Procrastination

I’m starting to feel like I’m actually in school, even though I haven’t touched a book since Wednesday morning. The beginning of my week is front-loaded with 13 hours of class on Monday and Tuesday — including both of my UBA classes — and by the time I get out of Genocidas (Tuesday nights at 11) I can barely walk in a straight line.

I had a minor crisis Friday when I thought I was going to have to drop one class and start taking another one three weeks late, but it ended up working out. My course schedule is signed and submitted, so shopping period is over.

That said, I’ve only been to one of my Literatura Latinoamericana II lectures, and there isn’t one this Monday either because the professor has a talk to give somewhere else. The first week the microphone was broken, and the second week was a national holiday to commemorate the anniversary of the military coup. Last week there was a paro, or strike, of UBA professors, so I didn’t know until class actually started whether or not it was going to happen — and neither did anyone else.

Apparently this is relatively common. The organization of UBA professors goes on strike frequently, and it’s up to each individual teacher if and when they join. Our professor explained last Monday that she supported the goals of the strike, but that we did need to have class at some point.

The class was, above all else, long. Because there’s no campus system here, and most of the students work in addition to attending university, classes tend to be late at night and all at once to minimize time spent traveling. On Monday I go to the Filo y Letras building, an hour subte ride from the residencia, for my Literatura Latinoamericana II class. At one I have a practico, which is the equivalent of a section — about 10 students and an assistant professor, with an emphasis on class discussion. After the practico, I have a two-hour break before the teorico starts at five. Tuesdays I have my Genocidas teorico from seven nine at night, and the practico from nine to 11.

The teoricos are pretty much like a Yale lecture, although the professors editorialize more. They take the liberal part of the liberal arts education seriously. The practicos are basically sections, where we split off into smaller groups led by assistant professors — what we would call TAs.

I would write more, but I’ve successfully procrastinated since I woke up this morning, and this was supposed to be my “get shit done” day. (Granted, waking up at three pm was probably not the smartest way to get started.) But now I really do have to work.