Un Día Largo

So I woke up on the early side so that I would have time to get more reading done. I was quite tired. I read some and then headed to the Graduate class. I got there early and the door was locked. The Brazilian student got a janitor to open it. Class was really interesting, though it became quite obvious that I need to pay more attention to the news, since we discussed it a fair amount. We also talked about the article we had read for class, as well as quite a few paintings that we were shown on a projector (by Tamayo: muralist who separated from the others muralists because of the ideology - a lot of the paintings we saw used watermelons, and there was a lot to say about them, and we saw murals by Diego Rivera). I came with stuff I was interested in talking about, but I didn't really feel like there was an easy space to say it. I need to get more comfortable just speaking up, as I had a similar problem in class yesterday. Most everyone else talked, and there were probably no more than 10 students. I just don't want to interrupt people or say something that seems out of the blue. Hopefully next time I'll have the courage. It's hard when I only have class once a week, to make friends in classes and get comfortable there. I guess it could be useful that there's so many other exchange students there that no one is using perfect grammar...but the can all express themselves much better than me.

We were told to go to several places in the city for homework, and part of our grade is dependent on these outside activities. It sounds like a trip will be organized through email. I hung out with other students while we were waiting to get copies, and then I headed to my next class. Some of the graduate students were planning to get lunch together, but I had class in 45 minutes and still had a bit of reading to do.

I sat on the stairs outside of my next class reading. I also ate the leftover pizza I had brought as well as some mango. The class before mine got out, so I went in and sat down. Another student came in, who was presenting on the book we were supposed to read, and asked if I had understood it. We both agreed it was a bit confusing. I asked him if he knew where the CELA was (the prof for "Latin America Today" told me i could be in the class, and to pick up the readings in the CELA), and he wasn't sure. Then I read until class started. The presentations were alright, if not a bit long. But it helped me understand the book more. And then the professor asked everyone to share something that stood out to them about the book. She asked each person individually, so I had a chance to speak! The person right before me addressed Wallerstein's discussion of objectivity and relativism, which was one of the things I wanted to talk about, so I talked about Wallerstein's discussion of language.

I feel like that professor does a really good job of giving everyone a space to speak, or maybe it's partially because I feel more comfortable speaking in that class. I managed to say something, even though it didn't really make sense, when she was asking people to shout out ideas. And then she later asked if anyone knew anything about Polyamory, so I got to explain it. I feel like I talked so much in that class! During the break, a student asked me where I was from and such, and said I was brave for going somewhere so far away from my family and friends. Her name is Miriam, I think. After class, as I was walking out, another student started talking to me, whose name is Diego. He said he's taking 7 classes, and has class an average of 5 hours a day, and that that is pretty typical. Wow! I don't know how anyone could manage that. I had six hours today, but only 3 hours yesterday, and I'll have 2 on Thursday, and that's it for the week.

The garden that there's been protests about in front of the central library has been changing a lot in the past few days. First of all, more info about what the students have been upset about:

The garden in front of the library was replaced over the break with a sharp rock garden. This means that it no longer could be a place where students could gather or hang out. And to make things a little more nature-y, huge potted plants were placed throughout the Philosophy and Letters complex. Which means even less space for gathering and hanging out. Which means the public space is rapidly disappearing at the public university. And I've noticed the quad space of this discipline is gated and locked off. I have no idea why, especially since i see people cleaning that area every day. But one of the big things is that the school decided to spend a lot of money on this rather than things that directly affect the students of that discipline, like books. People were handing out fliers daily and there were lots of meeting and banners. And the first day I saw a cool direct action protest.

So yesterday I noticed that the rocks were covered up with dirt. I had no idea if this was something the students had done or if this was something the admin did to make the students happy/stop protesting. And then today there were trees in the garden area. And not just saplings, these are HUGE trees. Hopefully I can take a picture or two tomorrow, but who knows what it will look like by then. I'm guessing that the school is gving into the students' demands, but there's a meeting on Thursday at 4pm that I might go to to learn more.

After school I rushed home as it was sprinkling, and then headed to my counseling appointment. Then I stopped by the Mega on the way home, to get something to make for tomorrow with my tofu. Then I relaxed at home, since 6 hours of class is a lot. I should have done some reading tonight, but I'm exhausted, and doing laundry (you may not think those are mutually exclusive...well....maybe they aren't...).

Tomorrow, although i don't have class, I need to head to campus to find the copies for class, and then maybe head to Casa de California to figure out what paperwork I need to do to enroll in these classes. Hopefully it's not a problem that I'm not taking anything from the majors I applied to. I emailed Vero to ask, but she hasn't responded.

Wellm tomorrow I'll be making a stir fry with spinach, carrot, green pepper, mushrooms, rice, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Yum! And now I just have to wait for my laundry to get done, so I can hang it up in the cage upstairs, and I need to wash dishes. Then I can sleep before my day of reading tomorrow. I read the book for social theory really quickly, so maybe I can do that again. Where yeah, I don't catch EVERYTHING but i get the jist and still have stuff to say.