I suppose I should tell you all about my classes. While I think they are and will continue to be a small portion of my experience here, I suppose it is called
studying abroad for a reason. First of all, UCD is on a semester system while UW is on a quarter system. Each quarter we take 3 classes, here I am expected to take 6 at once. WHAT. They are shorter or less often but still. So here is the rundown, I am only taking two classes that apply to my major, the others are random electives that will apply to my general credit amount.
Dublin: Its Museums
I have actually yet to get to this class, I missed a number of them when Caitlin was here, and I was misinformed about the location of the classroom. However, it shouldn't be too hard. It is an art history 101 course where we have to visit dublin museums and write about various pieces.
The Narrative Art
This is a folklore class! I am really excited about this one, I took a french fairytale course at UW and I absolutely loved it. Basically we are talking about the differences in Irish folklore from the oral tradition to a written one and that sort of thing. My professor is really energetic and there are only like 15 people in the class so it is a lot better format for me. There is also a girl I met during orientation in my class!
Memory and Identity in Irish Literature
I love literature courses. I am not entirely sure about what we are reading for this yet, but we have already begun to talk about a lot of interesting things in order to define memory and cultural and collective identities. Today I read an article on screen memories by Freud. I love me some Freud. My friend Jo is in this course.
Ireland Uncovered
This is a course designed specifically for international students. It is a multi-disciplinary course offering background on irish history, architecture, culture and other stuff like that. Everyone I know is in it and it should be pretty easy. Hopefully... knock on wood.
Health, Illness and Society
This is a sociology course and it seems that we will be looking at the historical and current patterns in the way that health and especially mental illness are viewed in society.
Sociology of Celebrity and Modernity
I still don't really know what this guy is talking about. He kind of mumbles and is a little twitchy. We talked about the definition of a celebrity, its first usage (talking about name dropping Jesus!) and then today he rattled on about printing presses and actors playing royalty in the theater? I'm not entirely sure where it is going but I think it should be interesting.
All in all my courses all have the potential to be really interesting. The main issue here is my ability to focus, and the fact that I will be out of the country for a lot of them. Oh well, traveling and life experience is more important than my gpa, right?
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