Tuesday, January 12, 2010

First day of school!

Sorry folks, no pictures today!  It was rainy rainy rainy (but warmer!), so I did not want to wreck my camera.  However, I did start classes today en Espanol!  I found out that I was placed in the Advanced II classes (there is one beginning level, three levels of intermediate, and three levels of advanced) so I was pretty pleased with my placement.  Anyway, I got there at about 8:45 to see what my placement was, but of course because I was in the advanced level I did not have class until 10!  Ah well, I needed a break in the cafeteria anyway.

Then I headed off to my first class, Grammar.  It was taught by the same person who judged me for the oral exam so I was pretty excited, as he had seemed very nice. The class seems like it is going to be difficult but also very much worth my time.  The professor is incredibly helpful and clearly knows how to teach foreigners especially spanish, while speaking no english himself.  Since it is an upper level we are going to review everything briefly, but then go into the nuances of the language, such as the differences between similar verbs that we had previously interchanged.

Next was Art History and while the intro class was not interesting I see the potential for it to be fun; the professor seems to love what she does and most importantly is taking us on field trips to see local art history around the city.

It was a short day today, only two classes lasting from ten until twelve, but tomorrow I take my other three: phonetics and conversation, introduction to translation, and literature.  I really tried to take a mixture of classes so that I could cover all my bases.  I am getting the nuts and bolts of the language through grammar and phonetics, the basics of spain through art history and literature, and something I have had no experience with but may make Spanish a lot easier with translation.

All in all I am pretty excited about my classes.  If the ones tomorrow go as well as the ones today then I am going to have a difficult but also fun semester and will definitely learn quite a bit (which of course is the goal).

Well thanks to all for continuing to follow!  I am sure once I get into the rhythm of things these will become more mundane and certainly less frequent, but for now I just want to share as much as I can!

4 comments:

  1. That all sounds great, kiddo! I LOVE the idea of the Art History(especially for the field trips)and the literature course seems like the perfect balance/supplement to all the others. Do you know what periods of literature it will cover? In other words, will there be a breadth of time periods from which they draw?

    Good job making friends, and impressing teachers. I am proud.

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  2. Proud does not begin to cover it! I am so excited for you, and so very envious of all those courses. They sound like ones I would have loved to have had in French. Perfect. You are doing a marvelous job, and I will continue to follow wherever you lead.

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  3. I agree with all. Proud of you and happy to hear everything you have to share with us. Looking forward to as much as you can give us!

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  4. I'm enjoying your blog. You're such a good writer!

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