Tomorrow I finish my first week of classes, so I felt that it was time for another blog post. I am taking three classes right now: Contemporary and Historical Social Change in Bolivia, Research Methods and Ethics, and Spanish. In the middle of the semester Social Change is going to end and we'll start a different class so technically by the end of the semester I will have completed four classes as well as an Independent Study Project.
My Social change class is basically a series of guest lecturers. We have only had a brief introduction to that class and tomorrow is our first guest lecture. It is going to be about the miners of Potosi and the workers movements of Bolivia so I am sure it will be interesting.
Research Methods and Ethics, or RME, is a really interesting class as well. It is designed to help us prep for our Independent Study Project and this semester they changed it so it is more hands on. It meets once a week and we are in groups of three with an advisor. We had to pick a topic (which we can change whenever we want) and do exercises, like set up an interview with somebody, go to a meeting or an event, use the research library etc etc. It seems like it is going to be a pretty cool class. I like my advisor and my group. There are so many different possible topics and I am having so much trouble deciding on one. I am sure my interests will shift but as of now I am thinking of combing my interest in women and education and doing a project about domestic workers and the night school in Cochabamba where people who have to work during they day take classes. We shall see, I learn about new interesting topics every day.
My spanish class meets three times a week from 3:00-6:30. It is a lot of hours of class but since we start our ISP (Independent Study Project) in April we only really have spanish for two months. Anyway, I am in a group of six and our class is a combination of grammar, discussion, and excursions. It is cool to leave the classroom, go out into the city, and really use my spanish.
Today during spanish my whole group went to "El Sindicato de Trabajadoras del Hogar de Cochabamba," aka the domestic worker's union. A few of the members were there and they explained a little about the organization as well as their own personal experience. Despite Boliva recently passing a law that protects Domestic Workers, there is still a lot of abuse and unfair treatment. Only about 5% of the domestic workers in Cochabamba are part of the union and many workers do no know their rights. It was a very interesting trip and I could definitely see myself continuing to research their lives and possibly choosing this as the topic for my ISP.
I forgot! We also have optional video classes once a week for students who want to make a documentary for their ISP. There are around 10 of us I think and the class was at our teacher, Ismael's, house. His house is huge and amazing. It has a glass room in the courtyard that I think is for thai chi or something and it is decorated with dragons, prayer flags, and so many plants. We had our class in his meditation room. He seems like a cool guy, when I met him before I was super intimidated, but he was really nice and enthusiastic on Wednesday when we had our first camera class. We talked all about combining research and art and how making a video makes your research so much more accessible to everybody. He told us we should be filming everywhere we go and to make a 15-20 minute video we should be taking more than 20 hours of footage. I started filming stuff today and although I don't understand my camera yet it is going okay. It feels a little awkward still to film people, but I am excited.
Also it is summer right now in Bolivia and that means lots of rain. They are actually having a lot of problems with flooding which is terrible, but the flowers are beautiful right now as you can see from the picture. It is hard to believe we are finishing up our first week of classes. In a way it feels like I just got here yesterday and in a way if feels like I've been here for so long.
PS I finally figured out that my host dad is an architect. His oldest son who lives in Germany is also an architect.
My Social change class is basically a series of guest lecturers. We have only had a brief introduction to that class and tomorrow is our first guest lecture. It is going to be about the miners of Potosi and the workers movements of Bolivia so I am sure it will be interesting.
Research Methods and Ethics, or RME, is a really interesting class as well. It is designed to help us prep for our Independent Study Project and this semester they changed it so it is more hands on. It meets once a week and we are in groups of three with an advisor. We had to pick a topic (which we can change whenever we want) and do exercises, like set up an interview with somebody, go to a meeting or an event, use the research library etc etc. It seems like it is going to be a pretty cool class. I like my advisor and my group. There are so many different possible topics and I am having so much trouble deciding on one. I am sure my interests will shift but as of now I am thinking of combing my interest in women and education and doing a project about domestic workers and the night school in Cochabamba where people who have to work during they day take classes. We shall see, I learn about new interesting topics every day.
My spanish class meets three times a week from 3:00-6:30. It is a lot of hours of class but since we start our ISP (Independent Study Project) in April we only really have spanish for two months. Anyway, I am in a group of six and our class is a combination of grammar, discussion, and excursions. It is cool to leave the classroom, go out into the city, and really use my spanish.
Today during spanish my whole group went to "El Sindicato de Trabajadoras del Hogar de Cochabamba," aka the domestic worker's union. A few of the members were there and they explained a little about the organization as well as their own personal experience. Despite Boliva recently passing a law that protects Domestic Workers, there is still a lot of abuse and unfair treatment. Only about 5% of the domestic workers in Cochabamba are part of the union and many workers do no know their rights. It was a very interesting trip and I could definitely see myself continuing to research their lives and possibly choosing this as the topic for my ISP.I forgot! We also have optional video classes once a week for students who want to make a documentary for their ISP. There are around 10 of us I think and the class was at our teacher, Ismael's, house. His house is huge and amazing. It has a glass room in the courtyard that I think is for thai chi or something and it is decorated with dragons, prayer flags, and so many plants. We had our class in his meditation room. He seems like a cool guy, when I met him before I was super intimidated, but he was really nice and enthusiastic on Wednesday when we had our first camera class. We talked all about combining research and art and how making a video makes your research so much more accessible to everybody. He told us we should be filming everywhere we go and to make a 15-20 minute video we should be taking more than 20 hours of footage. I started filming stuff today and although I don't understand my camera yet it is going okay. It feels a little awkward still to film people, but I am excited.
Also it is summer right now in Bolivia and that means lots of rain. They are actually having a lot of problems with flooding which is terrible, but the flowers are beautiful right now as you can see from the picture. It is hard to believe we are finishing up our first week of classes. In a way it feels like I just got here yesterday and in a way if feels like I've been here for so long.
PS I finally figured out that my host dad is an architect. His oldest son who lives in Germany is also an architect.
I am loving this blog Anna! Thanks for the updates. Your classes sound interesting and intense. I am obviously impressed.
ReplyDelete