February 4th
Today is the day before Super Tuesday. I won’t find out the results until probably Wednesday, but tomorrow is a big day for
Today was my first day of class at AUC. It was also my first day of class since early December. It was also the first day of class, when I walked out of the classroom feely confident/self-assured/sure-of-myself since high-school. It was the first time when I actually felt like these classes were going to be easy and not require ball-busting amounts of work. As I said I haven’t seen that since taking high-school classes. It’s a complicated feeling. On the one hand, you feel awesome, because A. You don’t feel like a dumbass all the time and B. you realize you might have free-time and actually live a balanced life. On the other hand you feel kind of disappointed because the amount of knowledge I will probably get from both of my non-arabic classes could be taught in about a week at Notre Dame. However, it is the only the first day of class, syllabus day as I like to call it, so I shouldn’t get my hopes to high. However, the fact that neither Professor was ready to start class the first day shows that they will not really hold us to high standards. Maybe my knowledge/growth will come in other forms during my time in
Let me give you a run-down of my classes. First I had intensive Arabic at 8:00 this morning. They are starting us in Chapter 13. I have finished Chapter 20. So everything is review to me, but this time I am actually learning how to say and speak the language. I don’t feel like the worst student in class anymore, even though I still get lost when she speaks quickly or in colloquial Arabic. I also don’t understand when my classmates use colloquial in class as many of them are full-year students or are graduate students who have been around
My next class was Comparative Politics of the Middle-East. This class was entirely made up of Foreigners, and taught by a Professor who has a terrible reputation. I could probably switch into a different class and have a more worthwhile experience, but the material looks interesting and although the class-time might not be all that productive, I should be able to gleam a lot from the readings. Also, this way I can keep my three day weekend for trips outside of
My next class is Islamic Art and Architecture. This class will fulfill my fine arts class, plus it looks interesting, has a sweet professor (meaning she actually cares) and has Egyptians. It should be fun. I did notice though that only Egyptians showed up late to the class, why all the study abroad students were on time. We’ll see what kind of differences emerge between the two groups of students. I also can’t buy the book for that class because the bookstore ran out and they won’t have more in for 3 weeks. 3 weeks, nothing takes 3 weeks at Notre Dame. This is a ridiculous amount of time, but its just a part of the culture.
Finally my colloquial Arabic class looks pretty easy. There are three of us, my roommate, my and this kid Nick who are significantly better then the rest at colloquial Arabic so we basically run the class and have a good time doing it. It’s quite enjoyable. I never really have fun in a class (joke around, talk much) if the class is a bruiser, now I am able to be a might be jovial and outgoing. We’ll see if it lasts.
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