In the WIP Complutense program, we take 3 Reunidas classes, which are designed for American students, but are still taught by Complutense professors. My Reunidas courses are are titled: Mujer en la Literatura, España en el Mundo Global, and Historia Contemporánea de España. They meet 2 times a week for 1.5 hours at a time. I am really enjoying these classes so far. We also take 2 Complutense classes, which are classes that the actual Spanish students take as well and being able to take classes with Spanish students was a big reason as to why I picked this program. The titles of my two classes are Variedades de Español and Herramientas de la Enseñanza de Español. These classes meet two times a week for 2 hours at a time. The WIP office arranges tutors for the Complutense classes and I highly recommend taking advantage of that! You can practice speaking Spanish with a Spanish student and keep up with the material in class, even though the exams aren’t until the end of the semester. It has been a big help for my Variedades class since I have never taken phonetics before and that class involves some. On another note, most professors are about 10 minutes late to class on average and that is normal, which is different than classes in the U.S. This also makes the longer class periods a tad more bearable. Additionally, there is a great variety of courses available that will count for credit at UW and the WIP office also provides recommendations for courses and which professors to take or to avoid. That advice was definitely helpful when selecting my courses for the semester! Both Reunidas courses and Complutense courses are designed with an exam or two and a paper and that is pretty much all that goes into the grade, so it does require staying on top of studying, but I don’t feel that I don’t have time to enjoy Madrid and Europe. Overall, I am having a great experience with my classes here so far.
