The Bad
This week has been kind of chaotic. It started off reasonably well except that my alarm clock/phone did not wake me up for tennis tuesday morning so i missed a practice. The crazy part started on tuesday. In that E&M (electricity and magnetism) class there are two homework assignments a week one due tuesday and the other thursday. The first week he put both online at the same time so it was easy to do them in advance. This week he forgot though and did not post the second assignment until Tuesday evening. My problem is that i'm busy all tuesday evenings and i had class and some other homework to do on wed. I didn't end up starting the homework assignment until around 9:00 pm wed night and i worked on it until 3 am. At 3am i hadn't finished but i called it quits so i could get some sleep (before waking up for tennis at 6am) and then i spent another hour and a half before class finishing it up. Part of the reason the homework took me that long was that i ended up helping three students with one of the problems. I was really glad i got to do that because they were some of the students who saved me in the first week by helping me learn the math i was missing but it ended up taking a long time. I ended up explaining it to them at different times and places (instead of all at once) and it always took a long time to explain. It was kind of frustrating that it made me stay up so late but i'm really glad i got to return the favor and help them out. During class the teacher apologized for posting the homework late and said he would try to post it earlier in the future. There were a lot of tired people in that class, one of the guys who sits near me apparently didn't sleep at all that night. Anyway i'm just glad thats over for this week and i have resolved to get the majority of the homework done a long time before the night before.
At the beginning of the semester i signed up for a free tennis class. I figured that if i couldn't make it on the tennis team it would be good to have as a backup. Now though i am starting to think that i will be able to practice with the team and even if i can't i think the people i have met would be willing to play with me so i want to drop the class. I found out though that i can get charged to drop it. Apparently dropping a sports class costs somewhere around $50. Tomorrow i am going to the office where i drop the class and ask if that's true ect. but i have been assured by a multitude of people that it is. I'm still going to drop it, i don't have energy to take a tennis class after tennis practice but i feel a little robbed.
The only other pseudo bad thing is that my other classes are starting to get warmed up and are giving work now. The society and latin american culture class i am in just recently assigned a bunch of projects for the semester. In a group i am going to be making 3 presentations in the next two months each between 20 and 40 min. That same class also has three exams that are going to be scattered throughout and just started assigning papers (though i have hope that won't become consistent). We have also just started to learn about thermodynamics in thermodynamics. The course got a really slow start, and although i am sure it will not be nearly as hard as E&M it looks like it is going to start demanding some time investment pretty soon. I don't think i'm going to have to worry about any of those classes for another week, but i'm a little concerned that their additions to the workload will be more significant than expected.
The Good
First and foremost, for two days this week the heat let up and it was GLORIOUS!! On wed and thursday the highs were in the low 90's and the forecast is that we won't get back up to 100 until after the weekend. Today was the first day since coming to mexico that i did not sweat (not counting tennis practice) which i'm pretty happy about. My walk to school is a lot more enjoyable when it is not really hot. Now i am really really looking forward to the cool season :)
I thought that tennis today (the day after i got 3 hours of sleep) was going to be terrible, but it was amazing. Every once in a long while in tennis there are days when it seems like you can do no wrong. I had one of those today :) I was just playing normal for most of the day but then at the end for an hour of a doubles set i played amazing. It is easily the best doubles i have ever played. My team still lost (in a tiebreak) but i had a blast. It was a great way to start the day and it really offset the tiredness.
Anyway thats it. Looking back at this my bad section is a lot longer than my good section. I think that might be because i'm getting more and more tired as i write this and i'm about to get into bed. Just realize that quantity of comments does not indicate the total balance of quality. The weather cooling down outweighs pretty much everything else mentioned above :) Overall the week has been good i just need to make sure i never do homework to 3am again. Now that the homework is all going to be posted so soon i think i'm just going to try to get in the habit of doing it all on the friday before the week it is due in (i don't have class friday). I think if i just go and spend the day in the library i could get E&M totally out of the way for the week. I'm hoping i can start that policy tomorrow :)
Thanks for reading
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Tennis and electro magnetic theory
Its been a while since my last entry and a lot has happened. Last i wrote i was about to go to my first class on electro magnetism, how that class has evolved is a bit of a story.
E&M
One of the biggest deciding factors in coming to this school was that i needed to take electricity and magnetism 1 to be able to stay on track in my major. I found a class that was exactly what i needed at this school. When i got here however i discovered that the class i had seen online was not being offered, but a very similar one was. I was registered for the similar class during registration and figured i would make it work somehow. The first day of the class was pretty basic we learned about dot and cross products (if that means anything to anyone) so afterwords i thought i would double check with the professor if that was the class i should be in. He told me about another class that i should look into. I went through a few secretaries and finally met the director of the physics department. He is a really really nice guy and was happy to talk to me. After some discussion he recommended a different class called electro magnetic theory, which it turns out, is exactly the class i found before i came. I was really glad that i had worked all that out and changed my schedule that day.
