Friday Night

Hey! So I have been to all of my classes. Two of them turned out to not work. I will be dropping my two Thursday courses (Scenario of East Asia; Public Policy) and replacing it with a Wednesday class (Debating Globalization). Public Policy was really a class for people who are trying to learn English, so even the professor can barely speak English. Scenario of East Asia is mostly for students from Spanish speaking countries, and I don't speak Spanish, so that is useless. Hanner would probably have been running around jumping for joy in that class though with all the Spaniards and Mexicans.

I really want to talk about my International Organizations class. It was (and will likely continue to be) one of the most interesting classes in which I have ever been. It is contains about 40 students. There is one South Korean, two Russians, a person from Singapore (is that a Singaporean?) and one first generation Chinese American. The remainder of the students are Fudan University students who can speak enough English to take a course. My professor is an Irishman. He spent the first class asking us each loaded questions (in part to check our English skills) such as: "Is America the most important country in the world?" "What is the biggest problem the Chinese have caused?" "What is the biggest problem that the Chinese have?" etc. The course is about what you would imagine- international organizations. However, it evaluates them on a philosophical level as well as a historical level (typical poli sci class). The hook is that I will see first hand the opinions of students other than myself. I will be defending (or condemning) American foreign policy in a room full of non-Americans. I am most excited because I am tired of hearing the same off-the-rack patriotic answers in American poli-sci classes. I want to hear what other people think: people brainwashed by other governments and cultures.

Tomorrow morning a group of about 30 of us are travelling to Hangzhou. Hangzhou (about a 2 hour trainride from Shanghai) is famous for its lake, natural surroundings, and large pagodas. We are staying there Saturday night in a hostel or hotel (we have yet to decide). It should be a fun excursion. I know I haven't uploaded pictures yet. For some reason the proxy sites that I use to access this site doesn't allow me to upload pictures. I WILL figure something out eventually though. I'll keep you updated.

Good luck racing this weekend W&J XC!!