The Classroom

I figured since I'm "studying" in the library anyways that I'd finish up this post while I'm here. I know I've already generally talked about my uruguayan university, but I thought I'd highlight some of the differences.

1) For people like me who are consistently five to ten minutes late to class, Uruguayan classrooms are forgiving and even welcoming. A lot of my classes start five minutes later than what the schedule says and teaches often greet me by name as I stroll into the lesson a few minutes late. However, I do say disculpa, excuse me, as a courtesy when the class has already started as will everyone coming in behind me .

2) Say "hello" again to individual desks. I might have had desks in three classes classes throughout my college career not including the fold out insta-desk in auditorium classrooms, but here it's every class. It kinda makes me miss the extra space and freedom you get from tables, but then again now there is a built-in foot rest on the bottom of your chair.

3) The policy for cell phones isn't as strictly adhered to. It's a given that students are going to text and that their phones will go off in the middle of class, but the teachers hardly get irritated about it. In the states, the cell phone policy is often written in the syllabus and discussed on the first day of class and some lucky classrooms even get points taken away if it's seen or heard. After seeing the student scramble to muffle the device with a mumbled disculpa the teacher usually nods or smiles slightly and let's it go. What!? That is no fun.

4) There are always random English words being said. They typically involve technology terms like "web" or companies and people, but they also use select English terms/ phrases such as "play date" and some of which I know are random English my teachers and classmates remember and just want to say since I'm in the room. These ones just make me smile. But it surprised me a little to hear them using my native language in the classroom albeit selectively. I know English is the universal language these days, but it's different to experience your own language that way.

4) No laptops in class. There isn't even a policy for it. They are never use plus there's the added advantage that it's dangerous to carry it on your person in the streets. Just leave it at home loading movies while you're in class and use the computer labs between classes to check what's going on in cyberspace. That's what I do.

5) There is a lot less work... in a way. For the most part all my classes have midterms, second midterms, then finals. That's it. Your grade is those three tests. Good luck, sucker! (Channeling Mitch Hedberg for that joke). Hah, but just kidding. Sometimes you write a paper. And, that's it. It's definitely a less forgiving system with no chance of extra credit which makes it harder and also you have a whole lot more material to study for just one test. Of course, if you're an international student, you have the chance to talk to your professor about doing extra work, or maybe less work if you happen to sign up for a course where you write multiple and/or extensive papers, and have more focused tests.

6) You get to save money on textbooks because their are none. Yay! You still having plenty of reading material though. Instead they use every but a textbook like the library, book stores, and the sometimes faithful fotocopiadora (Photocopy Center). It definitely saves money (as long as you don't have a literature class), but it also makes it harder to find the reading material compared to simply finding a chapter out of your textbook. Serious pros and cons to this one.

6) And, obviously the general format and unspoken rules of the classroom are different. Things that often go unsaid for them that needs to be said for you like holidays and strikes which mean days off. Then if you're in two different faculties like I am some procedures/days off/ exams times are different as well. I have learned to just ask when I'm not sure why we are suddenly watching a movie in class, can't find a book, or don't know if we have class or not that day. Plus it opens up another opportunity to talk some Spanish. Oh, yeah.

Other useful things:
- A carilla is one side of the page; a pagina is both sides.
-This doesn't apply to international students who usually only stay one semester, but you actually have three chances to take your final for the course on scheduled dates throughout the next year.
-Sneaking drinking mate is hard to do, but I've seen it done.
- Papers are single spaced instead of double.