On thursday i had my first class of electromagnetic theory and it totally blew me away. The professor talks pretty fast but i could usually keep up with understanding the words, the problem was that i understood none of the material. Almost the entire first day went over my head which was pretty disconcerting. After the class i went and talked to the professor and he asked me a few questions and then told me i should drop the class because i didn't know enough math to survive. At the end of our very brief conversation he told me he couldn't force me to drop his class but he said i was really going to struggle to survive. After examining the textbook and emailing some professors from whitworth i found out what the problem was. There is a chapter at the beginning of our textbook that goes over vector calculus that is used in electro magnetic calculations. At whitworth during the class we learn how to do that math in the first unit. Here everyone takes a full class on using the math presented in the first section. The gap in knowledge was really only one chapter, but everyone but me had a rock solid grasp on it all (and i didn't have a clue). That weekend i spent all my time in the library reading that first chapter, and a textbook i found that explained the concepts. Fortunately some students from the class were also in the library on sunday doing the homework so they helped explain some of the things i couldn't understand. It also turns out that homework from this class takes an eternity to finish. From talking to other students i think the median time of completion for the first two assignments was around 5 hours. I'm about to do the third one when i finish this entry. I have been told that it is not as hard as the last two and one of my friends did it in 4 hours apparently. Right now i think i have a pretty good grasp on the math i learned. I'm still a little slower than everyone and i have to double check myself pretty often but i'm getting the hang of it. This class is definitely going to represent 3/4 of my work load this semester though. I'm definitely learning a lot though. I am still a little worried about it all and i think i will be until the first test (assuming it goes well) it was a strange experience to have a professor tell me he thinks i'm going to fail.
Also, a random funny fact about the class. The professor's policy on cell phones is that if one goes off, the culprit must bring a cake to class. After a cell phone rings the person is identified and then the class votes on the flavor of cake they want. Apparently on the last day of class each person responsible is expected to bring their assigned cake. Other students in the class have had him before and they say he is deadly serious about it. I kind of like the system, and i'm excited for the last day of this class for more than one reason now :)
Tennis
Also, last week i found the coach of the tennis team here and got in contact with him. He said that i could come out for practice and he would let me know if i could practice with them. All last week i went to practice from 7am-9:30 or 10am. It turns out that everyone on the tennis team is WAY better than i am. The first day of practice the coach had me warm up with some players but when it became apparent that they were that much better than me he had me switch. I played a match against another player, and for a minute i was excited because i won, but then i found out that he too was trying out for the team and was not in fact a member. Most of the practices this week i was just told to play with that guy but as i got my game back it became pretty apparent that i was better than him. The scores of all our sets during the week were 7-6,6-3,6-0,6-1,6-2,6-1. On friday he was not at practice so he might have been cut i'm not sure. I am going to go back on monday, and every day until he tells me i can't anymore. The group of guys is really nice, each day when i wake up all i want is to be cut from the team but by the time i'm warmed up its always a lot of fun. All the girls are incredibly good too. There is one girl who practices with the girls team (but isn't good enough to be on it) that i lost to 6-4, but i really think i could beat her if we played again. I got a blister halfway through our match and it made it a lot harder to play. I was supposed to find out on friday if i was going to be cut but i didn't get told anything. I played a set against one guy who is actually on the team and i don't think i have ever lost so fast or so badly. Afterwords though i was told to play tiebreaks with a different guy from the team and i won 1/3! I don't think he was trying when he played me, but he didn't mean to let me win one. At the end i hit two of the best aces in my life to get ahead and then won one more lucky point to win. It felt pretty good to win something even though i knew he wasn't giving it his all :)
Anyway, i have to go get my homework done now. If you have any questions feel free to ask, and i will try to update this at least once a week from now on :)
Thanks for reading!
Ben Hamming
E&M
One of the biggest deciding factors in coming to this school was that i needed to take electricity and magnetism 1 to be able to stay on track in my major. I found a class that was exactly what i needed at this school. When i got here however i discovered that the class i had seen online was not being offered, but a very similar one was. I was registered for the similar class during registration and figured i would make it work somehow. The first day of the class was pretty basic we learned about dot and cross products (if that means anything to anyone) so afterwords i thought i would double check with the professor if that was the class i should be in. He told me about another class that i should look into. I went through a few secretaries and finally met the director of the physics department. He is a really really nice guy and was happy to talk to me. After some discussion he recommended a different class called electro magnetic theory, which it turns out, is exactly the class i found before i came. I was really glad that i had worked all that out and changed my schedule that day.
