Tuesday.
I had my first class, Czech language 101, which I'm taking with Jake and Devon. We have a great teacher, Brownova; it seems like it will be a great class. Thankfully, she is focusing on more of the necessary Czech we will want to know, only being here for four months. The language is difficult, with some crazy pronunciations, but with some more studying, I think I will get the hang of it!
I then had Religion as a Social Force, a class which I though would be interesting and taught in an un-biased fashion, but I was quite wrong. After sitting through two and a half hours of bashing Christianity and how it's ruining the world, I decided to drop the course.
Wednesday.
Well, Wednesday's are going to be long, really, really long. I begin class at 9:30am and my last class ends at 9:15pm. Thankfully there are short 30 minute breaks in between classes!
I began with my Czech course again (it is the only class that meets twice a week), on Wednesday mornings we are going to be learning Czech songs with all the other language classes! We are learning greeting phrases as well as the basic grammar necessary to say basically anything.
Prague Art and Architecture came next, I also have this class with Devon. I am really excited for it, our professor seems awesome, extremely intelligent and obviously very passionate about the subject matter. Classes are structured quite differently as well, we will start off with a short lecture in the classroom and then venture out into the city to actually see what we are learning about. We are required to keep an art journal documenting all we see and how it impacts us. I'm glad to have some form of art to do while I'm here.
On to Sociology and the Family, the most frustrating class yet. The actual class itself seems like it will be great, BUT I am the only non-CEA student in the class. Meaning, I am the only person who doesn't know everyone else and finds it necessary to be ridiculously rude and obnoxious the entire class. I honestly was so mad, all they did was talk, text on their blackberry's and sleep. I felt like I was back in high school, with our poor teacher constantly having to ask them to be quiet and turn off their phones. I don't think they understand that a large part of studying abroad is learning about the culture and blending into it, not enforcing the American stereotype of loud, obnoxious, party-crazy college students. Despite my little rant here, I really like the teacher and I know I will learn a lot in the class...
I had a larger break before my night class, so Becca and I grabbed dinner at the cute Bohemia Bagel on the corner by the school. I could successfully order, ask for the bill, pay and say thank you in Czech!
Finally, my last class is 20th Century Art. It is taught by an awesome professor, who after reading his biography online I realized has an insane amount of world-impacting accomplishments. It is a smaller class, which I like, and it seems like it is going to be really interesting. We just went over the basic history, beginning with Goya (who I now love) and Turner. Class got out a few minutes early, so I made it back to the apartment by 10 and collapsed into bed =)
Thursday.
I had a few hours to sleep in the morning, but 11:30 came quickly with my last class, Critical Approaches to Contemporary Art and Visual Culture. My third art class! There are only 8 students, and I like everyone and the teacher a lot. The teacher's first degree was a BFA in printmaking, so I was able to talk to her a little about it during the break. She is going to connect me with some local print-makers in the area who would let me use their studio, offer workshops, and one who is teaching vitreography (printing on glass). I am quite excited. I really like the way she structures the class, it is very laid back and conversational.
All in all, I'm happy with all my courses. They are going to be harder than I expected, for some reason a lot of them are 400 level classes, I don't know what I was thinking!
Anglo-American University, Prague.
No comments:
Post a Comment