We had our first week of classes and although there were some bumps in the road it went pretty well overall. It was definitely weird to be back in a classroom after 3 months away from school, so it’ll take some adjusting to get back into the routine of class and homework while taking advantage of all that Santiago and Chile have to offer.
Most of my classes will be taken through my student abroad program (IES Abroad), and I’ll be taking one class at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.
There were some difficulties in registering for my university class that definitely put a damper on the middle of the week. I spoke with the geography professor after class about being an international student and she said that it would be fine for me to register. When I went to register with the department the next day, I was told I couldn’t register because there weren’t physically enough seats in the class and other Chilean students wanted to take the class. I was definitely frustrated after sitting in the three-hour class, speaking with the professor and taking tons of notes (not to mention the fact that many of the first-year Chilean students were very rude and blatantly not paying attention to the professor). Thankfully I went back the day after and they were able to change the room for the class so that the other students and I could take it. I’m hoping it won’t be too overwhelming – it’ll definitely be a good challenge to be in a class of all Chilean students!
Most of my classes will be taken through my student abroad program (IES Abroad), and I’ll be taking one class at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.
- Spanish Language in Context – Independent Abroad: a conversation and writing class through IES where we review vocabulary and grammar while trying to improve our speaking and listening skills
- Spanish for Healthcare Professionals: an IES class for learning primarily vocabulary from the healthcare field to supplement our clinical observations
- Radical Tradition of Chile, Argentina and Peru: a history class through IES about the past few centuries in those three countries
- Clinical Observation: a class in conjunction with Universidad Catolica that allows us to directly observe clinicians in the field – both at private hospitals and public clinics. I’m really excited to get to see medicine practiced in Chile first-hand!
- Geography of Chile: a class at Universidad Catolica with only Chilean students (it wasn’t listed in the book of classes for international students, so I’ll be the only international student in the class…) It’s an overview of the physical geography of Chile (which couldn’t be more diverse) plus a look at the population and economy
There were some difficulties in registering for my university class that definitely put a damper on the middle of the week. I spoke with the geography professor after class about being an international student and she said that it would be fine for me to register. When I went to register with the department the next day, I was told I couldn’t register because there weren’t physically enough seats in the class and other Chilean students wanted to take the class. I was definitely frustrated after sitting in the three-hour class, speaking with the professor and taking tons of notes (not to mention the fact that many of the first-year Chilean students were very rude and blatantly not paying attention to the professor). Thankfully I went back the day after and they were able to change the room for the class so that the other students and I could take it. I’m hoping it won’t be too overwhelming – it’ll definitely be a good challenge to be in a class of all Chilean students!