On thursday i had my first class of electromagnetic theory and it totally blew me away. The professor talks pretty fast but i could usually keep up with understanding the words, the problem was that i understood none of the material. Almost the entire first day went over my head which was pretty disconcerting. After the class i went and talked to the professor and he asked me a few questions and then told me i should drop the class because i didn't know enough math to survive. At the end of our very brief conversation he told me he couldn't force me to drop his class but he said i was really going to struggle to survive. After examining the textbook and emailing some professors from whitworth i found out what the problem was. There is a chapter at the beginning of our textbook that goes over vector calculus that is used in electro magnetic calculations. At whitworth during the class we learn how to do that math in the first unit. Here everyone takes a full class on using the math presented in the first section. The gap in knowledge was really only one chapter, but everyone but me had a rock solid grasp on it all (and i didn't have a clue). That weekend i spent all my time in the library reading that first chapter, and a textbook i found that explained the concepts. Fortunately some students from the class were also in the library on sunday doing the homework so they helped explain some of the things i couldn't understand. It also turns out that homework from this class takes an eternity to finish. From talking to other students i think the median time of completion for the first two assignments was around 5 hours. I'm about to do the third one when i finish this entry. I have been told that it is not as hard as the last two and one of my friends did it in 4 hours apparently. Right now i think i have a pretty good grasp on the math i learned. I'm still a little slower than everyone and i have to double check myself pretty often but i'm getting the hang of it. This class is definitely going to represent 3/4 of my work load this semester though. I'm definitely learning a lot though. I am still a little worried about it all and i think i will be until the first test (assuming it goes well) it was a strange experience to have a professor tell me he thinks i'm going to fail.
Also, a random funny fact about the class. The professor's policy on cell phones is that if one goes off, the culprit must bring a cake to class. After a cell phone rings the person is identified and then the class votes on the flavor of cake they want. Apparently on the last day of class each person responsible is expected to bring their assigned cake. Other students in the class have had him before and they say he is deadly serious about it. I kind of like the system, and i'm excited for the last day of this class for more than one reason now :)
Tennis
Also, last week i found the coach of the tennis team here and got in contact with him. He said that i could come out for practice and he would let me know if i could practice with them. All last week i went to practice from 7am-9:30 or 10am. It turns out that everyone on the tennis team is WAY better than i am. The first day of practice the coach had me warm up with some players but when it became apparent that they were that much better than me he had me switch. I played a match against another player, and for a minute i was excited because i won, but then i found out that he too was trying out for the team and was not in fact a member. Most of the practices this week i was just told to play with that guy but as i got my game back it became pretty apparent that i was better than him. The scores of all our sets during the week were 7-6,6-3,6-0,6-1,6-2,6-1. On friday he was not at practice so he might have been cut i'm not sure. I am going to go back on monday, and every day until he tells me i can't anymore. The group of guys is really nice, each day when i wake up all i want is to be cut from the team but by the time i'm warmed up its always a lot of fun. All the girls are incredibly good too. There is one girl who practices with the girls team (but isn't good enough to be on it) that i lost to 6-4, but i really think i could beat her if we played again. I got a blister halfway through our match and it made it a lot harder to play. I was supposed to find out on friday if i was going to be cut but i didn't get told anything. I played a set against one guy who is actually on the team and i don't think i have ever lost so fast or so badly. Afterwords though i was told to play tiebreaks with a different guy from the team and i won 1/3! I don't think he was trying when he played me, but he didn't mean to let me win one. At the end i hit two of the best aces in my life to get ahead and then won one more lucky point to win. It felt pretty good to win something even though i knew he wasn't giving it his all :)
Anyway, i have to go get my homework done now. If you have any questions feel free to ask, and i will try to update this at least once a week from now on :)
Thanks for reading!
Ben Hamming
Monday, August 9, 2010
church, classes, and football
Church
On sunday i wanted to go to church. I asked my host parents if i could go with them but they always go REALLY early in the morning so that the father can still go to work on time. I didn't know anyone else who was going to go so i decided to look one up for myself. I found a few churches listed in an orientation packet. I decided to go to a protestant church because i'm not acquainted with catholic services and i figure that is something done better with a catholic friend next to me :) I found a Presbyterian church close to the school that i could walk to. I decided to go to the 11:30 service and got directions to go there. I got a little lost getting there and i ended up arriving tired and sweaty 10 minutes late, only to discover that their website was wrong and the service started at 11:45! Everyone there was extremely welcoming, as soon as i walked in the greeters asked me where i was from and sat me down with the other college students in the church. It was a really good service and i really liked the people. Afterwords they served watermelon and then i left. When i was about two blocks away one of the college students came running down the street after me and asked me if i wanted to go out to lunch with them. I went and it was a ton of fun, they are all really nice, and most don't speak any english. Apparently they (the college students) all meet each saturday night to hang out, sometimes they eat, sometimes they see movies ect. I'm going to go next week. I also had my first political discussion at that lunch about immigration and the law in Arizona. It was a very interesting discussion. Several of the students go to the same school as me so i'm hoping to see them around campus. One of them is a chemistry major and told me if i need any help in my chemistry class he can tutor me.
