Class Schedule

Hi again,

As I lay on my bed eating a delicious pretzel and listening to Taylor Swift (Taylor, if you ever read this, marry me even though you aren’t Jewish), I write to everyone about my first week of classes.

As I last left my blog, I was scrambling to find classes to take and to set up my schedule. Well, I can tell you that I had some success and some failure.

The Failure? Having no idea for long stretches of time what the professors were saying. That might be a problem somewhere in the near future.

The Success? I made it to all my classes, I think…. Let me elaborate a little bit more

I also want to note a few things that are different about German classes. First, there are two different time distinctions in terms of classes. If you look on the course catalog, you will see either a c.t. or s.t. after the scheduled time of class. The c.t. means that class begins 15 minutes after the hour (and ends 15 minutes before if it is a two hour class). The s.t. means it runs the entire 2 hours. All of my classes are c.t. 

Secondly, there is something very unique and funny that accompanies the end of every class. In a university class, when the teacher says class is over, everyone knocks on the table with their fists. It lasts for about 5 seconds and is supposed to be like applause??? It isn't something we do in America and it made me laugh. In my first class, which I will talk about shortly, there are 200 people, so it was quite a loud noise. Germans are strange.

So, I woke up on a Monday for the first time in 5 months with the explicit goal to go to class. And I made it there. I only have one class on Mondays from 12 to 1 called, Einführung in die Linguistik (General German Linguistics). Even though it is a huge class (around 200 students), it isn’t easy to register for. After the first session, I talked with the professor about joining the class. The thing is, you had to register for it by the 15^th and I only found out about the class on the 17^th, and even then, I didn't have the ability to do so. I have to go meet with the German Advisor about this minor clerical issue, except I couldn’t get an appointment until the 2^nd of November.  BUT ANYWAY, the class was very interesting. The professor was funny and somewhat easy to understand.

I was born on May 22, 1990, which was a Tuesday for those of you who didn't know. It had therefore become my favorite day of the week. No longer is that the case. For the rest of the semester, I will dread Tuesdays, because I scheduled 5 hours of class within a 6-hour time period.

It wasn’t a disaster, but definitely fatiguing. The first two hours (10-12) is a class called Literatur der Nachkriegzeit (1945-1967) (Post-WWII Literature). While I find Post-WWII topics to be interesting, I absolutely hate Literature. This was only exacerbated by the fact I understood less than 10 percent of what the professor was saying. It shouldn’t be too bad, and this is one of the few classes that I actually need to get credit for. Reading whole books in German is going to be tough.

From 12 to 1 is the second session of the week for Einführung in die Linguistik. It was pretty much the same on Tuesday, but I felt like I understood less. Not really sure if I have homework….small problem.

Then after a 1 hour break for lunch, I have Finanzwissenschaft I (Financial Studies) from 2-4. While it was very interesting, I was clueless because many of the complicated words that are used in economics talk are very hard to understand. I spoke with the professor, Dr. Wolfgang Eggert, after class and told him I am an exchange student. He seems very understanding that it is a difficult subject. At this point in time, I don’t need this class. I may drop it pending difficulty.

That was my dreadful Tuesday.  Listening to professors talk really fast in German about difficult topics can really wear an exchange student out.

Wednesday was solid. I got to my European Union Economics class that I have with my friend Tobias, see Digital Adventure post, and who teaches it? Dr. Wolfgang Eggert

This class was much easier to understand than the first economics one and it was also more interesting. Not to mention, the textbooks used in the class are in English. I am pretty sure that exchange students get leniency during the grading period, so having the same professor twice will be positive.

Thursday is another one of my important classes that I need to get credit for UT. It is called, Krieg, Recht und Gesellschaft der 20. Jahrhundert (War, Justice and Society of the 20^th Century) and is from 12 to 2. It was difficult to understand, but from what I gathered, the class will mostly be about victims of war and organizations that help them (Red Cross).

And that is it….sorta

Those are my planned classes, but most of them have scheduled tutoring sessions and practice sessions. I haven’t looked that up yet, but it adds a significant number of hours to my school week. Each economics class has a two-hour session for practicing problems and my linguistics course has two hours of optional tutorials and two hours of mandatory extra sessions per week. That doesn’t make me a happy camper.

What makes up for that?

For the first time in my life, I DON’T HAVE CLASS ON FRIDAYS!!!!

NOTE*** While writing this, I had to look up a few easy words (like an antonym for mandatory and a synonym for to detail) in the thesaurus. I think I am forgetting English, if I even really knew it in the first place.

I also did some ridiculous thing tonight that I will post eventually. I have photo and video evidence. And it is hilarious.

Have a nice weekend,

Adam

P.S. Just wanted to note that I watched the videos of the “Propaganda” event that occurred this week at UT. I like how the Youtube videos had the word propaganda to describe the event, when indeed the video was propaganda. Just saying.

P.P.S. I am a conservative and I am highly amused by the mess of things that have occurred following Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on The View. While he wasn’t being PC, he has a point (even the liberal NPR guy, who got fired after statements about being afraid of Muslims every time he gets on a plane, tended to agree with O’Reilly. The US is about to change sides, when the Republicans will take over both the House and the Senate. Can’t wait for Election Day!