I ALMOST FORGOT I CAME HERE TO GO TO SCHOOL

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In the midst of all the chaos and stress I mentioned earlier, I seem to have forgotten a few things back at home that I will most definitely need while I am here. Of these, the most important is probably the cord that connects my camera to my computer that will allow me to transfer pictures and share them with everyone. I also forgot sheets and towels, essential, as well as a few other random things that I will need such as my gym shoes. I will hopefully be able to add some videos and pictures to this blog by the end of next week!

I have spent the last few days continuing to settle in, among other things. Classes started Thursday and continued on Friday. Normally there are no Friday classes but things were a little different this week so we could experience each of our classes once before the weekend. I am taking five classes during my semester here, but most students only have to take four. This is required by DePaul in order to maintain 'full-time student' status and also to reconcile the credit differences between the semester I am taking here and the two quarters I am missing there. I am used to taking five classes a quarter though and have been for the last year.

While in Greece I am taking

Modern Greek I

(M-TH),

The Middle East In World Affairs

(M/W),

The Natural Environment of Greece

(M/W),

Aegean & Ancient Greek Art & Archaeology

(T/TH), and

Rediscovering Roman Greece

(T/TH). Classes are interesting and a totally different experience than anything else I’ve ever done in my academic career. The thing I did not expect is how much the professors expected us to know from day one. I guess being from Greece (or at least here for large chunks of their lives in a few cases) and growing up learning their history, environment, laws and customs, as we all do in America, the professors assume that there is this knowledge base that all students have which they are to then build off of. If we were Greek students this would probably be the case. But the problem for everyone here that is not a Classics major (I had no idea what that was two weeks ago) is that this base does not exist and they have nothing to build upon. Imagine a Greek college student with very little to no experience with American society or culture and history coming to America and taking classes that pre-dispose he has a pretty solid grasp on American history before the 20th century. It is unrealistic to assume this, especially since there were no pre-requisites for any of the classes here. This means we have a lot of catching up and independent study to do. Not to mention the fact that Greece has about 10,000 years more human history than we do in America. That being said it will be a nice challenge and change of pace, mostly because I can't BS my way though everything. We'll see how it goes. Nevertheless I think I will enjoy most of my classes, especially the Middle Eastern Politics. I think I will actually try in Greek as well, which will be a nice change of pace from my high school foreign language classes.

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