Access to my Journal

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Yeah, I can access this site again. I haven't been able to get to this site since Tue. I kept getting a message from the University of Trier that I couldn't understand and thought for some reason they had blocked this site. I was really sad. Anyway, it's all good now.

This past week has been pretty good. If you haven't seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, I would really recommend seeing it. It's a very heavy and moving movie. I really think it presents the issues surrounding the genocide very well. It makes me soo mad that the international community knew that genocide was being committed and yet we all turned a blind eye. Why do we continue to do that? We keep lying to ourselves saying that genocide will never happen again and yet it does again and again and it's only after that fact that we do something. Matt, Nils and I spent sometime talking about the issues raised in the film afterwards. It was an interesting conversation about the set up of the UN, who has the right to decide when to undertake military action, and so forth.

Wed., spent most of the day in class. I got my pop quiz back, got a C on it. I guess that's not bad, but not good either. I have a lot more studying to do in order to keep up with the class. I also had my first academic writing class on Wed. I don't think it's gonna be too difficult. I don't really know if it's the write level for me. In class we had to pick a picture (the prof. had several to choose from) and then write a story, a letter, or describe the picture. By the time we had to turn it in I had written about a page, the other students to the side of me had written a few sentences. We'll see though, maybe I had all kinds of mistakes in my paper that I didn't realize. I'm gonna talk to the prof though to see if she thinks I'm placed correclty or if she thinks I should be in the advanced class... just have to wait and see. I also found out that I have to give another presentation. Both of them are in January, just a week apart from each other. YIKES!!! Luckily they're both group presentations.

Yesterday didn't really do much except study and try to read the stuff for my German Political System class. I think I have to pretty much look up every other word. (slight exaggeration, but not by much) It stinks!!! I can hardly understand it. Which means I have to look up all these words and then go back and read all 65 pages over again. I also still have the reading for my International Politics class (which is about 30 pgs in German and 30 in English) geeez... I know what I'm gonna do this weekend. I also spent a lot of yesterday studying vocab. Oh well, that's just what you have to do when you take classes in a foreign language. Ok, I'm done complaining... What I'm reading though is really quite interesting (at least what I can understand).

Oh, I was gonna write this Tue., but forgot. In my German Political System class on Mon. we talked about the presentations we have to give and what all needs to be included. The Prof. also talked about visuals. We can use Power Point be he doesn't recommend it (which is very different from the states where they highly encourage the use of Power Point). He reasoning, in a presentation you should never ever rely on technology 'cause it probably won't work when you need it to and it's really embarrassing to suddenly be standing there with your presentation stuck in a computer. He also commented that in the States we encourage the use of Power Point, but he didn't agree with how we use it. Power Point for us is supposed to be a visual aid, where few words are on each slide, just enough to jot a memory or add to what you're saying. My Professor highly disagreed with that usage. He said that simplistic statements on the slides leads to simplistic thinking. Wow! kinda harsh, but definetely shows the difference in German and American culture. In Germany you have to cover every possible point that could be made. When profs put up transparencies, they're usually filled with words, where as in the states they're just short and important notes. Anyways, I'll try to attach a link sometime with some of the transparencies from one of my classes so you can see what I mean.

I'm gonna close for now.... oh yeah, if you haven't heard what's going on in France, you should really look into it. There has been over a week of riots around Paris. Ok, take care all! Tschüß!

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