Classes and Italy!

Hello!

Today was a very wonderful day. I had my first class-Sociolinguistics-and it was so much better than I had thought it would be!! There are only about 15 of us in the class, and the professor is a sweet British woman who wants us to call her Judith. The best part is, the students are from ALL OVER THE WORLD and all walks of life. They are mainly graduate students, but there are also 3 PhD students and about 4 of us lowly undergrads. During class we sat in a circle and introduced ourselves; just listen to the places that are represented: Romania, Napal, England, Japan, Poland, France, Italy, Germany, Malaysia, and a country in the Middle East that i won't even attempt to spell. Then there are three Americans-me and two girls from the midwest. Isn't that awesome?! What a diverse bunch!! At one point we got into a discussion about patriotism, and it was fascinating to have people from different countries sharing their experiences. Mona (from Germany) said that it is uncommon to see a German displaying the flag; to do so would be to label oneself as a nationalist. On the other hand, Noor (from Malaysia) said that this was very different from her experience, because in Malaysia, national pride is highly esteemed. I felt SO lucky to be able to sit and listen in to the many different opinions and perspectives of my classmates.

I was also surprised to learn about the amount that one is expected to know about one's area of study. When I introduced myself and announced that I was studying Sociology, the professor took that to mean that I would be the spokeswoman for all things sociological. She would say, "So Paige, what do you remember about Durkheim's theory of functionalism?" and I would scramble to come up with something that was remotely related and didn't make me look completely inept. It wasn't just me though; everyone was called on when a subject pertained to his or her area of study. Note to self: Brush up on Sociological Theory powerpoints before Monday!


The OTHER exciting news of the day is this: I am going to ITALY for a weekend in November! The other Americans in my program and I have been lamenting about how close we are to all of these countries and yet how overwhelming it is to find a good trip for the right price. Well, tonight we finally sat down and spent hours on ryanair and other related sites, and we just booked our tickets for Italy! (Only about $80 roundtrip-can you believe it?!) So that is something very happy in my life right now. Bring on the gelato!