Dear Spanish department,

[3rdragon]

You're not being very helpful. Given that I'm here in Spain, it would make sense for me to take a literature course that would fulfill one of my 200-level requirements in addition to just taking classes in Spanish to fill up number-of-classes requirements.

I e-mailed my advisor six days ago to ask if Class A or Class B would be suitable, and she hasn't gotten back to me. I was aware when asking her to be my advisor that she could be a little slower in answering e-mails than I might like (but not this slow!), but I was kind of in a rush about that decision because my pre-major advisor, also in the Spanish department, was on sabbatical - which no one had told me - and no one else bothered to inform me that it was necessary to declare one's major before applying to go abroad.

Since I would really like an answer on this topic before classes start next week, I decided to e-mail the department head. Only, you seem to have seen fit to not post that information on your website. I had to go to the course catalog via the registrar (to a section of the website that I didn't actually know existed, and was just hoping it was) in order to figure out who I should be e-mailing.

It seems to me that a LANGUAGE department might put a little more effort into making things accessible to students abroad.

Please write back,
me.

Comments

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

They're not used to having students abroad. Be patient with them.

[3rdragon]

What do you mean, they aren't used to having students abroad? There are twelve Smithies on this trip, and there's a program in Mexico that lots of people go to, and that's not even mentioning all the other possible programs.

The department chair (once I figured out who she was) did get back to me. Which is not to say that she's answered my question, but she acknowledged my existence and the fact that she intends to give me a response. Of course, the phrasing of her response did leave me wondering how well she understands the requirements for the Spanish major, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, if it's a problem.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

I mean, say, compared to the German or French departments, which have had programs running for DECADES. Aren't the Spanish programs a good deal newer than that? Official ones, at least?

[3rdragon]

Well, there isn't an official program - PRESHCO is a consortium program, which makes it somewhere between Official and Approved. I'm not sure what the Mexico one is. PRESHCO is 26 years old, though, and presumably Smith has been one of the consortium colleges all that time.

[3rdragon]

In happy news, the department chair got back to me and I can take the class for credit that I was hoping for.

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

That's good!

Studying abroad is great, but it can be such a hassle...