It's that time of the semester again: the time when all the upperclassmen are looking to see what classes they can take that will best allow them to coast through there senior year while the underclassmen stress out about whether or not they will be able to get into any of the classes that they want. As I'm studying abroad next semester I was fortunate enough to not have to go through this process but instead got to observe from the sidelines. For me registration has always been stressful. I've never known what classes to take and I always have this constant fear that I'll choose a ton of classes that look really fun but end up really boring and useless (I got stuck with one such class this semester). I'm happy that this year I get to put off the stressful process until the beginning of the next semester.

On Thursday I decided it would be a good idea to look at what classes I might be taking next semester. Although the program I'm studying with doesn't allow me to actually register for classes until a week or so before they start, CMU requires me to turn in a list of classes that I will be taking. The list of classes offered by the exchange program isn't final, and I have no way of finding out what will be available from the Complutense but I did my best to come up with a preliminary list of courses which I will be takin. In reading through the descriptions I learned one very important thing, next semester is going to be HARD. Firstly, the courses I take will be very in depth literature and history courses, a large step out of my comfort zone which consist mainly of technical courses. Furthermore, they will all be in Spanish! I was really only introduced to the language 5 semesters ago, and I will read more in Spanish this upcoming semester than I have ever read in English in a semester. Needless to say, it is very intimidating.

Despite the fact that my knees are trembling at the though of stepping so far out of my comfort zone, I'm also somewhat excited about the idea. I know that if I stayed at CMU I never would have explored any classes about history or literature and I expect it will be a valuable growing experience. It may be the case that everything in the program will be over my head since it seems like most students in the program are Spanish or Hispanic Studies majors; but if it is, so what? If I end up failing everything (falling below my normal standards for myself) I'll try not fret about it. I'll take solace in knowing that despite not having a perfect outcome, I took a chance on something that many people never even consider.

Anyways, enough of my babbling, here are the courses I'm currently looking at:

• Contemporary Spanish History: Republic to Present
• Contemporary Spanish Novel
• El Greco, Velazquez and Goya in the Prado Museum
• Advanced Grammar and Usage

I also plan on taking at least one computer science related class at the Complutense, but I won't know if this is possible until right before the start of school in Sepetember. I think such a class would be a great way to bridge my major (computer science) with my minor (Spanish).

It is also worth noting that "El Greco, Velazquez and Goya in the Prado Museum" is, as may be evident from the title, taught at the Prado Museum! Instead of looking at slides of paintings by the artists, we get to see the paintings up close in all of their illustriousness!

I recently had to do a few assignments which involved a good amount of writing in a few of my classes. In both of my Spanish classes I had to write papers about subjects which I had been researching for a good amount of the semester. In one of my computer science courses I had to write a large amount of technical information about a project that involved a lot of design. Through feedback that I have gotten on all of these pieces of writing, I have come to realize that I have a serious issue when I write: I often write with a tone which isn't fitting for the type of writing I'm doing.

In my cs course I basically had to write a technical description of some database software which I had written and justification for my design. I was working with a partner on the project and so after writing a good amount, I handed a draft to my project partner to read. After a few minutes of reading he started to laugh. I was rather confused because it was supposed to be quite a boring piece of technical writing, hardly worthy of laughter. When I asked him about it, he said he was amused by how "profound" my writing is. He noted that when he read it he felt as though it was revealing some huge scientific discovery. After rereading some select parts I realized he was right. I needed to reorganize and "borrify" the writing. On the other hand, maybe I should have left it like it was so that the professor would feel as though he was to be grading an amazing project.

In another course I was writing an essay in Spanish. At one point I had the sentence "La familia [...] trata a Marcos como mierda," which literally translated means "the family treats Marcos like shit." In hindsight, I definitely should have chosen my words better, but that was the best way I knew to explain the idea in Spanish, or at least the first way that came to mind. I guess that any type of academic paper shouldn't use such language. Had I written the paper in English I never would have done that, so I guess it just comes down to the fact that I'm somewhat desensitized to such language in Spanish. Since my second Spanish class I've had class with a student who constantly interjects swearing into his speaking, so maybe it's starting to rub off on me. I surely hope not.