How school here functions: it does not

Okay break time. Yesterday and today have consisted of me sitting in front of my computer desperately trying to catch up on work, i.e. researching everything my profs have been talking about in English and trying to make sense of it all.

It seems like everyone in my program keeps saying how much free time they have, me, on the other hand, I feel like I can't keep up. I have class three days a week (try not to let your jealously get in the way of our friendship), yet somehow I end up going to sleep late every night with my to-do list longer than it was when I woke up.

Besides simply trying to get a grasp of what's going on in lectures, there are readings...I think...?

Allow me to explain with an example. I am signed up for two integrated classes, which are regular classes for French students, and two RI classes, which are just for Anglophone students, so they are quite a bit easier. In one of my integrated classes, the professor told us during the second lecture that we need to read a book. Which book? There is a list of about 30 books online, and everyone just chooses one. So...everyone will be reading something else, yet somehow there will be one final at the end of the semester. Okaaaaay...

Confused, I went up to him after class and asked for suggestions on what I should read, maybe something that is relatively short or easy to understand. He gave me a list of three books, and told me to read "a few chapters out of this one" (without specifying how many or which ones), "and then one of these books."

Okay, umm...sure.

Then I did something of an internal double-take. Wait...what? No, this makes no sense.The next week I went back to him to ask for more detail. "You really only need to read two or three books off the list."

Huh? No, no monsieur, you said one, how does one turn into three? Numbers are not amoebas, they do not divide this way.

He sighed the way all my professors sigh after they realize that I'm "that student" who is going to monopolize their office hours and fill up their email in-boxes, "look, the most important thing is that you read the articles I put online. The students here don't read, there are a lot of students here that aren't even going to read that!"

"Okay...but will they pass?"

"No."

So...how does this help me?

Another example: my history class. Each lecture comes with a list or readings. The first week had a section of a textbook and two full books. The next one also had a lot. I was overwhelmed and I emailed the professor asking if we really need to read it all.

I'm going to be honest, UPV isn't exactly known for their high academic standards, it seems to be the butt of everyone's jokes, and walking around campus you get the feeling you are at some odd, pot-filled, cigarette-filled underfunded high school. There was no way they get more reading than I do in the Jackson School.

Turns out the prof pretty much lectures out of these books, but I didn't get a clear idea of whether I should or should not be reading it.

I get the feeling that both profs were basically telling me to do what I want.

So I'm trying my best to keep up, although I'm not sure what exactly it is I need to be doing. I basically never have any clue what's going on. Finals week is going to suuuuuuuuck...I think?