Classes
Today was the first day of classes. It started out badly, i got to my classroom for spanish grammar and nobody was there. Eventually one other german student showed up but we were the only two. We eventually left and tracked down the appropriate office to ask what had happened. It turns out that the class (the whole thing, not just that day) was canceled and the lady said that we had been emailed. I knew that i hadn't received any emails so i got her to look up my email address. Turns out that they had the wrong email in their records, which also explains why i never heard anything from them all summer! Anyway, after that i went to an office and talked to a lady for a while about what i could replace the class with. It seems that a majority of the advanced spanish classes for foreigners have been canceled. My theory is that they are accustomed to a lot more students but this year with the travel warning and all not as many people came. They need at least 12 people to have a class but the few of us who have advanced spanish were spread too thin to fill many classes. All i am really looking for in my spanish class is a chance to work on my writing, i'm getting way better at speaking but none of my science classes require essays so i wanted to take something in spanish where i would write. I eventually found a class on spanish society and history that seemed like it would work and signed up for it. Then i went to chemistry.
Chemistry i really liked, i met a few new friends and the professor is really easy to understand. The one unfortunate thing is that the class is not exactly what i thought it was. When i looked up the class descriptions at first i saw that Chemistry 1 was exactly like Chemistry 1 at Whitworth. I was not worried about succeeding because i have learned much of that content in high school. I assumed that my class was Chemistry 1 because it was the lowest Chemistry course available. Turns out that it is more like Chemistry 1.5 I didn't realize it untill the end of class when she showed us where we could review previous concepts and i saw most of what i remember from Chemistry on the review list. I think that they assume some level of chemistry coming into school and start teaching 1/2-3/4 of the way through the classic Chemistry 1 curriculum. Also it turns out that there is no lab associated with the class. I don't think its going to be too much of a problem. Tomorrow morning i'm going to get up really early and start going through everything. Most of it looks familiar so i think i should be able to pick it all up quickly, and if not, there is always that guy from church and his tutoring offer :) One last weird thing about chemistry is that it is a first year course, so some of the things they talk about are pretty basic. We spent quite a while during class going over listening/note taking/studying strategies. It was kind of nostalgic. Anyway, then i went to my society class.
I knew something was wrong going into the society class because one of my international friends (from new zealand) was also in the class and she does not speak any spanish. I had double checked that all the instruction was in spanish, and she had double checked that it was all in english. We were both assured that it was. When we got into class the professor started to talk in spanish but he very quickly realized that almost nobody could understand him. Turns out that four people in the class (including the professor) thought it was all going to be in spanish. The rest of us (12 or 13 people) thought it was going to be taught in english. The professor couldn't just continue in spanish because nobody would understand him, but fortunately he spoke very good english. He explained that officially the course was to be taught in spanish and he was not sure what he was going to do. He has taught the same course in english before but he has all spanish materials prepared for this semester. He was pretty frustrated with the scheduling office. He just gave us the first day talk and introduction in English but warned us that he did not know what the future of the class would be like. I have a feeling that the class is going to be closed. The school can't just expect him to switch languages on a moments notice, but if he keeps going with spanish only 4 of us will be left (and you need 12 for a class). Tomorrow i think i am headed back to the scheduling office and i'm just going to ask them for any class, in any subject, in which i can write in spanish and pass without too much effort. I think my major focus is going to be on thermodynamics and electromagnetic fields, i just want a class that will help me practice writing, it seems like a simple request :) I'm not worried though, everyone in the scheduling office is really nice, i just got caught up in a scheduling knot. Tomorrow i have thermo and E&M. I am also going to the tennis courts because apparently i have to try out to be in the advanced tennis class, which is a good sign :) Tomorrow will also be my first day of salsa class, and i found a frisbee club that plays on Wednesdays and Fridays so i'm excited for the rest of the week!
Football (soccer)
In the last few days i have hung out more with the 15 year old in my house than my roomate. Javier (my roomate) seems to just want to watch tv ALL day. I'm working him out of his shell but its kind of slow going. The 15 year old is named Paco and he is much more outgoing. He has learned a decent bit of english from previous study abroad students so between his broken english and my broken spanish we get along pretty well. He loves to sing (and is really good at it) and is an incredible football (soccer) player. He told me that for a while he wanted to turn pro and i thought it was just some kids dream till i saw him play. He is really really really good. Apparently not quite good enough to make the junior tour though, he tried out last year and now he thinks his chances are gone. Yesterday and today he has given me football lessons. Its been a long time since I've played but its starting to come back. Today we were practicing on a basketball court near out house when two Mexican kids challenged us to a game. To score each team had to hit the post of the opposing basketball hoop. Paco and I dominated them, or you could say paco dominated them :) I played pretty well, i got two of our 5 or 6 goals but it was really his show. I had a lot of fun though. At the end they got one goal and then quit, the final score was either 5-1 or 6-1.
