Oct 08
my classes.
- HISTORY 390:
- This is my upper-division History class that is about the Middle East and its politics, wars, history (of course), religion, and current events. We have already learned a ton and I feel much more informed about everything going on there. It is a very relevant class to my generation especially because most of the Middle Eastern issues that involve America have been going on most of my life, so I feel familiar with a lot of it while still having a lot of curiosity. This is the course in which the professor told us would be the most challenging course we ever take. So far, he is right. It is very difficult and challenging, but I have been keeping up with current events, my reading, and have been taking good notes in class. We had an in class essay this Monday about “Sharia’ah,” or Islamic Law, and how it defines the “Ummah,” or Islamic Community. I think I did really well, but I will find out in a week or so. This essay was fortunately not for a grade, but what he is doing is reading it, analyzing and critiquing it, and then meeting with us to discuss how we could improve our writing and knowledge. We will eventually have another paper in his class that counts for a majority of our final grade that we have to demonstrate how we have improved as writers, historians and critical thinkers.
- ENGLISH 380
- This is also an upper division class about Modern Drama. Initially I was kind of bummed, because I thought it was going to be about British Literature, but I have actually found this class to be very interesting. I knew very little about Theatre prior to this class, and I seem to be learning a lot. We had our first exam this morning, and I hope I did well. I studied enough, and read 3 of the 4 plays that is was over. It was an essay test, and I think the content of what I wrote was good, but I am not so sure about the format. Oh well, I will find out soon enough. Anyways, this class is cool. We read plays, then discuss them in class and learn about the historical context, the author’s life, and then watch the play in the following class period. We also go to plays once a month with the class. We went to one on Tuesday night called “The Black Album.” It was a very controversial play about the life of a young man of Pakistani descent that lives in London during the time of the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. It is really interesting, and talks a lot about important, but uncomfortable issues like racism, religious extremism, multiculturalism versus assimilation etc. I liked the play a lot, but it was very very controversial and a little bit explicit. Interesting and thought-provoking, though.
- ART 200
- My art class is probably my favorite class. The official title is Art in Permanent Revolution. My professor, Rachel Barnes, is a world renowned art critic and has even written a book on Salvador Dali (one of my fave artists!). She is AMAZING. I love her class. Every Tuesday we come to class with a little info prepared about the previous week’s museum trip. Each of us are to have chosen two paintings each by a different artist of similar backgrounds and discuss the similarities and how they have influenced one another. It is very cool. We get to talk a lot and listen a lot. We are currently learning about Impressionism and Realism and Turner and John Constable are the artists we are focusing on. We start with Realism and go over the course of time and how art changes with history changing and we analyze the artists and the differences of the works as society evolves. We will end with modern art!
- Equestrian
- My equestrian class is amazing!! We have class, in Hyde Park. We started out on lead, with our instructors attached to our horse on their horse. The third week of class, Azzurra and I were the only two out of our group who got to ride off lead!! Which was amazing. Riding English is so much harder than Western, I can’t even explain it! But… I am not awful at it for just starting out, so that is exciting. I led a small group last week and got to canter on my own. We’ll see how I end up by the end of the semester. If I am really good, hahah, I will do it next semester too! Hyde park is also really beautiful, especially at this time of the year with all of the leaves falling and the green everywhere contrasting with the brown, dead leaves.
- HUMANITIES
- My humanities is also a very interesting class. I have 2 hours of lecture on Wednesdays followed by 1 hour at the museum (with my art professor, actually). We get to learn a lot about things that are very near to our location. For example we were learning about Gothic Architecture and the Salisbury Cathedral, and we had already BEEN there so it all made sense and was relevant to things we had seen. It is a great class, and I love taking it here because so many of the things we discuss are close enough to go see in real life!!
