Well as far as I can tell school is the same here as it is in the US only harder, because they love calculus and they speak in Spanish (really fast.) I was living in a fantasy world (created from listening to other people that studied abroad) that my classes were going to be a piece of cake. Right now I kind of feel like La Catolica (the name of my college) decided to throw that cake in my face instead of letting me eat it. I probably should have took it as a warning that the other engineering student that studied abroad here last semester ended up dropping all her classes except Spanish and Tennis (she is the one person that I didn´t talk to, opps!) Oh well, I suppose that I should feel lucky that I have the opportunity to study in the most prestiguos college in Chile (and it´s even a private college too, I wouldn´t be able to afford that in the US.)
My first experience with the University was the whole registration process. The local students can register over the internet and did so last December, but the foreign students had to go to the head of each department and have a card signed to signify that they can take the course. They only gave us the name of the person that we needed to talk to and so we had to go on a bit of a scavanger hunt to find that person´s office. It was a major pain, I cannot believe that all colleges used to do it this way in the old days. Well in the end after going back and forth between departments because classes were closed or the ones I wanted had different pre-requisites here than they do in the US these are the classes that I ended up with: the second semester of Physics (Electricity and Magnetism), Environmental Engineering and Natural Resources, Spanish for foreigners, and a gym class (Volleyball.)
I know what you are thinking just two actual classes, what in the world is she complaining about, but I am just ticked that these classes are going to put a major kink in my vacation plans (because I am going to have to actually study for them.) Just to tell you a little bit about the classes:
I can understand my Physic´s profesor but the class is still really hard, because we are covering material really fast and everything seems to have calculus in it (so I not only need to study Physics but I have to study Calculus too because I do not remeber it, of course.) My first quiz is March 26th and my first exam is not long after that.
My enviromental engineering class doesn´t have any hard math yet, but the profesor speaks really fast and doesn´t use slides or write anything on the board most of the time.. Even though I go to class, I do not have a very clear idea of what was talked about in lecture (I am sure it was probably very interesting, I wish I could understand it.) Fortunately the stuff that we need to know is on the classes web page. Unfortunately, I have a ton of reading to do for this class between all the stuff on the web page and the books and chapters of books that we are required to read. Finally, the most interesting thing about this class is that our semester project is to work in groups of four with a company in Santiago to solve one of their environmental engineering problems. My first exam in this class is April 10th.
Just not to leave on a depressing note, I did have a great time on the coast of Chile this past weekend relaxing with Heather, Melinda, and our new friend Zack (also from the US, Michigan actually.) The first day we stayed in Vina del Mar where we just relaxed on the beach all day. I am happy to say that I survived this with no sunburns what so ever (sunblock is my best friend here.) The ocean was beautiful as always, but unfortunately had a very strong aroma of fish (bummer!) My Chilean family says that it doesn´t normally smell like that, so I guess we were just unlucky. Then for dinner we treated ourselves out to a nice Italian restuarant, which was very tasty. That night, we went out dancing in Valpariso which is the port city about a 10 minute bus ride from Vina del Mar. We stayed out late and had fun. Finally we spent Sunday walking around Valpariso and riding the ascensores (outdoor elevators esentially)that I talked about last week. It was a good time, I hope that it wasn´t my last weekend trip. As of right now I plan on studying this upcoming weekend (maybe.)
Love,
Emmie
