Encontrando la rana

At the University of Salamanca, there are two ways to pass your classes. The first is to find the "rana" on the side of the university wall. A rana is a frog, which is cleverly hidden in the detail of the ancient university building, amongst angels, shields, and all types of carvings. The second way is to study. My classes don't start until the 14th, which was recently relayed to me by the directors of ISA. If Spaniards don't want to start on a certain day, they just change it. No questions asked. I wouldn't be surprised if it was illegal to do this in the US.

I will be taking a total of four classes: one about the spanish novela, where we will read classics from Don Quijote to Lazarillo de Tormes and learn how the style came to Spain. Next, a class about Spanish cinema, which is a fairly new topic to me. Most Spanish directors move to Mexico, such as Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar, to pursue new challenges. However, this class will deal with cinema from the Second Republic to Franco's reign to modern day film. This class will be a nice change from American cinema and Hollywood movies which are loosely based on a bad plot and CGI animation. Thirdly, I will be picking back up my Italian minor so that I can take intermediate Italian. I figure learning Italian in Spanish is much easier than learning it in English, as I have at the University of Denver. My last class is about the European Union and the political systems of each country and how they compare and contrast. Also, the class looks at the United States as well to contrast the European political model. I'm assuming I'm gonna have a lot to add to this class in the sense that I'll be forced to back up my country to educated European students.

I hope to find the rana soon, hoping that some tourist doesn't bring a laser pointer to show all of his friends where it is . This is considered back luck if you don't find it on your own. Here's to hoping! pictures soon!