Cultural Experience

Today I had mineralogy, which was my first university class with students who weren't freshmen (Cursos Internacionales suggests that we take freshmen or sophomore level classes because the majors are much more specialized than in the US). I got to class on time, and like a typical Spanish class, class started 10 minutes late (most classes start between 10 and 20 minutes late). However, when the professor got there and started class, I was the only student there, and by the end of class, there were only 3 of us. Also, my professor wasn't really prepared for class, so class was done at 9:30 (It was scheduled to last from 9-11). Since class started 10 minutes late, we only had a 20-minute-long class!

During the 20 minutes that we had class, the professor talked about the textbook, which is the same as the green one that was always in the mineralogy lab, except translated into Spanish, and the structure of the class. This class has 2 finals, a theory one and a practical one. For the practical final, we have to identify a bunch of minerals in hand-samples and in thin section, but we get to use our notes and any pictures we draw (good thing I've had lots of practice drawing minerals under the microscope). The mineralogy department also got new microscopes this summer, and I'm very excited to get to use them.

If the first class is any sort of indication as to what it will be like in the future, I am going to have a very small class, but it will be very different from anything that I will have at LU.