Classes

Classes have been going well. The only homework I ever really have is reading stories and poetry for literature and, on very rare occasions, a painless worksheet for grammar. Last week, instead of writing another essay in literature, we did group presentations about a short story we read. I got a 6.7/7, which was pretty good considering I didn’t exactly understand the story and I wrote my portion of the presentation the night before. We turned in our second essay today. I wrote a comparison between two poems, both of which were entitled “Autorretrato” (Self-portrait), by the Chilean poets Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra. The last portion of my grade in literature is an essay due next Thursday that is supposed to focus on one theme and how it develops in all of the Chilean literary movements we’ve studied. I haven’t decided on a theme to examine yet, but I’m looking forward to writing this essay. Although I usually end up devoting an entire day to these essays, I really like writing them.

In grammar, we had our first of three quizzes last Tuesday (4 weeks into the program). It was really easy and more of a review of things I’ve done in previous Spanish classes. I got a 7/7. Our professor wasn’t coy about announcing to the class that I got the highest score and called me “mi mejor estudiante” (my best student). No, that’s not embarrassing at all. We had our second quiz today, so we’ll see if I can uphold my title. I can only hope…