class?

So I've gone to my "doctorate" class for two days. I was a little nervous about it, and had no idea what to expect, but it turns out that, despite the fact that the course is titled "Current Spanish Novel", we will not actually be reading any novels. In fact, it seems like mostly we'll be reading four-page excerpts, getting asked our general opinion of whether we like it or not (to which the professor usually replies "good, good, yes" no matter what we say) and getting lots of summaries about other books, as well as extremely general summaries about context that aren't actually all that helpful. Attendance is 80%-85%, and there is an optional 13-15 page final paper at the end if we want to get above a C, but if not, that's okay too. Today the most interesting comment was "well, I notice that this fragment has a lot of dialogue, which seems to be common among novels from the 1950s".

I'm sorry, but I thought I had already graduated with a Bachelor's degree. If I'm going to go to class I would like it to at least be interesting, and I was looking forward to immersing myself in some novels, even if I'm still not allowed to check out books from the library. Overall, since I'm not studying for my comprehensive exams anymore, I find that I really don't care about memorizing authors' names and book titles, but that seems to be what this class is most good for.

So, I'm actively looking for other hobbies. I thought about buying some yarn and knitting needles in a cheap Chinese import store, but then I thought that I didn't want to be lame. I think I might start wandering around campus and finding random classes to sit in on. Honestly, things are so laid back here I don't think anyone would notice or care. I'm going to search through the catalog tonight to try to at least find one class that makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time.

One of my roommates is now hooking up with our landlord. I let her know that I was 100% opposed, because I think that there's no way it can turn out in a positive way, and she said that if things got awkward she would move. It seems like a lot of trouble that could be avoided if they could just not hook up (because awkwardness is almost certain in this situation, by definition). He is an admitted player who told me he likes to kick girls out after one-night-stands. Yep. Awkwardness, here we come.

Luckily I'm finally learning my way around the city and instead of getting lost every day, it's now down to every other day. And time seems to function differently. At home there's never enough and here there's just too much. Today I *thought* I needed to rush to class and ended up getting there 5 minutes early. And it's not just me that feels this way, either. It's almost like we've collectively wandered into another dimension.

My Spanish isn't really improving and I think it's because I haven't found anyone sufficiently interesting to have a conversation with. I would like to know where you go to find interesting people in Spain that don't give you strange looks when you say any combination of the following:
a) I try to avoid getting drunk.
b) Sometimes, instead of going out, I prefer to sleep.
c) I'm not interested in one-night-stands.
d) I'm American.
e) I'm Catholic.

However, there are good things. I think I might die from too much hot chocolate, which here has the consistency of a thick sauce and is 100% better than anything that ever called itself hot chocolate in the States.