new classes

And thus concludes my first week of classes of my second trimester at the University. There are thirteen required courses and three trimesters, so everyone has to take five courses during one of the trimesters. Most people are taking five this trimester, but I decided to wait until the last trimester to do so- so far, this seems like a good decision because I've been a bit sick and four has been more than enough to keep me occupied.

My classes so far are interesting. I'm taking:

Latin America in the Global Economy
Theories of Development
Geopolitics
Latin American Thought

I really like my Theories of Dev't class, and my Geopolitics class is taught by a former Presidential candidate, which is pretty cool. The Lat Am Thought class seems a bit abstract for me- very conceptual, very philosophical. A friend mentioned that she struggled with the class as well, and could only imagine how difficult it must be for someone who doesn't speak the language natively. And it was- I could have sworn that the professor was making up words, and I took notes that, when I looked back on them later, made no sense and were just a jumble of phrases like "imagined/constructed reality" "words/thoughts/texts national progressivization-????". I think that class will definitely be a challenge for me, and hopefully I can keep up.

Mostly I have the same classmates, mostly from the Latin American Studies major (mine) or the International Relations major (my "minor" or concentration), although the Lat Am Thought class has some from the Constitutional Law major, so those are new classmates. Because all of my classes this trimester are required for the major or for the concentration, I have a lot of the same classmates in all of my classes, because they're required for anyone on the same "track" as I am.

The good news is that Alvaro's mom and little sister Maia are coming to visit on Friday, breaking up my weekend routine of catching up on reading and (so far) finishing up essays due on Monday. It'll be nice to show them around Quito, and Alvaro and I have the tourist route/plan a bit more polished since we practiced with my family! It'll be fun to show them Quito's charms, and will definitely include a trip to the Parque la Carolina- my Quito must-see.

Hopefully everyone home isn't congealing- I read somewhere that Florida is the only state in the continental US that doesn't have snow somewhere? This seems unlikely, but maybe? Stay warm!