Let's start with my Spanish class.
It's definitely an experience, you would think that Spanish would be a relatively stationary thing when you look at it at first. WRONG! I never thought about the fact that Spanish here would be taught from someone from Spain! The thing is, in the States, you're going to learn (at least more than likely) from someone from South or Central America, right? Well, the two have some really big differences that are tripping me up. First of all, they pronounce their c sound with a -th sound.
For example,
When I say my name (or anyone in my family says it), it's
MarCela.
Here, my professor says my name like...
MarTHela.
Interesting, right? Also, carro (car) means chariot in Spain Spanish...and coche means car. Which has gotten me some awkward looks from my classmates and professor. It's super interesting, and we also learn a lot about the culture of Spanish speaking countries in this class, so it's fascinating to learn about Spain instead of other South American countries that are so prominent in American Spanish courses. My professor is definitely amazing, probably the best I've ever had! Perhaps now I can learn Italian since I have French and Spanish (somewhat) down!
Next, I am also taking a medieval studies class on the age of chivalry. I'm not usually too interested in medie
val history, but this class sounded particularly interesting. So far we've learned how debunk lots of modern interpretations of chivalry and we're getting down to business as to how it really was. The second week of classes, we took a visit to the Royal Armouries in Leeds...and it was FANTASTIC! To the left is a picture of the Hall of Steel, which is a lot of armour displayed ALL THE WAY TO THE FOURTH FLOOR! It's very interesting to learn all the history of why and how certain armours were developed...and not only do they have displays of weapons and armour, but they also have a library full of manuscripts from that time period. We got to see the Armouries librarian dress up in a full suit of armour...and it turns out every August, they have a joust! I wish I could see it...I'm sure I'm going to love this class more as it goes on as soon as I learn to discipher old French and old English, ha!The next class I'm taking is Deviance, Crime, and Social Control. This is a sociology course focusing on the concepts of crime and deviance and how they intertwine. I do enjoy this class, and it's interesting to get the British perspective of crime and deviance. I remember on the first day of class, we were discussing two big deviant groups in the UK, "football hooliganism" and "hoodies". Now, I had no idea what either of those were until I asked some of my friends from Leeds, and still it's a little hard to grasp the concepts of these being large social problems. Anyway, on the note of crime, it's interesting to hear about high profile crimes as well...because every country has different crimes that are considered particularly heinous (or if they would be terrible crimes in both countries, a lot of the times the news isn't publized in another because it has nothing to do with the populace at hand). In fact, I should be writing a paper for this class...ha!
The final class that I am taking is Traditional Alcholic Beverages...because you probably would never have the oppourtunity to take this class in the States! There is so much chemistry behind brewing a beer (as we haven't learned about wine yet), and it has taken 4 lectures to cover not even all of the beer making process! In March, we will brew our own beer in groups, and I am so excited! We get to design a logo and an advertisement, and it's going to be a blast. However, these past lectures have sort of scared me into knowing one mistake can absolutely destroy a beer's intended taste! I'll definitely post more once the brewing proccess has begun.
Anyway, that's all I've got!
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