Class Registration

Well, I am coming back out of the cave now. I will update you on my first month in Chile by writing blogs that address specific topics like: Public Transportation, Classes, Sights, Host Family, etc. I hope you enjoy!

Class registration is very different here in Chile compared to my typical process in the United States. In the United States, the schedules for classes are usually on the university website more then four months in advance, allowing students to find which classes they want to take and plan their schedules. In Chile, the schedule is released the week before classes start and everyone frantically runs around 'testing' the classes they want to take for 1-2 weeks before officially registering with the university registrar.

I attended 7 classes: Chilean Geography, International Economic Relations, Themes of History, Republics and Communities: Democracy in Crisis, Economics of Copper, Coal, and Mining in Chile, Spanish, and History and Culture of Chile. Now, I am officially registered in Chilean Geography, International Economic Relations, Spanish, and an Independent Research Project. I am quite excited about these classes.

Chilean Geography has already been very interesting and because Chile is such a geographically rich country it has been extremely educational. This class is split into two sections, one focusing on Physical Geography: Volcanoes, Mountains, Sea, Valleys and the other section is focused on Human Geography: People, History, Culture, etc. As a class we are going to do a field excursion to Vina del Mar, a city about 2 hours away. I am really excited, I think that this field excursion will be a lot of fun!

International Economic Relations, is taught by a professor who works for the Chilean Foreign Affairs Ministry and has many contacts. For example last week's class was focused on Chilean relations with China and the Chinese Ambassador came to speak at our class. It was interesting to hear from her about what they thought was so special about China. She brought up the Olympics, the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square (for reasons not including the student protests that we all know so much about). The Olympics seemed to be her most important consideration and she probably talked about the games for more the 1/3 of her presentation. Later in the semester we have a presentation by the Brazilian Ambassador to Chile. In this class, I am going to have to work with a group of Chilean students to design a paper and presentation about the Chilean economic relations with Japan. It will be a nice chance to meet Chilean students and understand them better.

In Spanish things are much like classes in the United States because it is taught through the program I am here through Institute for Study Abroad. It has been fun and interesting because you can put into practice everything that you learn as soon as you leave the classroom. I am working really hard to pick up the language better, and I believe strongly that I am, but its an uphill battle. We had our first quiz last Monday and we turned in our first essay on Wednesday.

My Independent Study is probably the thing I am most excited for, although it will be a ton of work. The independent study is focused on the Chilean Copper Industry and its impact and connections to World History. I am trying to get this to count as my World History requirement for my International Studies Major. The Chilean Copper Industry is interesting because it really does show the connection Chile has to the rest of the world. Many of the copper mining companies were not set up by Chileans but foreigners. Later, during the Allende --- Socialist/Communist regime, the mines were nationalized and the world powers lost their 'cheap' copper. Then, as Gen. Pinochet came to power through Military Coup, he privatized all the mines again. The copper mines explain many of the major historical themes: colonization, influence of the International System, rebuke of the system, and the current rise of globalization. I hope it gets approved, but even if it doesn't this project will be extremely interesting because it combines all of my interests of Economics, History, and Public Policy. The final product of the project is a 25+ page paper, written entirely in Spanish, that discusses my hypothesis, research, and conclusion.

Another great thing about my schedule is that I only have classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This allows me more opportunities to travel, study or experience Chilean culture. Almost everyone in my group has Fridays off, so its nice to have Thursdays off so I can really focus on things I want to do alone.

As a 'gift' for getting our registration done, the IFSA program is taking all of us to a mountain resort tomorrow. I am pretty excited and I will have to write about how it goes on another blog!

Again, sorry for the time away. I was trying to acclimate to the culture, which, to be totally honest, has not totally occurred. I will try and get you updated quickly and stay updated in the future!