This will be a short post since I really haven't done much this week except homework and seeing a Flamenco Passion for Holy Week (obviously what I am going to write about, not the homework). Although, a quick note on homework, this week was an unusually heavy week on homework and I this week was the first time since I've been here I felt slightly stressed. I'm telling you, and you won't believe it until you see it, but Spaniards are all about free time and doing what they want for the most part, work tends to come a little later in their priorities. So to have a bunch of assignments due in one week and not have time to just "chill" like Spaniards do was unusual.
Two highlights of my week: a Flamenco Passion of the Christ and today's trip to mini-Hollywood (Texas style in Spain). I am fortunate to have a contact here in Granada, from my dear friends in Ohio, who both he and his wife are professors of music and perform in various concerts around the city. Felix played in the orchestra while his wife Aurora sang/acted in the choir. The Passion was a mix of singing, acting and Flamenco, which was a little surprising at first to see Jesus come out on Palm Sunday and all of a sudden start doing Flamenco. It turned out to be a wonderful performance and very moving. If any of you have heard or seen Flamenco you know it's a very passionate, emotional, and is sung and danced from the soul. Listening to Mary wailing after Christ is beaten and then crucified was more moving than watching the film the "Passion of the Christ," which is very intense. This was also my first time to officially see Flamenco performed live and it was quite exciting and very impressive to watch and try to comprehend how someone can move their feet as fast as those dancers.
The other highlight of my week was my trip this afternoon to Almeria which is a small town about two hours south of Granada, very close to the coast, and is famous for having a park which is set up as a fake town/set where the famous western, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" was filmed. I went with my Austin friend in the program and her host parents who are some of the nicest people I have met here and who's mother packed me two sandwiches for the day along with a bag of donuts. I tell you what, Spaniards are always thinking about food! The town had everything you see in the old westerns, the saloon (where we even saw a Cancan show), hospital, stables (with horses), a jail and all the other necessities seen in those movies. One of the shows was a recreation of your typical "bandit versus cowboys" with a little added Spanish humor (they're not shy about being slightly crude in public) which to my surprise didn't have a Clint Eastwood character coming in and doing the sheriffs work for him. After the show we of course had our picture taken with the vaqueros and when we told them we were from Texas he replied, "oh, authentic cowboys." I must say I think I beamed with Texas pride at that moment. The day was long and to my surprise actually made me miss Texas a little, the music, the costumes, all the old country looking things and the fact that everything was in English made me feel like I was back in fourth grade at Pioneer Farms learning about country life back in "the good ole days."
Unfortunately I have no pictures today and am too tired to try to make these two experiences sound as exciting as they were. But I needed to write today because I know that this week I will not have time to sit down and write. My mother arrives tomorrow afternoon and I am beyond excited to see her and share Semana Santa with her and cannot wait to see some of these processions! A very very short note: Semana Santa is bigger than Christmas here and the whole city shuts down this week, devoting itself to carrying out processions each day, anywhere from 5-8 hour processions that can cover up to 8 miles at a very, very slow pace. I cannot begin to explain all the vocabulary of Semana Santa or what each day represents/what types of processions take place because in every corner of the city is a different procession, at the same time. THe processions are something that the city has been working all year on and there is a serious schedule for each one saying where they will pass and what time. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and so the processions begin around 4 in the afternoon and like most days, go until midnight (men carry the floats walk in 4 hour cycles!) Hasta pronto! (until I get time to let yall know how the most important week of the year is going)
Just a short clip to give you an idea how big of deal it is.
Well each new excursion seems to beat the last one and this past weekend´s adventure to Sorvilan, a small town in the Alpujarras, has yet again topped any past experience while in Spain. To begin with, La Alpujarras is a region on the southern side of the Sierra Nevadas that divides Granada from another province called Almeria. Almost the entire region is agricultural based and consists of small towns that sadly are shrinking in numbers and rely on the tourism in the summer. Our trip to Sorvilan was to learn about the agricultural side of Andalucia and to see a different way of living than we are used to here in the city of Granada. The terrain is very mountainous and lies on the coast of Spain, let me just say that from the balcony in the house we stayed at we could see a mountain range in Morocco!!! I think knowing that we could see Africa from where we stood was the most mind boggling experience of the whole trip. Let me also preface that I had many misconceptions about our trip: I thought it was going to be mostly lectures from the couple that took us in (on agriculture and the region), meeting local town people and studying the general area. I was very very wrong! (But in the best of ways). This trip was the epitome of experiential learning.
