I'm starting to get nervous

    I've been pretty calm through my whole experience abroad so far. But that's because I've really only been with friends from the program, eating helado and drinking cafecitos and cerveza, exploring the city and the parks. The last two weeks have been a vacation, but now school is about to start, and I'm starting to wish I'd practiced a little more Spanish this summer. I'm definitely behind a lot of the other students. I can have decent conversations with my family and program directors because they talk very slowly for me, but when other locals talk to me, I can barely understand and they don't even think I speak Spanish. I'm nervous for when I'll actually need to talk to other locals in my classes.
    The processes for school are different here, and it's not that they are bad, it's just that I need to make some adjustments to get out of my comfort zone. I went to two orientations today for my university, to introduce us to two of the different facultades (career paths) offered at the school. I learned how to check out books from the library; there are index cards with the information for each book available in a filing system, and you have to write down the information of the book you want and take it to a library assistant, who will give you the book for 7 days if it isn't rented out already. I also learned more about the photocopy system that the university uses. It seemed confusing to me in Spanish, but I have a feeling its easier than I'm making it seem to be. It's honestly a great idea to just use photocopies of the chapters needed from textbooks; it is cheaper and more efficient because rarely do classes use the entire textbook.
    The classes at Cuyo will be anywhere from 30 students to a couple hundred students. I got to see some classrooms, and they look nice, very similar to classrooms at home with simply chairs and desks. There isn't a lot of technology in the buildings. The professors mainly lecture or use white boards, but there are older computers available in the library. The classes generally only have one partial exam (midterm) and one final exam that is written and oral. It is very common here to study in groups, so hopefully this will be a good way to meet some local students. People don't bring computers to class here, so I will need to get good at taking notes by hand.
    I have a week of intense Spanish this week, then classes start Monday! I'm not ready for that, summer wasn't long enough!
    One last thought- it's ironic that I posted this after having learned about the Zonda wind that causes people to become stressed. I think my nerves have more to do with the fact that classes are starting than the wind, though.