My Classes

After my second week of classes, I am finally going to discuss each of them for you in more detail. The 5 courses I am taking this semester are: Current Trends in Italian Cuisine, Workplace Psychology: Building Effective Managers, Italian Language Advanced I, Basic Sewing Techniques, and Introduction to Renaissance Art (in Italian). Very different from my usual engineering course load, but I enjoy working with a different part of my brain and taking a little break from math and science.

1. Current Trends in Italian Cuisine - I already told you a bit about this class already, but basically how it works is for about half the class the professor lectures, then we make a meal, eat it, and clean up. There is only 1 guy in this class, like in all my other classes except Psychology (3) and Sewing (0), but all of my classes are pretty small (5-12). My professor is from San Francisco, but has been living in Italy for many years now, and obviously loves to cook.
2. Workplace Psychology: Building Effective Managers - In this class, the professor lectures the entire time, with maybe a class activity thrown in there, but it does not feel like 2.5 hours. She is very engaging and I find the material really interesting, having never taken a business or psychology course before. There are many business and psychology majors in this class, but considering the title of the course, the information would be useful for students of any major. The professor used to work for the EU, but left after she discovered the job wasn't what she thought it would be. Now she teaches 2 courses and manages an online advertising company. She has said multiple times in class that she hates her other job and only does it to pay the bills, even using herself as an example of 'continuance commitment' (staying with the company because she has no other choice). She also said that the organization's values oppose her own; she believes that advertising is a huge scam. However she is extremely passionate about teaching.
3. Italian Language Advanced I - Similar in structure to the other Italian classes I have taken, but the professor lets us speak a lot since it is less focused on the grammar. It feels good to get more practice with a teacher and still review topics that have grown fuzzy. However, I do not like having a class at 8:00 3 days a week.
4. Basic Sewing Techniques - This is my first design course and the first class felt very strange to me; the atmosphere was so different. The professor showed us the 4 basic stitches we would be practicing that day and then let us work. We chatted while cutting and sewing our fabric, it was very relaxed. Even though the class is from 3 to 6:40 with a 20 min break, the time flew by and did not feel like a class to me because I was doing something I would normally do during my free time. However, I also feel like I am learning a ton already and can't wait to do more and make clothes (the final project is sewing a garment that will be used in a final fashion event).
5. Introduction to Renaissance Art - This class is formatted like my Cooking class: half the class we lecture, and the rest we get to walk to different churches and museums. We go somewhere every week and the professor knows a ton about the artwork. It is a bit challenging in Italian, but I love learning about the artwork here in greater depth. Plus, what better way to study Renaissance Art than in the city where the movement began. Today we went inside the Chiesa di Santa Croce and I took some pictures to post, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

A domani,

Caitlin