Sorvilan
Friday our academic director, going along with her usual attitude of letting us discover everything entirely on our own, told us to be at the bus station at 1:30 and that we better make that bus because there was only one to Sorvilan. So there were seven of us girls, because there was not enough room for everyone in the program to go at once, unaccompanied by professor or guide. I think once we finally got on the bus our minds started actually realizing yet again we were left on our own and had no idea what to expect or even how we were going to get to our final destination since we didn't know who was picking us up. I at least speak for myself, I had so many questions that day! The bus ride which my family said would take an hour.... took four through the mountains. Our professors had warned us that if we got motion sick then to take some Dramamine because the road to Sorvilan was rather windy. Was that an understatement! I don't know how many of you have ever driven up Pikes Peak or any other mountain, but it's a little nerve racking when you can look over the edge and see a straight drop. Picture making a drive up a mountain, on a small, narrow road, in a greyhound bus! Even after my Dramamine I think I was too nervous to sleep, even though I knew there was nothing I could do. But somehow watching the bus driving made me feel a little more in control of the narrow road situation. The other girls laughed at me because they said every time they opened their eyes they saw me on the edge of my seat, squinting and tightening my grip at each curve. I couldn't help it, every turn on my side of the bus looked as if the driver was casually going to take us off the edge, I wanted to shout at him, "turn already!" each time he waited till the last minute. Obviously now that I am home safe and sound, I admit those bus drivers know what they're doing. Even with the little nervousness the drive was pleasant because the views were incredible. The minute we saw the ocean everyone perked up. Also I should add that we were the youngest people on the bus and every stop we only picked up more old people who seemed to immediately comment on the number of young people on this bus. To add to my humorous encounter with older people, at our last stop before Sorvilan we took a break at a bar in which all the men immediately abandoned their wives to get a drink. At the point of reloading the bus there was an older couple who were having some trouble getting up the stairs of the bus. From our seats we heardwhat I'm sure was typical "we've been married for 50 years" Spanish arguing and I could only infer that the husband was trying to hoist his wife up the stairs while he himself was having trouble balancing himself and her with his cane. For a good two minutes all we heard was him laughing at his wife and cussing while she yelled at him "hombre!" and that he should be quiet and "watch his language," that there were "people" on the bus, meaning us young ones, the only ones not from the town. When they finally showed their faces she was rather annoyed, but of course the little old man stopped and began telling us about whatever had just taken place and was of course laughing about it while the woman yelled at him from the back of the bus to be quiet and sit down. Needless to say all the men joined in his laughter while the women yelled at their spouses. Meanwhile, the seven of us just sat their laughing and agreeing at how entertaining older people can be.
View from our Patio (Across the sea is Morocco)
Finally we arrived to Sorvilan and a sweet looking man with a dog met us at the bus station and after introductions we made our way down to his house. Keep in mind this town is situated on the side of a mountain, so it's very steep going further into the town and of course a killer going back up! We arrived to the most charming house, picture those Greek islands with their white houses, that was this town. It was absolutely breath taking the structure of the house and all seven of us had the entire upstairs/balcony to ourselves and while some had to share a bed, it was so cold that those of us not sharing a bed ended up doing so for the warmth. The view from their balcony was breathtaking as we could see the sea, and vaguely the mountains of Morocco.
Just one of the examples of the quaintness and architecture of the home.
Friday night was free and we wandered the town, not very far to wander, but we did of course find the local bar. It was very much a "men's" bar. A few of the girls wanted to buy a bottle of wine to enjoy later that evening but we were not able to buy a bottle and the bar tender informed us that Sorvilan is known for making its own, distinctive wine and unfortunately not in bottles. The three largest products of this area are wine, figs and almonds. So being ambitious, some of the girls thought it best to follow the mans advice and did not buy a bottle of wine but a box of it! The girls thought that buying twice as much for a "better" deal than the smaller box of wine was the economical thing to do. So, they purchased a 15 liter box of wine!!!! If you can picture 15 liters of any liquid I'm sure you're laughing right now. Yep, we ended up hardly making a dent in it because each night we ended up more exhausted than anticipated. So that box of wine followed us back to Granada and I'm sure we'll enjoy it for the next month. After our "economic" purchase we went back to the house and enjoyed the night stars on the patio. It was much colder than any of us anticipated and so the seven of us packed onto a twin size bed and piled blankets on and had a typical girls night under the stars!
