Second Quarter

While I was figuring out what to write for our next blog, I thought, one of the reasons why we’re here is to improve our English, so why not write a blog in English as well?

So, let’s start by saying we’ve been quite busy studying this quarter. Yup, it’s not all party & sunshine here ;) We took two academic courses this quarter, Global I & II. I found the following descriptions of these courses on the UCSB website, to give you an insight in these courses:

1. Global History, Culture and Ideology

A survey of the historical processes that have brought different areas of the world into closer contact. Topics include ideologies of nationalism, democracy, and liberalism; international trade and migrations; technological changes; colonialism; the globalization of culture; and the reactions to them.

2. Global Socioeconomic and Political Processes

Examination of contemporary social, economic, political, and environmental change in a global context; the emergence of a global economy and new systems of world order; and the debate over "globalization" and whether or not it is desirable.

Both are interesting courses. The first one is (as the title says) more about the history of globalization, and different theories and approaches to globalization. The second course is about how globalization is affecting peoples’ lives around the globe nowadays.

Funny thing is that we have two completely different professors for both courses. For Global I we have Professor Lezra. Professor Lezra is a woman who is a bit clumsy. At least once every lecture something goes wrong with her microphone or presentation. Her lectures require a lot of writing which can be quite exhausting sometimes. Now professor Juergensmeyer, which is our professor for Global II, is a complete other type of professor. Juergensmeyer is the director of the Global & International Studies and is a very respected man in this practice. He writes books about Global Religion, Terrorism and many more subjects. Professor Juergensmeyer has travelled all over the globe, interviewed many different people (from the Dalai Lama to Hamas leaders to Al-Qaeda terrorists) and is a great lecturer.

Both of these courses require a lot of readings and this makes the courses difficult sometimes. Either because they are about topics that are new for us ( Religious Nationalism confronting the Secular State for example) or because of the level of English that is being used in these academic publications. But hey, we’re here to learn!

Two weeks ago we had our mid-terms for these courses and after spending quite an amount of hours in the library I felt good about the upcoming mid-terms; a bit nervous, but ready. Two mid-terms and a few days later we were done. We both had a good feeling about the mid-terms. Last week we got our grades back and the good feeling wasn’t misplaced, we both did very well on our mid-terms!

So life goes on in Santa Barbara. Sunday it was time for one of the most American events of the year: The Academy Awards. We’ve watched them on the TV that night and the outcome was quite interesting, eight academy awards for Slumdog Millionaire! Now the interesting part is that the Academy Awards are awards for American (Hollywood) Movies. But Slumdog Millionaire is not filmed in Hollywood, neither are the actors Americans. The Director and Writer are British and the movie is filmed in Bombay and in the studios of Bollywood (Bollywood is the Indian equivalent of Hollywood, combining the names Bombay and Hollywood). Now the reason why the movie was still able to win the awards is because the distributor of the movie is American. Which is actually the only American thing about the movie. This raises the question, how American are the Academy Awards? The reason why I’m mentioning this is because this could actually be an example of a topic that can be covered in Global Studies.

The weather has been quite bad the last weeks, we even had some rain last week, and get that smile of your face, it’s not that funny ;)

I’ve been busy trying to master the guitar the last weeks and finally booked some progression as well, got the first five chords down :). Talking about guitar, did you know that Jack Johnson (the musician) studied at UCSB? He even performed at parties in Isla Vista!

So, I’m happy because my dad is coming over this Friday. We’re going to try visiting a Lakers game and furthermore just have a good time here with the three of us.