Classes

Today is the last day of my second week of school. I am taking:
BI 310-Animal Behavior and Comparative Physiology
PO 102-Political Institutions and Civil Society in North and South Ireland
SG 104-Outline of Irish History Down to the Twelfth Century
SP 106-The Irish Context: Politics and the Economy
SPA 204-Spanish for Communication

I like the biology for the simple fact that it is familiar. My teacher is quite boring and says "em" every few words, but she is trying and sometimes gives cool examples of animal behavior. We are not to the physiology yet. But I have taken a comparative animal physiology class already this year. So that will be nice and easy.

The political science class is so far my most boring class. He just talks to the screen and rambles. He shows a power point with some VERY main points. No sub points, which makes his rambles hard to follow, especially when I do not know who these people are in Irish political history. I think that I will have to do a lot of catch up reading for this class.

The Irish history class is going to be sweet! I LOVE my teacher. Her first language is Irish and she is a dynamic teacher. She is much like Mrs. Corpus, if any of you know her. She wears a LOT of eccentric jewelry all at the same time and crazy outfits. Her outfits always involve a long robe-sweater-thing that she wraps around herself until she gets really excited and seems to hover to the chalk board to point something out, which seems to give her a Professor McGonagall likeness. She also wears some sort of flowy, hippi-ish skirt, and high-heeled boots. It all adds up to a crazy, but very warm and inviting lady. So fun! Yesterday, the class was going on about something, but I had no idea what it was. I sit with 3 other Americans, who also did not know so I raised my hand and asked. She has now designated me as the American/international student who will say when we are confused...great (can you hear the sarcasm?). But I still love the class.

My Irish politics and economy class is currently about the Celtic Tiger. It is a really great class/I have a really great professor because I understand what is going on. I pretty much hate economics and politics, but I am taking it because UD is making me take a social science and this one is about Ireland. But my teacher talks about things in what I know are VERY beginners terms, but it is great for me.

Finally is my Spanish for communication class that is supposed to be a replacement for my Spanish conversation class at UD. It is nothing like UD's class. At UD we would only learn vocab or grammar when it came up in conversation during class. The entire class we would be talking, mostly debating an issue. My class here is nothing like this and is more like what I had in high school. We get a list of vocab to learn and then do little activities with it. It is definitely under my level, but this is what I have approved for credit at UD. My teacher is from Spain and is very small and skinny. So far we have learned some complicated vocab about the house. I also have a tutorial for this class where I listen to a conversation. Not exactly what I need, but still helpful. This is mostly about grammar.

I am generally excited about my classes. I only have 9 hours of class a week whereas at home I had 21 and teaching a lab. Kind of a difference! I must say I like the break.