So to say a little about our hosts, Domingo and Enrique, they are the nicest couple I have met here in Spain so far, and most people are incredibly nice, so that says a lot. They are a couple who said they have hosted students from our program for 20 years! Not only were they incredibly knowledgeable about practically everything, they were marvelous cooks. After each entree I asked for the recipes. Our first night's meal was a Portuguese soup, and then a rice and vegetable dish which was absolutely amazing, followed by an orange tart. Everything was homemade! Needless to say after our second night's meal I politely asked if they would adopt me.
The very top of the "mountain" in the background was our destination.
Saturday morning we were met with coffee and tostadas, homemade marmalade, home grown tea and honey (probably from some local hive). I think we managed to surprise them by how much bread we consumed. Once we discovered the schedule for the day we consumed even more. Our day in short consisted of four hours of hiking, totaling around twelve miles, jumping over many rivers, panting out of breath because almost the entire hike was up a mountain and quite a lot of "how many more kilometers?" That is what I mean when I say it was honest experiential learning, not just learning about the region but walking it. However I enjoyed every minute of it! The scenery was amazing, and talking with Domingo about the local agriculture and finding out that I could buy 2 kilos of figs for 5 Euros was even better. I will admit that no matter how pretty the scenery, once you've been climbing a mountain for 3 hours you get to a point that all you notice is how hard you are breathing. This was the part of our trip which Antonia simply referred to as "something special," obviously we realized why she neglected to mention anything about scaling what I consider a small mountain. Oh how I wished we had had someone following us with a camera so they could record all the "humorous" words we chose to describe our exhaustion. I think the only thing after the first three hours that kept me going was our promised picnic at the top where we would enjoy pasta salad and water! After a little over four hours we reached the top, found a clearing and passed out on a heap of gravel. Those last thirty minutes that we had to wait for Enrique to bring the food in his car was one of the longest half hours I've ever experienced. After trying to distract ourselves with songs, a little Flamenco and a quick nap the arrival of the food was even sweeter! We carried our food up to a clearing in the forest nearby and had a makeshift picnic on trash bags and pieces of cork trees. I think we were so delusional from exhaustion that I vaguely remember some monkey noises and a lot of grabbing and throwing in order to quickly distribute the food. That was by far the most rewarding picnic (it even included wine!) After walking to the bus stop and waiting in a local bar, which luckily served hot chocolate, we took the bus back to Sorvilan and everyone passed out until dinner time. I however was rather invigorated from our hike and ended up taking the dog, Lola, for a walk and exploring more views of the village. That evening, after Domingo discovered my shared love of figs, we went to a neighbors and bought some for me to take back to Granada. When I told him how I never bought them because they are so expensive in the U.S. he made it his mission to find me some. He even bought another local postre for me to try! My love of food is quite obvious, but I think even more obvious in this country. That night we went to a bodega where they make the local wine and had our own tapas and wine. It was very informal as our table was a wine barrel in what looked like an old abandoned barn. After dinner back at home, which we barely stayed awake for, we crashed rather early and did not feel bad about that 15 liters of wine sitting on the table untouched.
1300 meters above sea level! The top of our hike.
Sunday morning we enjoyed another desayuno of tostada and coffee. Despite this month's rainy trend (in an area that never gets rain) we trekked down to the beach in order to catch the bus back to Granada. This three hour walk was something we had prepared for, I think Antonia felt she could tell us about this one beforehand because it was all downhill and she knew we wouldn't complain too much. Let's just say that at the end of our 2 1/2 hours down to the beach my whole lower body was feeling the walk from the day before and am very sore on this beautiful Monday morning. Our walk was not uneventful as we were attacked by bees at one point and immediately shot down the hill. Domingo said he thought that stretch of the trip was why it only took us 2 1/2 hours instead of the full three. Just try to imagine a bunch of girls running, some of them screaming, down a hill (yes there were arms flailing and swatting). However it was not just girls being girls, even Domingo began to run when it seemed these were unusually aggressive bees. One characteristic of this region is the large amount of "Invadiernos" which translates to Greenhouses is English. The amount of sun and mild climate of this area makes utilizing these greenhouses a profitable business. Unfortunately with any large, profit making business comes harm to the environment and actually the bees we encountered are sick and full of chemicals because when people find them in their greenhouses (which are not organic) they take the beehives up to the roads and toss their hives up there. Domingo actually said it is illegal to throw the hives so close to the road because of the danger to people and he is going to talk to his city counsel about it!
