As you can perhaps tell by the title of this post, the start date of my classes has been a bit, well, ambiguous. I initially came down mid-July because according to the university website, classes for the Facultad de Enfermería y Tecnología de Salud at la Universidad Católica del Uruguay (College of Nursing & Health Technology at the Catholic University of Uruguay) were set to start July 27, and I promised to arrive a couple weeks before to get everything in order in a timely fashion.
Apparently what I saw was not actually the start of classes, but when the school reopened from July vacations (think winter vacation without Christmas or New Years) & the various professors & directors returned to their offices. I was then told classes would begin the week of August 3 and I would receive my schedule by email shortly. August 3 arrived without any further word, so I hopped on the bus and went in search of my school. Armed with nothing more than the address, a few pesos, and my Mexicano Spanish I went to find this Sr. Ferreira and find out what was going on!
I found the building, but it looked like nothing more than a house from the outside other than the sign announcing it for what it is, and a few girls were outside smoking. A bit intimidated and not wanting to walk announced into some sort of university living room I strolled by and continued around the block to the main building of the university, which actually looks like the place of learning it is. I asked for Sr. Ferreira, and was directed back to the little Facultad house type building I had chickened out on entering the first time.
The sign identifying my Facultad.
The Facultad. See? It looks like a house! Though it opens up to a very nice courtyard, classrooms, & even a little coffee shop type place.
Slightly encouraged, I head back and after asking one more woman who did not at first understand me (I keep forgetting the Spanish "ei" sounds the same as a very emphasized long "a" in English), but then directed me to the right office. Turns out Sr. Ferreira was just about to email me, and is in fact a very kind, helpful person who answered all of my questions. Classes did start this week, but he is going to Paraguay for the rest of the week, and wants to be able to accompany me to the first classes (awkward new kid moment!). He also mentioned that the first week is largely review of the previous semester, and I would probably be lost trying to jump in on concepts only being halfway explained as a semi-review.
So, I start classes next week! I still do not have my exact schedule, it is supposed to arrive THIS WEEK by email, but I am going back to the school on Thursday to meet with the Director of Nutrition. I also met the Director of the entire Facultad, and they were all very kind and helpful. I'm very excited for the opportunity to study there, and will be taking a number of undergraduate level courses in Bioethics, Nutrition, Anatomy & Physiology, etc, and will also be participating in Post-graduate level seminars on a variety of health-related topics. I'll also have the opportunity to visit hospitals & various neighborhood clinics. It's going to be really great & they're doing an awesome job of setting everything up for me and jamming as much into a year as possible, and I'm glad I finally know when exactly (well almost, I still need the schedule...) I'm starting classes.
On a side note, given that it's largely a nursing school, I noticed when I was there that of the ~30 students I saw, there were 3 guys. So, not only will I stick out as the North American with the accented Spanish, but I'll be even more noticeable simply because I'm a guy! I should've assumed that would be the case, but it was still a bit surprising.
Tomorrow I'm going to interview with Juventud Para Cristo, a non-profit family & social development organization that I'm really interested in working with. I'll post more about that when I know exactly what I'm doing there. I'm also looking for another apartment to move into August 21, filling out med school secondary applications, and working on a presentation, so I'm plenty busy even without classes.
I found this mural on a building in Pocitos pretty neat.
Went there Saturday for a feria (market).
La Intendencia. Located in Centro (downtown), this is sort of like City Hall.
Random picture downtown. This isn't the greatest image to show it, but there's some great architecture here & I really enjoy just walking around and staring.
Finally, I disabled comments on my blog because I prefer to hear from & respond to people personally via email. Email me at bradenmog [at] gmail [dot] com
