Yesterday was our last day of classes. We spent most of the classes reviewing for the final, going over what will be on it, what the format will be. We also had to fill out some surveys through the intranet, rating our classes. Nothing out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, today we have our final in Global Studies.
I guess now would be a good time to look upon some of these courses, and share how I feel about them.
Elementary French, taught by Emilie Roman, was a bit of a debacle. It was a lot of material that a lot of the students didn't expect, it's a three-credit course that got bumped up to four. Our teacher's handwriting was atrocious, she and I probably have the two worst handwritings on the ship. Sometimes other students didn't find what was expected very clear. It was a headache.
But on the personal level, I felt this class served to be the most useful in interactions in Morocco. As little as we knew, it did help us convey what we wanted to say to Abdul on the train to Marrakech. I used it at every restaurant and McDonald's. Sure, everyone else I travelled with wanted to use Arabic phrases, but I'm proud of what French I have, and while it may not have helped the group very well (I was never good at asking about navigation in foreign languages, even in English...), I got my food quick and easy without asking questions.
Now, I'm incredibly biased about Professor Charles Morris's Psychology of Learning and Memory class. Outside of class, I really like Professor Morris as a person. We once had an in-depth conversation about both Maryland and Ohio State sports, how Williams jumped ship from Ohio State to coach at his alma mater, how Jim Tressell stepped down this past year based on all these allegations. In addition, he uses baseball and football metaphors every day in class, and often I get my chance to shine with my ability to relate to them. And overall, he's just a very nice old fellow. It's honestly not that hard for you to become my favorite professor, you just got to hit the right spots.
Perhaps it's not the class that I'm doing the best in, but for my academics back home, it's not only useful on the transcript, but I feel like it will be useful in helping me memorize my material (except the classes that require the most memorizing are behind me now, or what I will never take. Orgo, hahaha...) The memory techniques discussed in class could be so useful if applied. I'm sad that I wasn't able to take a class like this my first semester in college. (Or rather, maybe my first semester in high school... or middle school...) This class felt that good. I walk away with a better sense of how to commit things to memory, how to try to prevent Alzheimer's, and how texting while driving is probably the stupidest thing I've ever done and will never do again.
Global Studies, is one that I think everyone is supposed to hate on every Semester At Sea voyage. A lot of people complain about how the teacher is kind of vague about what exactly will be on the exam, how he'll just put up a slide and ramble on and on about it. It's not clear-cut by any means.
Maybe I'm cocky. Maybe I'm arrogant. But maybe I was built for this kind of class, that throws concepts at you, disguised behind vocabulary terms and facts, but really makes you think about what you're doing, where you're going, how things are related to each other. After all, I passed, no, succeeded in, no, dominated a relatively rigorous Ethnomusicology class back home without even opening a book. I think I could make a damn good History or Cultural Studies major if I so chose. So I hold no ill will against Lawrence Butler, because this is my theme park. ... Why do I do computer science?
I do not regret taking any of these classes. My only regret is... maybe not taking Poetry or Theatre or something like that. Theatre class looked so fun from the outside, and after living across the hall from Alex Miletich and Bobby Hunter for two years, I can't help but be curious how well I would do in that course. But that would have made the workload very strenuous to have added that fourth class. (Also it would kick me to thirteen credits. In a two month period, I know better.)
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