How entirely pitiful we looked once we arrived at the beach. As soon as we found a bench we all plopped down and pulled out our sandwiches which were scarfed down in minutes. To add to our already pitiful look of hungry, tired, sore and for some, hurting limbs from their bee stings, it began to rain as soon as we began our impromptu lunch. Nearly every local that drove by just stared at this scene of pitiful looking Americans. But after several hours of waiting for our bus, and a quick stop at the Mediterranean, we were on our bus back home to Granada. I can now say I have been "in" the Mediterranean, well a foot at least. It was quite a weekend and while I love Granada, being out in the "country" reminded me of the place I talk so often of when I am in the U.S., my beloved Ranch. The musty smell of the place and the peace of the town and people reminded me of country life back in Texas, so it was a nice reminder of my own beautiful homeland. Also once you've spent so much time in the city you realize how nice it is to see open spaces and simple things like grass make you smile. I hope someday to return to La Alpujarras and one day see the world travelers, Domingo and Enrique again. Words cannot even describe what a beautiful weekend it was and today I am consistently reminded of our adventures with each step I take because of the soreness in my legs and backside! Climbing mountains tends to stay with you for a few days I guess.
While my title is a little misleading since we´ve had rain every single day except Friday, I am not too bitter about it like I am in Ohio, because come on, it´s Spain! Everything here is better, even the rain. To preface my post, I am still loving this place and am so proud to say that all is still going well, no breakdowns yet and I have completely fallen in love with the idea of traveling the rest of the world after college. There is something indescribable about living in another country and while I realize not every place is as nice or comfortable as the one I´m in now, nor will I always have a program of people watching out for me, there are so many wonderful new things to learn in a foreign country that books alone cannot, cannot, cannot convey. I just wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience these new things. I have already learned so much about myself while only living here for about a month, and I know this will sound like a cliche, but I feel like I will go home a different person than the girl who first came here in February.
Well my week began Sunday with a family meal, my host mother´s sister, niece and grandniece all came over for Sunday lunch and not unlike my own family, stayed for hours just sitting and eating around the dinner table. I think they probably thought I am mute since I hardly said a word. But it is terribly intimidating trying to speak around a bunch of Spaniards when you cannot even make out the syllables or letters of their words. I´m starting to feel frustrated by the Spanish because I think I´m doing so well in school and at home, but then once I get around actual Spaniards, and they talk with their Andalusian accent of cutting off the ends of their words and talking so fast they sound like the person calling the prices at a cattle auction! Needless to say I just sat there with an empty look and enjoyed watching their passionate conversations. They did apologize for some reason about how passionate Spaniards are when they are with their family and how long they just sit talking, but I said I though it was nice and made me feel like I was at home, although I have to say my family doesn´t yell at each other about politics over lunch. Well any who, it was a nice experience and gave me more insight into my family, who I still feel I do not know too much about.
Another part of my week was saying goodbye to a guy I met here, the
Norwegian I wrote about earlier. His friends gave him a going away
party on Monday night since he was leaving Wednesday, so most of my
friends and I went to enjoy Tapas with him and a ton of his other
Erasmus and Spanish friends. I must admit I grew to like him more than I
thought I would, and I was sad to see him leave. But all good things
must come to an end and I am just thankful I got the chance to meet
someone as interesting as him.
