Classes

Yes, I am taking classes on my voyage around the world. Not a full 15 credit load, but 12 credits that directly transfer to UVA. Twenty percent of the class time is allocated to field work, which can be accomplished by faculty directed practica (FDP's). For example, I will be visiting a dam in Ghana as part of my Water for the World class.

 

Since I used that as an example, I'll talk about my Water for the World class first. Professor Sprau (rhymes with WOW), a retired public health professor from East Carolina University, teaches the class. Only seven people signed up, which will make it my smallest college class I've taken BY FAR. Today when I was in class the waves rocked the ship particularly forcefully and toppled several chairs, including one with a life-long learner (an older individual who takes classes aboard the ship along with us). After helping Bob up from the floor, we continued on our way.

 

My Global Environmental History Class should be fun, the professor (Dr. Hill, from Utah) admitted that this was his favorite class to teach. Today we went over why Environmental History was important - mainly, because it kept records that even the best historians could not uncover. He stressed that you can learn a lot about a culture from how they interact with their environment.

 

My Comparative Environmental Politics in Global Perspective, which I took yesterday, was also interesting. She laid out three globalization stages - first with Colombus, then with industrialization, and lastly with the internet. All of my classes, and this one in particular, will probably reinforce what I learn in my global studies class, with some exceptions of course. In Global Studies we will have to take a picture that "captures the essence" of the country we are visiting. He showed us several examples, including Muslims praying in Egypt, mom's with double strollers in Norway, and graffiti in Canada that read "I <3 MY GRANDMA." He said this one was appropriate because even their graffiti was nice!

 

That about sums up my classes. It should be a lot more reading than I am used to, since I have not taken a history or politics class so far, but everything is stuff that I am SUPER interested in, so it will be great.

 

On an unrelated note, it is quite difficult to type on a rocking ship. The end.