Random short story
I had my first person think i was a native speaker! At an international student convention a photographer took my picture with some other students. Then he went around and asked us all our names. I told him my name was Benjamin and then spelled my last name for him. He then asked (translated) "and you are from spain?". It doesn't really count for much because i only said one word and some letters, but it still boosted my self esteem :)
Thats it, thanks for reading!
Ben Hamming
On sunday i wanted to go to church. I asked my host parents if i could go with them but they always go REALLY early in the morning so that the father can still go to work on time. I didn't know anyone else who was going to go so i decided to look one up for myself. I found a few churches listed in an orientation packet. I decided to go to a protestant church because i'm not acquainted with catholic services and i figure that is something done better with a catholic friend next to me :) I found a Presbyterian church close to the school that i could walk to. I decided to go to the 11:30 service and got directions to go there. I got a little lost getting there and i ended up arriving tired and sweaty 10 minutes late, only to discover that their website was wrong and the service started at 11:45! Everyone there was extremely welcoming, as soon as i walked in the greeters asked me where i was from and sat me down with the other college students in the church. It was a really good service and i really liked the people. Afterwords they served watermelon and then i left. When i was about two blocks away one of the college students came running down the street after me and asked me if i wanted to go out to lunch with them. I went and it was a ton of fun, they are all really nice, and most don't speak any english. Apparently they (the college students) all meet each saturday night to hang out, sometimes they eat, sometimes they see movies ect. I'm going to go next week. I also had my first political discussion at that lunch about immigration and the law in Arizona. It was a very interesting discussion. Several of the students go to the same school as me so i'm hoping to see them around campus. One of them is a chemistry major and told me if i need any help in my chemistry class he can tutor me.
Classes
Today was the first day of classes. It started out badly, i got to my classroom for spanish grammar and nobody was there. Eventually one other german student showed up but we were the only two. We eventually left and tracked down the appropriate office to ask what had happened. It turns out that the class (the whole thing, not just that day) was canceled and the lady said that we had been emailed. I knew that i hadn't received any emails so i got her to look up my email address. Turns out that they had the wrong email in their records, which also explains why i never heard anything from them all summer! Anyway, after that i went to an office and talked to a lady for a while about what i could replace the class with. It seems that a majority of the advanced spanish classes for foreigners have been canceled. My theory is that they are accustomed to a lot more students but this year with the travel warning and all not as many people came. They need at least 12 people to have a class but the few of us who have advanced spanish were spread too thin to fill many classes. All i am really looking for in my spanish class is a chance to work on my writing, i'm getting way better at speaking but none of my science classes require essays so i wanted to take something in spanish where i would write. I eventually found a class on spanish society and history that seemed like it would work and signed up for it. Then i went to chemistry.
Chemistry i really liked, i met a few new friends and the professor is really easy to understand. The one unfortunate thing is that the class is not exactly what i thought it was. When i looked up the class descriptions at first i saw that Chemistry 1 was exactly like Chemistry 1 at Whitworth. I was not worried about succeeding because i have learned much of that content in high school. I assumed that my class was Chemistry 1 because it was the lowest Chemistry course available. Turns out that it is more like Chemistry 1.5 I didn't realize it untill the end of class when she showed us where we could review previous concepts and i saw most of what i remember from Chemistry on the review list. I think that they assume some level of chemistry coming into school and start teaching 1/2-3/4 of the way through the classic Chemistry 1 curriculum. Also it turns out that there is no lab associated with the class. I don't think its going to be too much of a problem. Tomorrow morning i'm going to get up really early and start going through everything. Most of it looks familiar so i think i should be able to pick it all up quickly, and if not, there is always that guy from church and his tutoring offer :) One last weird thing about chemistry is that it is a first year course, so some of the things they talk about are pretty basic. We spent quite a while during class going over listening/note taking/studying strategies. It was kind of nostalgic. Anyway, then i went to my society class.
I knew something was wrong going into the society class because one of my international friends (from new zealand) was also in the class and she does not speak any spanish. I had double checked that all the instruction was in spanish, and she had double checked that it was all in english. We were both assured that it was. When we got into class the professor started to talk in spanish but he very quickly realized that almost nobody could understand him. Turns out that four people in the class (including the professor) thought it was all going to be in spanish. The rest of us (12 or 13 people) thought it was going to be taught in english. The professor couldn't just continue in spanish because nobody would understand him, but fortunately he spoke very good english. He explained that officially the course was to be taught in spanish and he was not sure what he was going to do. He has taught the same course in english before but he has all spanish materials prepared for this semester. He was pretty frustrated with the scheduling office. He just gave us the first day talk and introduction in English but warned us that he did not know what the future of the class would be like. I have a feeling that the class is going to be closed. The school can't just expect him to switch languages on a moments notice, but if he keeps going with spanish only 4 of us will be left (and you need 12 for a class). Tomorrow i think i am headed back to the scheduling office and i'm just going to ask them for any class, in any subject, in which i can write in spanish and pass without too much effort. I think my major focus is going to be on thermodynamics and electromagnetic fields, i just want a class that will help me practice writing, it seems like a simple request :) I'm not worried though, everyone in the scheduling office is really nice, i just got caught up in a scheduling knot. Tomorrow i have thermo and E&M. I am also going to the tennis courts because apparently i have to try out to be in the advanced tennis class, which is a good sign :) Tomorrow will also be my first day of salsa class, and i found a frisbee club that plays on Wednesdays and Fridays so i'm excited for the rest of the week!
