My school day was a lot like high school

Here's why (with an apology in advance for any of my previous high school teachers who are reading this blog and may be offended by association, though I don't think that's likely to happen):

• NO ONE brought a computer to class. Almost as if they weren't allowed to. I'm glad I didn't, I would have looked like that silly American.
• People talked over what the professor was saying.
• Students tried to leave, repeatedly, five minutes before the lecture ended and had to be reminded that there was still time left.
• The desks were covered in graffiti -- "your mom" jokes and anarchy symbols mostly -- and all of this graffiti was in English. My favorite so far was a drawing of a smurf in blue ballpoint pen.
  
• I had five solid hours of class (not even any breaks -- a class would end at the same moment a new one was supposed to start, so I was always late but no one cared) with a lunch break that was too short to buy any food from the cafeteria.
• I went to my linguistics classes (the three hours in the afternoon) with the exact same group of people. We shuffled from hour to hour together. It was surreal.
• There were not enough desks/chairs for all the students.
• Most of the bathrooms had stalls without doors on them.
• I was repeatedly told the same information and told to memorize it. And I was instructed on two different occasions on ways to keep track of the new vocabulary I was learning (this was a general instruction, not just for foreign kids like me). I was also instructed to underline 8 words of a 12 word definition that were mentioned as "key" words. The others were articles, mostly.

Ways in which my day was not like high school:

• Students are allowed to smoke on campus -- and they take advantage of this.
• I didn't understand everything my teachers said.
• I don't know anyone at the university.

I realize this list-format makes me sound really negative. But I had a surprisingly good day. Honestly, the shuffling between classes with the same people was a little comforting, since I knew I was headed in the right direction/in the right classroom all day. I enjoyed two of my three linguistics professors a lot, but the one with the strange accent from yesterday drones on and on and repeats himself a lot. A lot. And instead of a discussion-style class like the others were teaching, where we did exercises as a class, he just gave another lecture. He spent an hour giving us three definitions, and by the end I was incredibly bored.

My morning class was "Medieval Art History" and it turned out to really be "the history of Christian architecture between the 4th and 12th centuries" which was both surprising and kind of pleasant. We talked about the rise of Christianity and its adoption as the official religion in Rome, and how the design of the basilica emerged and was popularized. I think I'll like it. The only problem is that I accidentally missed the discussion on Monday, when I didn't know I had it. Hopefully it won't be a huge problem.

The best news is that I have, as my class schedule currently stands, no class on Thursday or Friday, and not a lot of waiting-around time between classes. Monday I have class continually from 1:30 to 4:30, Tuesday from 10:30 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 4:30, and Wednesday 10:30 to 11:30 and 4:30 to 7:30. That last three hour block is my beginning Italian class. A three-hour lecture sounds miserable, but from what I know of beginning language courses, it shouldn't be in lecture format. Here's hoping.