Almost Finished With Classes! (Week 5)

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Noemi Guzman

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hello <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> College of Saint Benedict <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2023 <i>Destination city & country:</i> London, England <i>Program provider:</i> FIE <i>Major/minor:</i> Social Science / Secondary Education & Political Science <i>Demographics:</i> Hispanic/Latinx, First-Generation College Student, LGBTQ+ <i>Future career aspirations:</i> I aspire to be a 7th grade civics teacher! <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> Be involved in my community; Try a new dish; Develop a global mindset

Week 5 was another stressful week. Midterms were not as bad as I thought they were going to be. I did well on my assignments for my British Life and Cultures class. My midterm for my British Politics class was a presentation. I presented on a police, crime, sentencing and courts bill that has been trying to get passed in parliament. It was actually very interesting to learn about. I had to do a lot of research on it and I even attempted to listen to the audio recording of the session from the House of Lords. The audio was eight hours long and after an hour I think I could not listen to it any longer. I felt very smart listening to it but I had to pay a lot of attention in order to fully understand what they were speaking about. It was actually easier to follow along with the transcript but it is something you very much have to put a lot of time into to understand. After reading the ammendments to the bill for two hours it made me realise that I really do not want to be a lawyer. Before I had decided to become a teacher, I was very fascinated on the idea of becoming a lawyer and going to law school. Thank goodness that I am very passionate about teaching because although I do like learning about law and different bills, it certainly is a lot of time sitting and reading documents. I was actually very nervous for this presentation. It has been a while since I presented in front of a group. I am also the only student from my university in this class so it was even harder for me to stand in front of a group of people I did not really know. Although it is week five of classes, I still have not spoken to everyone in my class. It is kind of difficult to approach the other students since they all know each other. I have gotten a lot better at getting to know the people from my school but I do not know why it is hard for me to get to know people from different schools. I am however good friends with another classmate who also is the only person from her university in our politics class. However, one good thing is that my presentation went very well. My goal for the next two weeks is to talk to get to know at least one or two other students from my class.

In regard to my other classes, I have been doing well. This week seems to be just as stressful as last week since I have to submit all of my journals for my History of Modern Design class by the end of the week. A good break from working on the journals was needed and so we went to visit the Design Museum. It was actually very interesting to see everything there but it was kind of disappointing. Some of the technology that went along with their displays did not work and so it made it difficult to understand what message they were trying to convey. Besides this fault I thought it was very cool. I enjoyed being able to walk through it and see items that have impacted my life. I would recommend to check it out but I am not sure I would go back again.