Football (soccer)
In the last few days i have hung out more with the 15 year old in my house than my roomate. Javier (my roomate) seems to just want to watch tv ALL day. I'm working him out of his shell but its kind of slow going. The 15 year old is named Paco and he is much more outgoing. He has learned a decent bit of english from previous study abroad students so between his broken english and my broken spanish we get along pretty well. He loves to sing (and is really good at it) and is an incredible football (soccer) player. He told me that for a while he wanted to turn pro and i thought it was just some kids dream till i saw him play. He is really really really good. Apparently not quite good enough to make the junior tour though, he tried out last year and now he thinks his chances are gone. Yesterday and today he has given me football lessons. Its been a long time since I've played but its starting to come back. Today we were practicing on a basketball court near out house when two Mexican kids challenged us to a game. To score each team had to hit the post of the opposing basketball hoop. Paco and I dominated them, or you could say paco dominated them :) I played pretty well, i got two of our 5 or 6 goals but it was really his show. I had a lot of fun though. At the end they got one goal and then quit, the final score was either 5-1 or 6-1.
Random short story
I had my first person think i was a native speaker! At an international student convention a photographer took my picture with some other students. Then he went around and asked us all our names. I told him my name was Benjamin and then spelled my last name for him. He then asked (translated) "and you are from spain?". It doesn't really count for much because i only said one word and some letters, but it still boosted my self esteem :)
Thats it, thanks for reading!
Ben Hamming
Saturday, August 7, 2010
random story
I don't have time to turn this into a big post, but yesterday something funny happened and i thought i would post it. I went into the school bookstore and found out it was closed, a lady had checked it at the same time as me and we got talking. Turns out she has a daughter in school who wants to study abroad to the US (Illinois) She was talking about how worried she was about her daughter going. I realized though that she was worried about her daughters safety, not just that she was going abroad. I asked her why she was worried and she said that she has seen law and order and csi and realizes how much crime we have in the US. I thought she was joking at first but she was totally serious. She also mentioned that we have a ton of serial killers in the US and that worried her a lot too. I managed to (without laughing) explain that csi and law and order are fictional and just because they have deaths in those shows every week does not mean that people are actually dying every week. I also explained that although summed together it is true that we have "a lot" of serial killers and deaths relative to other countries, that is because our country is so big, and per capital it is an extremely safe place. I told her that in my cities (spokane, seattle,vancouver) i am not afraid to walk alone at night and she was pretty skeptical. She wanted to know if everyone felt that way, and if my cities were just exceptions to the rule. I told her that there are exceptions, there are parts of any big city you don't want to walk through but on the whole cities at night are safe.
When we parted ways i don't think i had allayed all of her fears but i had done my best. It was a really interesting experience in how people relate to other countries. I can't get over the fact that law and order and csi had worried her! I also realized that the US does have more serial killers than almost any other country and if someone never bothered to make the numbers per capita it could be pretty scary.
When we parted ways i don't think i had allayed all of her fears but i had done my best. It was a really interesting experience in how people relate to other countries. I can't get over the fact that law and order and csi had worried her! I also realized that the US does have more serial killers than almost any other country and if someone never bothered to make the numbers per capita it could be pretty scary.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Arrival
Flight:
Well i am finally here. I flew out of Seattle at 6 am and into Monterrey at 2:30 pm (2 hours ahead). The trip was relatively uneventful. I had a connecting flight through Houston so in each airport there was progressively more Spanish. None in Seattle, some in Houston, and tons in Monterrey. When i got in i thought i had lost my luggage for a while because several other people form my plane had lost theirs but i eventually found mine behind a sign. Getting through customs was a bit difficult because the agent didn't speak very good English but between the two of us we got everything figured out.
Family:
My host family is wonderful. The mother picked me up from the school after i got there and brought me home. I share a room with Javier, the 18 year old grandson of my host parents. He is going to university for mechanical engineering. He tried to get into the school i am at but apparently missed the score he needed on a test by 14 points. It looks like he is going to be taking all classes that i have taken before. I think the rough equivalents would be calc II, physics III, and CS1. I'm going to able to help him with all his homework, and in exchange, he can be my friend :) There is a second student from germany living here but he is only here for the summer and will be leaving in a few weeks. He is studying in a masters program and i really like him. A third student arrived yesterday (1 day late) from australia. He is named Andrew and knows no spanish at all. In a way it is nice to have someone to speak english to but in a way it is bad too. The nice thing is that i get to translate for the family (they speak basically no english) when they want to talk to him and vice versa. He doesn't have the best attitude about the whole thing though. Apparently he wanted to live in the dorms but he got a scholarship that required him to live with a host family. I think he is going to start liking it all more but he doesn't really so far. Whenever he complains about stuff i just don't translate it :) One unfortunate thing is that i discovered the german student can also speak english (he started when Andrew came) so now i only really speak spanish with the host parents and Javier. I still speak the vast majority in spanish at home though because Javier and I are roommates.
