Well, Winter Term is over halfway done already! It’s crazy how fast time goes when you’re so busy!
My classes have been going pretty well. Right now I’m in Adolescent Psychology, International Law, Novellen (which is a German class), and and independent study with one of my psychology professors.
My favorite class is probably my International Law class. Even though I’m a Psychology and German major, I’ve taken enough Government classes to possibly do a minor in it! I think Government (especially the international side) is really interesting and important to learn about because it affects everyone’s lives. This class is different because it’s about International Law, which is a complicated notion in and of itself! I really like my professor, who I also had for Intro to International Relations, and even though the material can sometimes be difficult to understand, he makes it really interesting and relatable! We have a final “legal analysis” paper for this class, and I’m writing about the conflict in Cyprus. For once, I’m actually really excited about writing a final paper! It has to be 10 pages and I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting to that minimum!
Adolescent Psychology is going well also. Right now we’re talking about schools and parent-adolescent relationships. There are only 7 of us in this class and it’s very discussion based, which is good! I like this sort of format because it’s really easy for all of us to chime in when we want to and really bring good points to the discussion. We have a final project (a Literature review) for this class, which I’m doing with one of my friends who is also in the class. Our topic is Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Bullying. We’re going to be looking in to why adolescents with Autism spectrum disorders are bullied and how the bullying affects them. I’ve always been really interested in Autism and I think I might want to work with children that have Autism, so this topic is really interesting and important to me.
Go Germany! (This was at the Olympics Opening Ceremony, there was a party in the campus center with TV screens set up)
Novellen is my German class this term. Novellen are basically short novels (I think we’ll have read 5 by the end of this term). This class is reading intensive as well as discussion based, so it is a bit of work – but the texts are usually relatively short and not too difficult to read. After coming back from a term abroad in Germany I thought I wouldn’t have as much problem with the German language – but I was wrong! I think it’s mostly because these books are early 19th century in most cases, so a lot of the workding is very old-fashioned! During discussions and conversations my German is pretty good! 🙂
My independent study doesn’t count as a full class this term, which is good because I wouldn’t have time for it! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but last summer I lived on campus and I did Psychology Research with one of my professors (actually, the same one I’m doing the independent study with now). With some of the results from that research, I applied to present a poster at a Psychology conference in March, and I got in! So my independent study this term is mainly finishing up some of the data from the study we did this summer, as well as working on my poster for this conference in March! I’m really excited for the conference but I’m also nervous since I need to make a good impression!
Two of my friends and me (red sweatshirt) at my roommate’s Junior Recital!