It’s February already!
Hey gang,
It’s been a while, sorry! I don’t even know the last time I wrote, but it’s now about two weeks into second semester, and things are soo busy already. I think I forgot how busy college really is while I was on break — which was perfection by the way. Break was so long, as usual — almost 5 weeks — but it was soo wonderful for that very reason. After a few days upon arriving home, my family and I left for a cruise. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but we went down to Miami, where the ship departed from, then headed to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. I can’t believe I was in 90 degree weather less than a month ago. It went by way too fast, but it was really fun!
Anyway, it’s back to school. I feel like I’ve been here for ages already, but really it’s only been about two and half weeks or so I think. This semester, I WILL go to a basketball game! I have been wanting to go for so long but my schedule never really allows it, so I already found two games on days that I can go, and I’m going no matter what! I’m sad we lost to ISU the second time we played them this past weekend, but at least we beat them the first time we played them this season and broke their winning streak! Bradley is known for their basketball team, among other things, so it’s a must that I go enjoy this wonderful aspect of my school.
Let me fill you in on my new class load this semester. Brace yourself. So first I have Bio 122, Life Science, which is the final class to fulfill my science requirements (thank goodness, I am NOT a science person..), then Spanish 325, which is an intro to hispanic literature class. This one’s fun, because I have one of my favorite teachers, Profesora Portocarrero. She’s from Peru, and she’s so fun and interesting to listen to in class. I’ve had her for all four of my spanish classes so far. My spanish classes always give me a solid chunk of my total homework, but I’m used to it. That’s how you have to learn a foreign language if you want to be fluent. Then I have Political Science 205, which is a comparative politics class. This one’s interesting, because I’m learning about all the governmental systems of other countries of the world. I guess I never knew that other countries had such different functioning systems than the United States’. Those are all my during-the-day classes, then at night, I have a Com 215 class, which is basic reporting — pretty similar to the last journalism class I took. We’re learning how to write, report, edit, all that journalism stuff. Then I am in Com 345, which is Photojournalism and documentary photography. This class is crazy! Crazy in that it’s just so different from any class I’ve taken here. All of our homework, assignments, and projects, are photography assignments. And it’s not just “oh go take a picture of some pretty flowers;” no, we have to have people in every shot. So far, I’ve met a bunch of new people from doing my shoots. I have to approach strangers (no college students, friends, or family) and take lots of pictures of them in their natural setting, which is what documentary photography is, capturing the world and its people as they are. So this one is challenging in a different way — not because we have to study for hours on end, but because we go out and explore the world, searching for a good photo opportunity. Then we spend lots of time on that subject, taking lots of photos, and making sure we get a good shot. Lastly, my 21st century film seminar. I love this one. It’s only a 1 credit class, and it’s part of the honors college (which I’m enrolled in, I don’t think you can take these seminars if you’re not in the Honors college). We watch a movie every class, which meets once a week for three hours, and we discuss the movie in detail afterwards. The first film we’ve watched so far I absolutely loved, so I’m excited to see what we watch tonight! I think that’s enough class info for now!
- Kristin 
