Real Classes

Real Classes, with Real Argentines! (Powerthirst voice)

After the first turbulent day where I was flooded with things (mostly these down there)

and hopefully not much of this

or

or 

... things went really well. 

My first class was Microbiology. It's a class of about 30 students that are following a career of Pharmacy (that is another topic of discussion). We meet once a week for 3 hours and have a lab in that time frame. The professor seems knowledgeable, but I could barely hear her. I was sitting two rows back and I missed some of what she said simply because she spoke so quietly. I was sitting there thinking to myself, TO WHOM ARE YOU SPEAKING!?!? I am certain the people in the back row (two or three rows back) could in no way hear her. But, overall it went well, and I didn't feel lost when we did our first in0class assignment. I sat next to a Chinese-Argentine girl who goes by the name of Naty, and we were partners for the activity. After class, we went up to a shop called Saber that sells guardapolvos, which are lab coats. Feeling like a doctor already. (Way. Too. Soon.)

Here's something I thought was rather amusing: the description of how a virus is transmitted per my professor.

1. Bites infected person

2. Takes blood

3. Bites other person

And there it is.

[Boom.] Transmission.

Later that day I had Tango. I am in love with it. We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays - Tuesdays is the history and theory of the dance and Thursdays is the actual practice. I am fortunate to be on of the few that is officially registered for the class, so I find relief in that.

Wednesday I had Human Physiology and Philosophy, back to back. I am in love with both of them. Philosophy makes me question what I want to do in life; the way I described it to my mom was "it makes me want to major in Philosophy and open a bakery." But then I put on my lab coat and got the chills. Anyways, the class was an incredible exchange of information between students and the professor (I'm not ready to speak that fast yet, unfortunately, because I did have things to say!) I'm finally like a fly on the wall. A rather large fly... And much cleaner. (when it's not raining). 

Human Physiology seems daunting, but I can understand pretty well so it's probably just going to be a difficult class. What I found though, is that every teacher so far is willing to stop and clarify things for me if I need it. It's nice to have that safety, for sure. What he said that rocked my world, was "I would rather you not take notes." (It is more important that we pay attention and we understand how things work instead of asking stupid questions like "was that 'for' or 'by' that you said, teacher?")

Thursday was the day to become a journalist, because my oral and written expression will be directed towards that career. Great. I'll be skipping the Tuesday portion because my advisor didn't inform me of its existence, but if I included it it would be a 7 hour a week class, and I think that is plenty thank you very much. In that class of about thirty, there is one other exchange student, so that will be nice to have someone on the same level as me. 

Tango practice was splendid. I had a blast. Our class is about 40 students right now, 10 of them are not registered, so it will be cut to 30 within the coming days. I learned the basic steps, over again, but with a slight (and better) variation. My movements are becoming smoother and I have to think less. Now all I need are the shoes. Next item of order.

And today. Friday. Oh dear Friday. My five hour physiology LECTURE. 

A divine class 8 AM until 1250 PM of my Robert Downey Jr. - Javier Bardem mix-professor. Heaven. 

It's pretty great. Today, we talked about the Big Bang theory, and how life was created. Taking human phys from the truly macroscopic level...

But we did start talking about how the different systems of the body are related: that's his point. He wants us to understand how everything is connected NOT only knowing how each organ of the body works specifically. Here is Pepe, he is our "being". Imagine this drawing much larger, with different colored chalk and chalk dust everywhere, on a green old-school chalkboard. That's the essence of it. I would have taken a photo of it right then and there, but my Nokia is from the beginnings of the Big Bang, so naturally it can't.

As exhausting as the class was, I learned a good bit and had an excellent opportunity to listen to my professor and get acclimated to his mannerisms and way of speaking. 

All in all, my weeks are going to be exhausting, even if I finish by 1 PM almost every day, except for when there is Tango class. Hopefully that will be plenty of time to read and reread my material, as well as potentially teach myself everything over again in English. 

This will be FUN. 

Angela