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!
