• getting acquainted with each other: Me llamo
• laying the groundwork: what do you know about Spain? (HANDOUT: QUESTIONNAIRE)
  
• geography: location, size, mountains, rivers, climate (HANDOUT: MAP)
  
• government, monarchy, constitution, autonomous communities
  
• practical advice: budget, changing money, what to bring, arrival, telephone, roommates
  
• *Madrid: where (map, maps), photos, ideas on places to visit
  
• postcards
  
• web-links
• HOMEWORK: HANDOUT: Vocabulario, Geografía

Week 2

• Homework handout; ¿dónde está . . . ? (purpose: map review, intro to early history)
• implications of geography: lack of navigable rivers, importance of coastline, climate
• practical advice: academic life, history, internet in Spain
• early history (early inhabitants, Iberians, Celts to 711)
• HANDOUT: HISTORY BLOCK GRAPHIC
  
• Madrid: where (map, maps), photos, ideas on places to visit
  
• postcards
  
• web-links
• HOMEWORK: HANDOUT: TIMELINE, early history

Week 3

• timeline exercise in early history purpose--review early history
• implications of early history & geography: cuisine
• practical advice: food and dining in Madrid, table manners
• Toledo & El Greco, los Reyes Católicos (5)
• history of Visigoth Spain through Reconquista, Inquisition
  
• HOMEWORK: HANDOUT: vocabulario, comida****

Week 4

• review homework
• Reyes Católicos y Habsburg Spain
  
• Bourbon Spain, Napoleon and the decline of Empire
  
• 1714 War of Spanish Sucession, 1812 Napoleonic Wars, 1898 Spanish-American War, 1936 Spanish Civil War
  
• practical advice: Thirty things to know about living with your señora, manners, transportation
  
• figuring out how to get there: Metro
  
• map exercise: finding señora's homes and sites of interest on map of Madrid
  
• excursions:
  
• Segovia -- Alcázar, Ferdinand and Isabella
  
• Avila -- Reconquista
  
• El Escorial -- history of Reconquista to decline of Spanish empire
• Alcalá de Henares -- Cervantes
  
• Valle de los Caídos -- Spanish Civil War
• HOMEWORK: HANDOUT: match image with historical period, why?

Week 5

• review homework: images and historical period
• Spanish artists: el Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Picasso
• Bourbon Spain, Spanish Civil War, Modern Spain
• Practical advice:
  
• General advice
  
• Nightlife
  
• Life in the City
  
• Words of Wisdom
• Course Evaluation