As stated in my title, this week has been lovely despite the crazy amounts of rain we´ve had. I was told before coming, that Granada never got any rain. Well out of these nine days in March, we´ve had 7 rainy days. But I cannot complain too much because walking in the rain in Granada is so much better than walking in the rain in anywhere in the U.S. Tuesday, it poured and I of course woke up too late to take a bus to school, so on my way to school, during the light morning drizzle, my feet were soaked through. My little red shoes were no longer their normal color and they were about a whole shoe size smaller! I chose to wear those shoes because my other ones were still drying from the day before. When I actually got to school I thought "well at least it wasn´t pouring." However I spoke too soon.... Our school, like most here, have an outside gate in order to access the main door, well I thought I had saved myself just in time to escape any torrential downpour, but soon discovered that someone had locked the door. So while I was able to get into the courtyard I could not actually get into the dry building. So of course what happened? It began to pour. I stood there banging on the door to the school but of course knocked in vain because the rain was coming down so hard no one could hear me. Well, what do you think I did? Like most wet and cold people I was more than a little irritated and verbally expressed my feelings to no one at all, and could only stand there under the gutter as I banged on the door, gutters tend to pour even more water on you than the sky itself. So after standing out there, my feet and legs completely drenched one of our professors arrived to let me in. Luckily someone had started a fire in our common area and I was able to put my shoes near the fire and sit there before class. While I thought I was the most wet out of everyone, one of the guys in our program arrived after riding his bike to school! With no umbrella obviously. The minute he came in, we all pretty much broke out laughing at the lack of any inch of dryness on him. Two of our professors, being typical Spanish mothers, immediately looked him up and down and said "no no no," his state of wetness would not do. While they conversed in Spanish about what to do, and I heard them say something about getting someone else´s dry pants from around the office, I could not help but laugh. I didn´t actually think they were serious but, no they were, they ordered him to take his pants off right there and gave him a blanket to wear all day while his pants dried on the radiator. We took several pictures of it. The next day I almost found myself in a similar situation after doing my laundry. Since Spaniards line dry their clothes, from one side of the building to the other, I found myself in a jam because of the rain and had to settle with drying them inside which takes twice as long. So Thursday when I woke up and discovered none of my pants were dry, I sort of panicked. Luckily I had a pair of tights that were half dry, and a skirt, so I didn´t have to go to school without pants thank goodness. Oh, just one of the adjustments over here, not having a dryer. But it makes the experience all the more authentic don´t you think?
Another eventful day of this week was my first two sessions at my community service! This was the element of the program that attracted me to chose this particular study abroad. Our professors find our interests and place us in community service centers around town in order to practice our Spanish and contribute to this wonderful community we live in. My placement is at a children´s center that is for children who have either been taken away from their parents, have an abusive family life or just many problems at home and so they come here to work on life skills and community integration. I absolutely love the organization and feel so blessed to work with this particular NGO that heads the site. While many of the students also live at the site, some just come here in order to interact with other kids in the same situation and have aid from counselors and share-vent their emotions through sports and other activities that make a kid a kid. My role on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons is to play sports with them and help with any other activities the teachers have for them. My first day, when I arrived I was not prepared to play soccer like the kids expected and they immediately called me out on the fact that my shoes were not appropriate for what they wanted to do. Let me say, they are not shy at all. One girl on Thursday asked me for money for a trip and when I told her I had none, she got a little irritated with me and made the comment that if I could wear something different than what I wore Tuesday, I had money. She was right, I had money with me, but wasn´t going to give it to her. The kids, like any other kids who experience problems at home, are itching for attention and for the most part are good kids, but everyone has their bad days. I must say I was slightly overwhelmed on Tuesday when we had to stay inside because of the rain and do other activities which caused irritation since all they wanted to do was play soccer. Therefore, they acted up, jumped on the furniture, a couple boys started to punch each other, and the majority of the time was spent taking one kid after the next outside to try to get them to behave. The poor teacher told me that they were usually much better but the rain made them act out, which of course is the same at every school for every kid. For the first hour I was with the 12 and 14 year old kids and the second hour with the little ones, around 5 and 8 years old. They were adorable on Tuesday and they all asked my name, where I was from and shook my hand the "American" way and asked me to speak English to them. One even offered me his chocolate from his snack! However, Thursday was a different situation and I suppose the rain affected them more than I thought it would. Ohhhh, it was crazy! The kids literally looked like monkeys, jumping on the chairs, running around the stage, hiding in the stage curtains and hitting each other