I know I have not posted in a while, but it is for a good reason, I promise! I have been busy starting classes. The education system over here is a whole lot different than the US. Okay... Well maybe it isn't that much different, it just seems so because I think Warren Wilson has such a different system then most US students are used to. But, to carry on; I like the set up of the classes, and I hope they become more like a seminar than a lecture as we go on. I really don't like sitting at the front and not being able to see the other student's faces when they talk.
The subject of the study is also completely radically different than at Warren Wilson. I wonder if I picked the right kind of classes to study here. But I will keep on, because I know that experiencing this, no matter how different it is than Wilson, will help me enhance and embrace different styles of teaching and learning.
I decided upon the two classes of International Economics and International Business. They sound sort of strange for me, no? Well I unintentionally assumed that they would have the set up of a Wilson class, with lots of reading and theories, but I was wrong. They are heavily steeped in what I like to call the job training sort of learning. The education system that files you in, gets you a degree, and gets you out to get a job. I personally believe this is what vocational schools are for. Now don't get me wrong. I think that vocational schools are perfect for many types of people, and help many people grow and teach them how to live, but it is not the type of schooling for me. I suppose that is why I choose Warren Wilson: because it gives me a avenue on not what to think but rather how to think. I could go on forever about this kind of education, and how it belongs in vocational schools and not higher education, but lets leave that to the side for now.
Like I said before though, I plan on pulling through, because I know experiencing this is something that I should have, and it will only help give me new perspectives on things. As for the courses. One is Economics. I have never had an economics course in my life, and the equations started rolling today. This: A. Blew my mind away, because I have not used so many algebraic expressions in a field other than math, and B. Because I was somehow understanding it all! Along with the equations, the theory is really interesting, and adds a completely new view to globalization and how the world trades and works.
My second class deals with Business. The lectures of this are less theory, more strategy. We are looking at everything business like, from entry modes, to benefits of globalization for firms, to why we buy the things we do. It is a lot more current than my Economics class, and rounds it out very nicely.
Meanwhile, while I am all up on my academic pedestal and being all hoity toity, let me show you some pictures of the oldest park in Barcelona that we went to yesterday! It included a labyrinth, which we went through, and a huge estate that had gardens, hiking trails, and all that sort of stuff.
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