What classes are like con't.

Sorry that I haven’t really mentioned what my classes are about. We just started so there hasn’t been too much to say really. In my British Lit. class we are supposed to read the Prologue to the Miller’s Tale, and the Miller’s Tale. We will also be reading King Lear, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, and Doctor Faustus. I have already read The Miller’s Tale in high school, but still read it again to know it better. I know what King Lear is also about because we went to see the show in Chicago for my theater class. It was played in the standard Shakespearean form. I haven’t read the other two stories, but our teacher Steven told us to probably start the Great Expectations book. He said that that story is probably the hardest to understand. We’ll write essays on the books and discuss them in class I believe.
Erin and I are sharing the Canterbury Tales book. The books at the school are actually a lot more expensive than the books sold in book stores around here. Also, my host family probably have all of the books that I will need for my British Lit. class so I can ask them to borrow the books. But if they don’t, there’s Waterstone’s book store, or other book stores as well.
I have already told a bit about my Modern British class. Other discussions that we will have in classes to come are Churchill and the WWII, the Monarchy, the Prime Minister, Lords and Commons, Culture Wars, the Special Relationship (I’m assuming between British and Americans, the type of bond because we speak relatively the same language), Britain & Europe, Northern Ireland, the Disunited Kingdom, Political parties, and finally the exam. So lot’s of interesting topics to talk about and it should be interesting and fun I hope. My teacher will also assign things on Black Board for us to read to discuss in class.
The American Cinema class will be covering film in the 1980’s, the New Hollywood, and how family is portrayed during that decade. Different types of family’s and such. We will watch movies as well and next Thursday we will watch my mom’s favorite movie, ET :D Not too excited about that one since it’s also not my favorite movie to watch. But supposedly we will discuss certain things about the movie in class the following week. I bet my brother Ben would like this class a lot! We also will discuss how George Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola, and other new movie directors changed the way movies were being made during this time too. This class will also use Black Board to read certain articles and assignments on Black Board.
Lastly, is my Ethics class. There is a lot of stuff that I really don’t know about this class at all, so it should be interesting to learn. The teacher is a little hippie it seems. He studied in India for a while and I think he also studies different cultures too. There are only two Americans in this class. Erin and myself . So our only assignment grade will be our term paper that is due in March. But we can always go talk to our teacher to discuss the paper and make sure that we’re doing what he wants us to do. I have to buy his book, which is only 5 pounds, and also we are to read assignments on Black Board as well.
The classes aren’t necessarily different from American college classes too much. Just that we have essays and term papers instead of daily assignments to do for class. Also, my classes are only once a week, so I’ll have to pace myself with our papers and definitely not procrastinate and put them off until the night before any paper is due.
However, the teachers do realize that we will be traveling and that school is not the only reason why we came to Canterbury. So that is nice as well. My classes are mainly all American students except for 2 kids in my Cinema class and Modern Britain class, and Ethics. There should be more students hopefully coming for the cinema class, but we’re not really sure. There were only 2 that actually came to the Cinema class this week. In the Modern Britain class, there are about seven or so British students in there. That will be good because we can have another point of view other than what Americans think :D
The grading system is different here though. The grades start at 70% and higher is first class degree (grade). 60% to 69% is upper second class degree. 50% to 59% is lower second class degree. 40% to 49% is third class degree. Lastly below 40% is fail. So that’s how it works here and all of our grades will be.
I’m excited to meet other British students and I hope to make some friends here as well. I’ll probably have to hang out a lot more at school, like in the cafeteria or at the library, or student union (student center) because that is where a lot of them seem to be if they are not in class or in town. We’ll see I guess. I’m not sure about the clubs that I can join. The international director didn’t really mention any to us at the meeting we had on Monday. I’ll have to ask her if there are any clubs to join here. It just seems like a short amount of time that maybe they don’t allow us to join clubs because we are either traveling on Fridays, or will be elsewhere visiting other parts of the country. Hmm… I’ll have to talk to Ali about all of this on Monday. We are going to have a meeting on Monday to discuss our home stays and how they’re doing. On Tuesday, there is going to be band playing at the student union and a lot of other kids will be there as well. So that should be interesting and fun! Then on Wednesday, we’re having a get together at Jim’s house, the teacher who came with us from our ICISP group & leads discussions in Modern Britain class. We’re having spaghetti and garlic bread, and just hanging out.