Spanish:
The information we were all given about traveling abroad made it pretty clear that we were going to discover that we are not as good as we thought we were at spanish. For me though it has been largely the opposite, i guess i just had really low expectations or something. I find i can carry conversations just fine with people, especially if they speak slowly. Often if someone says something and i am not paying attention i have to ask them to repeat it, but once the conversation gets going i do pretty well. To take classes in spanish here you have to take a test and get an advanced rating. I just took the test and missed advanced by 7 (out of 700) points. When i went to register though i convinced the lady registering me that i could take the classes anyway, she just made me sign a paper that said i understood that the classes were going to be harder and in spanish.
Orientation:
So far orientation has been interesting. It is mostly sitting in a room listening to people talk about the university and the services it offers. They offer those sessions in english and spanish and i just go to the english ones to make sure i don't miss anything. The most interesting session so far has been on security. They have really taken strong measures to ensure student safety. The entire campus is fenced, and to enter you have to show id. They also have an area where you can play soccer, tennis, racketball, basketball,volleyball and run along paths that is fenced off. They have a ton of security wandering around and at gates. Apparently there is a bus service that you can use anytime after 6:00 for free, run by the university that will drop you right at your door, or if you live close any security guard will walk you home. They also offer a service where you can leave your valuables with a department and pick them up anytime after 6 am the next morning. In a way it all seems kind of excessive, they just explained over and over again that all these measures are not really necessary they just want to do everything they can to make sure nothing happens to any students. They said that the vast majority of crime happens because of students doing something stupid. Apparently last year two students got drunk enough that they passed out on a table in a bar and they got their wallets stolen. My house is a 10-12 minute walk from campus and my neighborhood seems pretty safe. On the whole i'm not that worried. One thing that is weird though is that all the houses have bars over their doors and windows, and they all have walls around them. Some walls have barbed wire, others the owners have broken glass stuck on the top to keep people from climbing over. It is a little intimidating seeing that much security on all the houses but apparently its pretty normal in latin america.
Heat:
It is really hot here. I'm really really excited for winter. All the buildings at the school are air conditioned but my host family house is not. My room has a little ac unit but it does not work that well. It cools off at night but during the day i just sweat wherever i go. I have a system that works pretty well though, last thing before bed i take a really cold shower and then just lie down and i can keep from sweating before i go to bed. I think i might be starting to get used to it too.
Friends:I am making a lot of friends with all the international students because we do a lot of activities together. Today a bunch of us went out to visit a park. It was a lot of fun, and i end up translating for the group because im the only one who can speak good spanish. There is a japanese girl in our group that speaks basically no english and has choppy spanish, communicating with her can be tricky but we get by.
Activities:
We heard a presentation on extra-curricular activities that we can participate in and there are a ton. There are university organized trips going to different parts of mexico and most of them are really cheap. They also offer classes in dancing, cooking and music. I have found a bunch of people that want to take salsa together! They also offer free classes in different sports so i'm going to sign up for the advanced tennis class and try to meet people to hit with. Unfortunately you can only sign up for one sports class otherwise i would do several others. There are clubs though and i can join as many as i want. Apparently there is a Frisbee club!!!! So i'm going to join it and the ping pong club. The sign ups for all of that should be early next week.
Whats Next:
Classes start next week, i am taking electro magnetic fields, thermodynamics, chemistry, and spanish grammar for international students. If it turns out that thermodynamics and chemistry are too hard in spanish i can switch and take them in english, but the grammar and magnetic fields class are only offered in spanish. I am also in the process of getting my cell phone to work, organizing social things will be a lot easier after that happens. Thats pretty much it, i really like it here but i really wish it was colder.
Thaks for reading, let me know if you have questions, i will try to keep this updated.
Well i am finally here. I flew out of Seattle at 6 am and into Monterrey at 2:30 pm (2 hours ahead). The trip was relatively uneventful. I had a connecting flight through Houston so in each airport there was progressively more Spanish. None in Seattle, some in Houston, and tons in Monterrey. When i got in i thought i had lost my luggage for a while because several other people form my plane had lost theirs but i eventually found mine behind a sign. Getting through customs was a bit difficult because the agent didn't speak very good English but between the two of us we got everything figured out.
