I have to admit, the idea of studying for a semester in another country sounds a bit like taking a semester off -- going to class a bit, traveling a lot, hanging out all the time. And once I heard there were only eight students in AHA Macerata Spring 2012, I was a little concerned about what the classes I was supposed to be taking would be like, since I knew I was supposed they were supposed to be in English, but I didn't know if the classes would be through the Universitá dell'Macerata or if it would be all eight of us in a room. All I knew for sure was that I'm supposed to get 3 credit hours at DePauw for my work here this semester, and one of the credits will count towards my Classical Archaeology minor; DePauw has a system where one class equals one credit, and you need 31 to graduate, rather than an hour based credit system. Now that the first week of classes has gone by, I feel a lot better. The classes aren't through the University, but rather are taught by AHA professors. And the classes are small (there are two people in my Italian class), but they are in English and so far the workload is not overmuch, so I'm feeling pretty good about the situation.
My schedule:
Italian 2 (the only class which is six hours a week). This class has only two students and is practically like having a private tutor, so my Italian should be pretty close to flawless in a few months. Then again, the three hour long classes on Monday morning might kill me first.
Art and Architecture. This class, which has a much longer real name, is taught by our site director, Filiberto, and is covering the art and architecture of the medieval period of this region of Italy. Lots of the places we'll go to on our excursions will be real life examples of things we'll talk about in class! This is one of the reasons I wanted to go to Italy, I wanted to be able to see all the beautiful art and historical places I've studied and admired for so long.
Italian Cinema. At this moment, I don't remember the actual names of any of these classes (whoops), and it's actually something else much longer. Whatever it's called, I'm very excited for it. It's not something I would normally take at DePauw (hello, long hours watching movies at times I'd rather be doing something else), but here, the class only meets twice a week - the first class we watch the film, the next class we discuss it. On the first day, I just sat in so I could decide whether or not to switch into it and we watched Moonstruck (a 1987 film with Cher and Nicolas Cage, so so cheesy and so so good) and I realized I needed to be in the class. Originally, I was signed up for a Modern Italy class - a history class- but studying abroad is all about stretching, right? And next week, our Tandem Language Partner Program will start, which means I'll be paired with an Italian to practice speaking the language and we're supposed to talk about our own cultures, so I figured I'll be getting lots of Modern Italy between living it, partnering with it, and eating it. Plus, if SOPA doesn't pass, I'll still have Wikipedia to search anything I could ever want! At it's most basic, the reason I chose to switch the classes (rather than just taking both, which was an option), is that I want to have time to experience Italy. While Modern Italy would be interesting, I don't want to spend all of my time in the classroom. There's enough time for classroom learning at home, and to be honest, that's what I excel in. But I want to take this very short next few months to do real-life learning! Which, it just so happens, is the entire point of the next (and my favorite) class.
Cross-Cultural Communications. Taught by Filiberto's wife, Angelica, only meets once a week. In our first meeting, we were taught how to make pasta like a real Italian! Which is good, because I've already lost weight because of my inability to cook. Additionally, I've signed up to take a cooking class every other week. Yummmmmm. I don't this class will be all about cooking, but I'm not sure what else we'll be talking about. Still, I'm hoping there will be lots of cooking tips, last night the apartment made Gorgonzola Sauce for our pasta (recipe from class), and I reallllllllllly liked it.
But to answer the question I posed in the post title -- yes, there are classes here. And so far they are really fun and not terribly hard. But today I heard that an old high school classmate of mine passed away, and so while I want to learn in the classroom, I also want to make sure I'm living out in the world too. Enjoy every minute - it's precious!
My schedule:
Italian 2 (the only class which is six hours a week). This class has only two students and is practically like having a private tutor, so my Italian should be pretty close to flawless in a few months. Then again, the three hour long classes on Monday morning might kill me first.
Art and Architecture. This class, which has a much longer real name, is taught by our site director, Filiberto, and is covering the art and architecture of the medieval period of this region of Italy. Lots of the places we'll go to on our excursions will be real life examples of things we'll talk about in class! This is one of the reasons I wanted to go to Italy, I wanted to be able to see all the beautiful art and historical places I've studied and admired for so long.
Italian Cinema. At this moment, I don't remember the actual names of any of these classes (whoops), and it's actually something else much longer. Whatever it's called, I'm very excited for it. It's not something I would normally take at DePauw (hello, long hours watching movies at times I'd rather be doing something else), but here, the class only meets twice a week - the first class we watch the film, the next class we discuss it. On the first day, I just sat in so I could decide whether or not to switch into it and we watched Moonstruck (a 1987 film with Cher and Nicolas Cage, so so cheesy and so so good) and I realized I needed to be in the class. Originally, I was signed up for a Modern Italy class - a history class- but studying abroad is all about stretching, right? And next week, our Tandem Language Partner Program will start, which means I'll be paired with an Italian to practice speaking the language and we're supposed to talk about our own cultures, so I figured I'll be getting lots of Modern Italy between living it, partnering with it, and eating it. Plus, if SOPA doesn't pass, I'll still have Wikipedia to search anything I could ever want! At it's most basic, the reason I chose to switch the classes (rather than just taking both, which was an option), is that I want to have time to experience Italy. While Modern Italy would be interesting, I don't want to spend all of my time in the classroom. There's enough time for classroom learning at home, and to be honest, that's what I excel in. But I want to take this very short next few months to do real-life learning! Which, it just so happens, is the entire point of the next (and my favorite) class.
Cross-Cultural Communications. Taught by Filiberto's wife, Angelica, only meets once a week. In our first meeting, we were taught how to make pasta like a real Italian! Which is good, because I've already lost weight because of my inability to cook. Additionally, I've signed up to take a cooking class every other week. Yummmmmm. I don't this class will be all about cooking, but I'm not sure what else we'll be talking about. Still, I'm hoping there will be lots of cooking tips, last night the apartment made Gorgonzola Sauce for our pasta (recipe from class), and I reallllllllllly liked it.
But to answer the question I posed in the post title -- yes, there are classes here. And so far they are really fun and not terribly hard. But today I heard that an old high school classmate of mine passed away, and so while I want to learn in the classroom, I also want to make sure I'm living out in the world too. Enjoy every minute - it's precious!
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