and talk to the people in the geography office to see what they could do. So I got to pack up all my stuff and go attempt to explain myself to the geography people. Thankfully, the teacher came and explained what he knew so I didn't have figure it all out by myself. Apparently the deal is that there are enough kids who want to take the course and can't get in that they're opening up a new section. I put down my name and phone number, and they'll call me to give me the room number and tell me when it starts (probably next week or the week after). Of course, I did not feel like I understood any of this -- I walked back to the oficina and had one of the program coordinators call to find out what was going on. I had understood it correctly, but I was glad to have confirmation of that. Here's the best part: this class is at 7am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That means I have to be at the bus stop at 6am. Yeah. I'm real thrilled.

Perhaps you're wondering why I wasn't on the list. That's a very good question, and I'm not entirely sure I know the answer. All I know is that somehow our enrollment is not finalized. I've been told all kinds of semi-conflicting stories, and I don't know what to believe any more. Whoever is in charge of our enrollment has still not gotten back to the program coordinators about which classes we were successfully enrolled in, although today I certainly figured out one class that I'm NOT enrolled in. This whole enrollment thing down here is utterly ridiculous. I no longer care if I'm being uncultured or un-kosher by insulting their enrollment. IT. IS. RIDICULOUS. There. I said it. To those of you at KU -- I never want to hear anyone complain about Enroll and Pay ever again. I love Enroll and Pay. I miss Enroll and Pay. Is it too much to ask for to know what classes I'm enrolled in before I start? I don't think that's asking too much. This whole "inclusion form" thing is ridiculous too. Maybe other classes have room for students who aren't already enrolled, but all of my classes have been full. The professors (for the most part) aren't signing forms. Sheesh... why bother with the forms then?! Can you tell I'm really worked up about this?

Luckily for me, my second class of the day (World Regional Geography) was significantly better. I was not looking forward to going because I was afraid of a repeat of Cartography. I headed this off by asking the professor before class if he had a list of people in the class. He said no, and I explained that I didn't know yet if I was enrolled yet or not. He said I was fine and he'd talk about that later. Score! He passed out the syllabus and talked a little bit about the class. Then he had us go around and introduce ourselves. Turns out there are like 7 or 8 foreigners in the class -- mostly from France, but Canada and Puerto Rico are also represented. His comment to this was, "Well, I guess I should take extra care to speak slowly and clearly so everyone understands." YES. YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD. THANK YOU FOR REALIZING THIS. He didn't really talk any slower after that, but I appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. We got a break about an hour into class, and the girl from Canada went to ask about where to get the readings. I hurried up there to tag along on the questioning process, so now I have a clear idea of where I'm going and what I need. (Hallelujah!) Then when I was sitting in my safe little corner, the professor came over and started talking to me -- in English. When we went around saying where we were from, I had just said "los Estados Unidos" since all the other foreigners had just said the country they were from. He asked me which part (he didn't ask any of the other foreigners this) and I told him Kansas. Turns out he went to KU for some part of his degree (it's bad when you don't fully catch what people are saying to you, and they're saying it in your native language...) Small world, isn't it? Since he wasn't really signing forms and he kept saying something about "Tuesday" for all the people with forms, I went and asked him after class what I should do if my enrollment didn't go through. He said he'd sign forms for the foreign students. EXCELLENT! I didn't much care for the class in terms of the amount of discussion and writing assignments, but I still feel pretty good about it.

I have a plea to anyone and everyone reading this...
Please be nice to foreigners. I know that all the incredible, worldly, intelligent people I know would never be mean to foreigners, but I also know that the idea of the "stupid foreigner" can be ingrained fairly deeply. I now know what it feels like to be the one in the foreign shoes, and believe me, it's not a walk in the park. Just because someone doesn't completely understand the language you speak doesn't mean that they're stupid. So -- this applies especially for those of you in classes that you might have with foreign students -- please be nice. If they so much as bat a confused eyelash your way, help them out however you can (assuming they want help, of course). It is an unpleasant feeling to be thrown into a system, a culture, and a language that you do not fully understand. Yeah, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but I still feel better for having gotten that out there.