for the heck of it. While there was a moment where the two teachers left me inside in order to discipline some boys outside, one boy began hitting another little girl and I had to pull them apart and all I could say was "no" and to "go sit down." I was trying to think of how to say "stop" in Spanish as a command but couldn´t, needless to say I went home and made a little list of words that I think will be useful at this place. Although, it was an overwhelming day (most likely because of the rain) I am still so excited to work here and I just hope that I can become a friend to some of these kids who just need someone to listen to them. Thursday I did get to play sports in the inside gym and realized that obviously sports is the way to get to know them. Along with my service experience comes another little "rain" anecdote, my walk to the community center is about half an hour from my house, so there is little point in taking the bus since over here it´s faster to walk everywhere. Well Thursday on my way back home, it of course began to rain (what´s new I know) so I thought I would be okay because I had my rain jacket and umbrella, I was SO NOT safe from the rain. While walking down the street in a torrential downpour and high winds I was yet again a little irritated from being wet and cold, when I realized that I was the only person actually walking on my side of the street. All the Spaniards had ducked up onto the steps of the doorways of stores and apartment buildings. So once I realized I should probably do the same, I was able to save my feet for a few minutes from soaking up more water than they had in the last five minutes. One Spanish woman joined me on my doorway, laughed, said something about the rain in Spanish. Well although I was terribly cold and wet, I felt better about being such a pitiful sight because I felt I had one of those "I´m doing what the Spaniards do" moments and something as sensible as ducking into a doorway to hide from the rain made me feel more part of this culture rather than just living side by side with it. I know it sounds rather cheesy, but that´s because I cannot really describe it, I just have so many moments where I feel I belong to this culture and have not experienced that feeling of being an outsider. Granada people are so welcoming and sometimes unless I actually speak, I think I pass as being Spanish (there are many American looking Spaniards, even blond haired Spaniards). Well I love those moments when I discover something new about Spanish culture - Granada and I hope I continue to have these moments up to the day I leave.
Friday, was the beginning of one of the few free weekends we have left here
in the program. From now on, our weekends are booked with excursions
since Semana Santa is only in 2 weeks and we get a whole week off from
school and the third weekend in April we go to Morocco. So a few girls
and I met up on Friday afternoon to do some shopping but ended up
getting side tracked by policemen and noise that seemed to indicate a
strike. Strikes are rather popular over here and happen often, if not
once a week. To my surprise it was not a strike but a march and small
parade for International Women´s day. I cannot begin to say how cool
it was! There was a girl´s drumming group doing an awesome routine,
jugglers, people walking on stilts, and hundreds of people following
this march with signs and banners advocating women´s rights. The energy
of the people was incredible and so many people who were out and about
like us stood to watch and clapped the parade on. We even joined the march
till the finish! All I kept thinking was only in Spain would a city be
okay with shutting down the roadways for a good hour and a half to have
a march for a day that not many people are even aware of. While I have
stated before that the whole, "let´s take a vacation whenever and for
whatever reason" is a little difficult for me to understand, moments
like those where Spaniards truly show their infinite capabilities to be
laid back are quite impressive. I just kept thinking how disruptive
this would be in the U.S and furthermore that this would NEVER happen. Here is just a quick clip of the procession in its beginning stages, it got even bigger than this by the time I saw it.
Like I have said a million times, I absolutely love Granada and honestly it´s been the mental vacation I think I´ve needed for a long time. It is absolutely impossible to worry about anything here because Spaniards never worry, so why be the only one? This coming weekend I go to Sorvilan which is a rural community in Andalucia and we are going to learn about the agricultural side of Andalucia. I am so excited! Then I cannot believe it, but we have one week until Semana Santa when all of Spain pretty much takes a vacation. Semana Santa is a huge deal here in Granada and thousands of tourists come here to watch the magnificent processions and celebrations. My mother is coming on Palm Sunday to stay for the whole week and I am very excited to see her and share all the wonderful things I have discovered about my new city!
The day it snowed we had a Puente (school break), so my friend and I walked up to the Sacramonte (the barrio of the Gypsies) and went to the Sacramonte Abbey.
Sacramonte Abbey, it reminded me of the Sound of Music Abbey!
In the Sacramonte there are a ton of flamenco restaurants and bars that are known for their famous Flamenco dancers and singers. There are many paintings like this one on the walls along the road.
Part of the Abbey
The view of Granada from Mount Valparaiso
La Alhambra
Time to study. I have my first exam tomorrow morning and it has been incredibly hard to motivate myself, it´s been sooo long since I had to study for anything. Other than the regular reviewing and homework we have not had any tests. I know it´s kind of mind boggling for Americans who are used to the "American academics", but the way to learn here is not though exams but rather involvement and participation. So it´s a tradeoff between formal academic learning and pushing yourself to be brave and actually participate in your learning experience. I much prefer the latter!
