Classes

We started class this week - and it's already my weekend! I made it so I don't have class on Thursday or Friday so I can travel more on the weekends - but most of my friends have class at least on Thursday so I'm not sure how much it will actually matter. Plus, we don't register until Monday, so I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to get into all the classes I went to this week!


On Monday I had the Psychology of Learning which seems like it will be interesting - although very hard to understand! The profesora is very nice but speaks very fast. Hoping it will get easier as the semester goes on! At least I have a background in psychology classes to get me started.


I also had Amazonian Ethnography on Monday and Wednesday - a class that seems a little interesting but isn't what I thought it would be. I'm still deciding if I'm going to try to register for that one! 


On Tuesday I went to a class called Cine ("Theatre") where we just watch movies and discuss them. This week we watched a German film with Spanish subtitles called The Lives of Others - very good! Watching movies in Spanish is very helpful for learning new vocabulary - I write down all the words I don't know and try to study them later. We've actually watched a movie every night here in the house with Spanish subtitles - including El Discurso del Rey (The King's Speech) which I really liked! 


Yesterday I had a class called Actividad de Anthropología, or Activities of Anthropology. This class is probably going to be my favorite - we're going to study shamanism in the local Lima area and go on field trips to visit shamans and watch them do ceremonies and all sorts of stuff! It's only once a week and 2 credits.  


I'm hoping all goes well and I can actually take the classes I want - I have some back-up classes like gardening and ecotourism if I can't get into those ones. Classes are obviously difficult because they are in Spanish, but they are also hard because every lecture is 2 hours long! I'm used to my short and sweet 50 minute lectures in Madison - paying attention for that long in a different language is something I need to accustom myself to. One benefit here is that classes never actually start on time. Everyone is so lax with time that the professor won't even come until 4:10 or 4:15 if the class is scheduled for 4. Also something that would never happen in the States - but something I can get used to!