Classes started today. I'm taking COMM 150 at 10 am and COMM 366 at 12 pm. COMM 150 is the Intro to Communications gen-ed course that I need. We will do three speeches: informative, persuasive, and then one about what we have learned from the trip at the end.
Since our research abilities are limited here without access to the library across town and slow internet, our informative speech will be mostly based on our own knowledge of a topic. I think I might do mine on teaching practices, although that might require some review of notes that I don't have with me (meaning I'd have to ask my mom to scan them & email them to me), or I might choose to talk about Dominica. Since I studied abroad in Dominica last summer and read a couple of books about it, I could definitely speak about the formation of the island and its history, and then conclude with a few cultural facts if time permits.
One of my ideas for the persuasive speech is to talk about poverty in the Clemson area and encouraging students to volunteer and donate items to the non-profits in the community.
COMM 366 is a documentary class. It consists of just about everyone on the trip. We were split into 4 groups to focus on topics. My group wanted to look at Europeans' views of Americans and also Americans' culture shock in Europe. However, another group had the same idea of Europeans' view (because our group member who proposed the idea had brainstormed with others before we decided groups), so we will focus on Americans' view of Europeans and our culture shocks here. The two other groups will look at alcohol usage and dining in Europe.
After the classes, about half of us went to get pictures made for our metro (subway) passes. A few forgot to get pictures from home, but most of us just had pictures that were too big to be used for the metro pass. We had tried yesterday to get pictures at a photo-booth but the machine just took someone's money and wouldn't take a picture. That was partly because no one with us could read French. So we had to give in and pay 13 Eu each for pictures at the mall. On the plus side, we got four copies of our pictures and I really like mine!
Davide, our guide from CEPA was going to take the pictures and copies of our passports to the metro office, which works about as efficient as the DMV in the states. When he told the lady that he needed 36 or so metro passes, she refused to serve him. In the states, we would have asked for the manager, but I don't guess the customer is ever right here. We trekked across town to the shadier metro office, where the guy agreed to help Davide get the passes. Since it wasn't a nice part of town, he told us to go back to the central square. We waited for a while at O'Reilly's Irish Pub, which has been a friendly meeting spot for us for the past few days, and supposing that it would take a while, I went with my roommates and a girl from upstairs to look at some shops a few blocks away. I found some reasonably priced jewelry, scarves, and purses, but nothing that can't be found in the states. At the hotel, 3 & a half hours later, Davide had our metro passes back for us. There were some complications that caused Davide's boss to meet him at the metro office and assist him.
Already at 6pm, going to Bruge (not the correct spelling, I'm sure) for the afternoon was out of the question. Bruge is a medieval town that we will see sometime soon, I hope. Prof. Eddie told us that he received complaints about noise and people coming in too late, people walking around town by themselves at night, and a broken picture near the conference room. The hotel manager blamed it all on us, although none of us even knew there was a picture near the conference room and the reported noise came from a floor that doesn't house any of our students. No curfew has been made but Eddie wants us to come in earlier. I haven't been out at night so far because (1) I need sleep, (2) I don't drink, and (3) I don't want to be out in the city after dark...it's too risky.
Since our research abilities are limited here without access to the library across town and slow internet, our informative speech will be mostly based on our own knowledge of a topic. I think I might do mine on teaching practices, although that might require some review of notes that I don't have with me (meaning I'd have to ask my mom to scan them & email them to me), or I might choose to talk about Dominica. Since I studied abroad in Dominica last summer and read a couple of books about it, I could definitely speak about the formation of the island and its history, and then conclude with a few cultural facts if time permits.
One of my ideas for the persuasive speech is to talk about poverty in the Clemson area and encouraging students to volunteer and donate items to the non-profits in the community.
COMM 366 is a documentary class. It consists of just about everyone on the trip. We were split into 4 groups to focus on topics. My group wanted to look at Europeans' views of Americans and also Americans' culture shock in Europe. However, another group had the same idea of Europeans' view (because our group member who proposed the idea had brainstormed with others before we decided groups), so we will focus on Americans' view of Europeans and our culture shocks here. The two other groups will look at alcohol usage and dining in Europe.
After the classes, about half of us went to get pictures made for our metro (subway) passes. A few forgot to get pictures from home, but most of us just had pictures that were too big to be used for the metro pass. We had tried yesterday to get pictures at a photo-booth but the machine just took someone's money and wouldn't take a picture. That was partly because no one with us could read French. So we had to give in and pay 13 Eu each for pictures at the mall. On the plus side, we got four copies of our pictures and I really like mine!
Davide, our guide from CEPA was going to take the pictures and copies of our passports to the metro office, which works about as efficient as the DMV in the states. When he told the lady that he needed 36 or so metro passes, she refused to serve him. In the states, we would have asked for the manager, but I don't guess the customer is ever right here. We trekked across town to the shadier metro office, where the guy agreed to help Davide get the passes. Since it wasn't a nice part of town, he told us to go back to the central square. We waited for a while at O'Reilly's Irish Pub, which has been a friendly meeting spot for us for the past few days, and supposing that it would take a while, I went with my roommates and a girl from upstairs to look at some shops a few blocks away. I found some reasonably priced jewelry, scarves, and purses, but nothing that can't be found in the states. At the hotel, 3 & a half hours later, Davide had our metro passes back for us. There were some complications that caused Davide's boss to meet him at the metro office and assist him.
Already at 6pm, going to Bruge (not the correct spelling, I'm sure) for the afternoon was out of the question. Bruge is a medieval town that we will see sometime soon, I hope. Prof. Eddie told us that he received complaints about noise and people coming in too late, people walking around town by themselves at night, and a broken picture near the conference room. The hotel manager blamed it all on us, although none of us even knew there was a picture near the conference room and the reported noise came from a floor that doesn't house any of our students. No curfew has been made but Eddie wants us to come in earlier. I haven't been out at night so far because (1) I need sleep, (2) I don't drink, and (3) I don't want to be out in the city after dark...it's too risky.
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