Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Summer Classes

I confess. I am a class junkie. As badly as I wanted the spring semester to end, I cannot wait until summer classes start. Yes, there is something wrong with me. But I have two really exciting classes awaiting me, and I am anxious to get started (plus it is just getting me closer to the finish line for my undergraduate work and beginning law school.

Summer is broken into two four week sessions. The first session I am enrolled in Spanish 302, Developing Spanish Writing skills. Spanish is my minor, and it is funny because I am so bad at it. I first took Spanish in High School in North Carolina. My teacher was Sra. Causey, and she had the sweetest southern accent. Consequently I speak Spanish with a southern accent. This is interesting because I don't speak English with one. But when I speak Spanish I drag out my vowels, drawl terribly, and struggle to understand what the native speakers say. So I took Spanish in the mid 90's at the community college, and have taken it at UNM trying desperately to improve. First, I took Spanish Cinema, which was a lot of fun. It wasn't a Spanish class, but I picked up a lot of the language. I did my 15 page final paper on "The Films of Javier Bardem and What Alcoholic Beverage to Serve With Them." I received an A+ in the course :)

In the fall I took "Chicano and Mexicano Cinema" which WAS a Spanish course. The class was a conversation course with some writing. I worked so hard, and got a B+. But the professor was this incredible woman, Patricia Rosas-Lopategui. She is an authority on the women writers of Mexico, and has published books on the subject. Patricia is the warmest, kindest person, so open and engaging, that I enrolled in her "Mexican Women Writers" class this spring. When I went to my advisor to declare a minor we looked through my transcript and discovered that I had unwittingly wandered into Spanish as a minor as just a matter of it being the quickest path to graduation. So now I am committed. But that is ok, I have it all planned out. I have two required courses for my minor, the 302 and 307, which is a Spanish Lit class, which I am taking in the fall. I also have two other elective classes, one of which I am taking in the fall, as well...with my good friend Patricia, "The Mexican Revolution on Film," one day a week. Then just one more class in the Spring and I am done!

The second half of Summer I am enrolled in a class with another favorite professor, the marvelous Peter Kierst. The course is "Law in the Political Community," and as a bonus several of my friends from the Association of Non-Traditional Students are taking the course with me: Lisa, Matt, and Tiffany have all signed up, and we are working on getting others to join. Lisa and I are very liberal, Matt and Tiffany quite libertarian/conservative in their views, so this should be one great class.

The only thing I am missing for graduation now is math. I am going to take that at CNM for a few reasons. First, it is cheaper. Second, I have already begun the math path there, testing into math for mouthbreathers last year, I took the lowest pre-algebra you can take last spring. It was so bad my 5th grader said, "Mom, that's your homework???That's easy!" So in the fall I have to take Mouthbreathers II, then in the spring I have to take the real math for UNM's core requirement. Then I am done!

And after the fall, I will need just one more credit hour to graduate. Yay me!

1 comment: