All About My Classes

So, it’s been a very long time since I uploaded my first blog post. Safe to say I’ve been a lot busier than I expected! There’s way too much to catch up on to fit into one post, so I’m going to split it into separate themes and events. 

Today I want to begin by telling you about my classes here, as they’re something I get asked about a lot. People always wonder what type of things I do in American Studies, and I feel that my classes here in the US do a good job of showing the wide range of topics and disciplines American Studies covers. 

Young Adult Literature

This was the class I was most excited to take, as I read a lot of YA lit as a teenager, and it fulfilled my expectations as it is probably my favourite class here! We read a different YA novel every week and basically just spend our two classes per week discussing it. It’s kind of like being part of a book club, and my teacher is so enthusiastic and passionate about both the subject and her students so I learn a lot as well. This class has really made me more disciplined with my reading as well. If you’ve known me for a while, you’ll know that I used to read A LOT (like 60 books in a year) but that has decreased massively since I started university. Since I have to read a novel a week for this class, I’m reading so many books, and they’re all really intriguing and enjoyable as they’re the type of thing I’d pick up for pleasure anyway.

Native American Religion

This is my other favourite class, although I wasn’t expecting it to be! I find this topic so fascinating, and although it’s absolutely tragic to learn about all that native Americans have gone through in the last 300 years, it’s beautiful to see how their religion and culture continues to live on today. Every couple of weeks we look at a different native tribe, reading about and discussing their ceremonies and beliefs. We also talk a lot about current events - for one assignment we had to write a native news journal, where we found 5 news articles relating to Native American issues this year and wrote a response to them. I had no idea that these issues were still so prominent today so it’s really opened my eyes. Again, my teacher is super passionate about the topic, to the point where it’s difficult not to feel the same way in his class! For my next assignment I’m going to attend a Native American Powwow at Columbia University - can’t wait!

Troy and the Trojan War

This class isn’t specifically related to American Studies, I just chose it for fun as I’m really interested in Ancient Greece (I considered doing Classics at university!) - however it hasn’t ended up being very fun. This class isn’t what I thought it would be, as the description said we would be studying the historical reality behind the Trojan War using literature, archaeology, etc. but instead we’re just reading the classic literature and looking at how it influences culture today. This could still be interesting, but I find the teacher quite boring, and he oversimplifies things to the point where I don’t feel like I’m learning anything. This one is at 8:30am so it’s quite an effort to drag myself out of bed for it; I usually roll out of bed 15 minutes before I have to leave, sit through class like a zombie and then get my breakfast afterwards. There’s lots of doodling going on as well!

American Revolution and the Early Republic

This is another class that isn’t quite as interesting as I hoped, but I still like it. I picked it because I love Hamilton the musical, which is set during the Revolution and early republic, so I wanted to learn more. It’s a pretty standard history class where the teacher lectures for 2 hours, so it can drag but he manages to mostly keep me engaged. This is definitely my hardest class as well since it’s a 400 level class, meaning it’s meant for third and fourth years. Not too much to say about this one as it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a history class about the American Revolution!

The History of Broadway

And finally, my most exciting sounding class, the History of Broadway. To be honest, this class isn’t quite as exciting as it sounds, but I still enjoy it! It’s a music class so it often centres around technical musical elements of broadway rather than cultural history, but being a piano player I do enjoy this. I find the teacher a bit boring, and again the classes can drag, but I feel like I’m really learning to understand the evolution of Broadway and learning to appreciate the work that goes into it much more! For my final project we get to choose a book or a movie that we would adapt into a broadway musical, and choose who we would hire as director, composer, lyricist, set designer, etc. I’ve chosen to do a Studio Ghibli movie, so I’m really looking forward to getting into that, it sounds like a lot of fun. 

Overall, my classes are definitely not all what I expected but I’m pleased with my choices - the only one I would change is Troy and the Trojan War. The education system is actually a lot different here than the UK. University here feels a lot more like school, with class attendance being graded, homework given out regularly and generally having your hand held throughout. For the most part I find the assignments much easier, to the point where I’ve been getting close to full marks in nearly every assignment and exam I’ve done. However I have really been struggling with the workload. All 5 of my classes require a lot of reading which I just can’t keep up with; I’m lucky if I manage to do the readings for 2 classes per week. Also, as there are more smaller assignments than we get in England, it feels as though I always have something I need to be working on. It is generally going well, but I definitely feel a lot more busy with work here than I do at home, which is just exacerbated by the fact that I’m trying to get out and do things since I’m here for such a short time! Another difference that I’ve found is that it’s possible to get full marks, compared to the UK where you never really hear of anyone getting above 80%. Back at home I didn’t understand that, I thought what’s the point in having it go up to 100% if it’s completely unattainable? But now I get it! I kind of hate getting 100% in assignments here, because all I get is an A+ with a comment saying ‘great work’, when I know that I’m not a perfect writer and there must be something I could do better. I feel that in the UK I understand that there’s always improvements to be made, I can always do better, whereas here I don’t really have any higher goal to strive towards. 

And another little funny thing I noticed here - in a lot of classrooms they have those little single person chairs with the tables attached like you see in the movies! Unfortunately they are very uncomfortable!

I hope it was interesting for you to read about the classes I’m doing here, and the differences between university here and in the UK. Just ask if you’re still curious about anything! I will try my hardest to write a few more blog posts ASAP to update you on what I’ve been up to the last 2 months, there’s a lot to cover!