Family:
My host family is wonderful. The mother picked me up from the school after i got there and brought me home. I share a room with Javier, the 18 year old grandson of my host parents. He is going to university for mechanical engineering. He tried to get into the school i am at but apparently missed the score he needed on a test by 14 points. It looks like he is going to be taking all classes that i have taken before. I think the rough equivalents would be calc II, physics III, and CS1. I'm going to able to help him with all his homework, and in exchange, he can be my friend :) There is a second student from germany living here but he is only here for the summer and will be leaving in a few weeks. He is studying in a masters program and i really like him. A third student arrived yesterday (1 day late) from australia. He is named Andrew and knows no spanish at all. In a way it is nice to have someone to speak english to but in a way it is bad too. The nice thing is that i get to translate for the family (they speak basically no english) when they want to talk to him and vice versa. He doesn't have the best attitude about the whole thing though. Apparently he wanted to live in the dorms but he got a scholarship that required him to live with a host family. I think he is going to start liking it all more but he doesn't really so far. Whenever he complains about stuff i just don't translate it :) One unfortunate thing is that i discovered the german student can also speak english (he started when Andrew came) so now i only really speak spanish with the host parents and Javier. I still speak the vast majority in spanish at home though because Javier and I are roommates.
Spanish:
The information we were all given about traveling abroad made it pretty clear that we were going to discover that we are not as good as we thought we were at spanish. For me though it has been largely the opposite, i guess i just had really low expectations or something. I find i can carry conversations just fine with people, especially if they speak slowly. Often if someone says something and i am not paying attention i have to ask them to repeat it, but once the conversation gets going i do pretty well. To take classes in spanish here you have to take a test and get an advanced rating. I just took the test and missed advanced by 7 (out of 700) points. When i went to register though i convinced the lady registering me that i could take the classes anyway, she just made me sign a paper that said i understood that the classes were going to be harder and in spanish.
Orientation:
So far orientation has been interesting. It is mostly sitting in a room listening to people talk about the university and the services it offers. They offer those sessions in english and spanish and i just go to the english ones to make sure i don't miss anything. The most interesting session so far has been on security. They have really taken strong measures to ensure student safety. The entire campus is fenced, and to enter you have to show id. They also have an area where you can play soccer, tennis, racketball, basketball,volleyball and run along paths that is fenced off. They have a ton of security wandering around and at gates. Apparently there is a bus service that you can use anytime after 6:00 for free, run by the university that will drop you right at your door, or if you live close any security guard will walk you home. They also offer a service where you can leave your valuables with a department and pick them up anytime after 6 am the next morning. In a way it all seems kind of excessive, they just explained over and over again that all these measures are not really necessary they just want to do everything they can to make sure nothing happens to any students. They said that the vast majority of crime happens because of students doing something stupid. Apparently last year two students got drunk enough that they passed out on a table in a bar and they got their wallets stolen. My house is a 10-12 minute walk from campus and my neighborhood seems pretty safe. On the whole i'm not that worried. One thing that is weird though is that all the houses have bars over their doors and windows, and they all have walls around them. Some walls have barbed wire, others the owners have broken glass stuck on the top to keep people from climbing over. It is a little intimidating seeing that much security on all the houses but apparently its pretty normal in latin america.
Heat:
It is really hot here. I'm really really excited for winter. All the buildings at the school are air conditioned but my host family house is not. My room has a little ac unit but it does not work that well. It cools off at night but during the day i just sweat wherever i go. I have a system that works pretty well though, last thing before bed i take a really cold shower and then just lie down and i can keep from sweating before i go to bed. I think i might be starting to get used to it too.
Friends:I am making a lot of friends with all the international students because we do a lot of activities together. Today a bunch of us went out to visit a park. It was a lot of fun, and i end up translating for the group because im the only one who can speak good spanish. There is a japanese girl in our group that speaks basically no english and has choppy spanish, communicating with her can be tricky but we get by.
Activities:
We heard a presentation on extra-curricular activities that we can participate in and there are a ton. There are university organized trips going to different parts of mexico and most of them are really cheap. They also offer classes in dancing, cooking and music. I have found a bunch of people that want to take salsa together! They also offer free classes in different sports so i'm going to sign up for the advanced tennis class and try to meet people to hit with. Unfortunately you can only sign up for one sports class otherwise i would do several others. There are clubs though and i can join as many as i want. Apparently there is a Frisbee club!!!! So i'm going to join it and the ping pong club. The sign ups for all of that should be early next week.
Whats Next:
Classes start next week, i am taking electro magnetic fields, thermodynamics, chemistry, and spanish grammar for international students. If it turns out that thermodynamics and chemistry are too hard in spanish i can switch and take them in english, but the grammar and magnetic fields class are only offered in spanish. I am also in the process of getting my cell phone to work, organizing social things will be a lot easier after that happens. Thats pretty much it, i really like it here but i really wish it was colder.
Thaks for reading, let me know if you have questions, i will try to keep this updated.
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