Getting settled in classes

Hello again, everyone! Today was the second day of my classes and I think I’ve finally gotten my schedule figured out, though it is still tentative for this week. I am for sure taking two classes at the NYU campus: Society, Culture, and Modernization in Ghana (which counts toward my Anthropology major) and Global Connections: Accra (which is taught by the former mayor of the city who will take us around and give us tours for some of the classes). I am most likely taking the language class, Twi, since it also gives us more information about the culture of Ghana along with the learning to speak the language. Plus the people here love it when you can speak some of their language to them, so I feel like I should at least try.

As for the classes at the other campuses, I am taking a history class at the University of Ghana called Black Diaspora, which basically talks about the Atlantic Slave Trade and the impacts it had on the African continent. It will be interesting to get an African perspective on it, so I’m excited for that class; also because the professor seems very knowledgeable about the subject and lectures very well. I love the campus of this university as well since it is huge and very natural looking with trees and plants everywhere, though it does not look fabricated like many campuses in the U.S. that look too perfect to be natural if you know what I mean. Anyway, I tried a class at Ashesi University today with a few other people called Africa in the International Setting, but none of us liked the professor because she treated us almost like we were in high school. There was too much focus on writing a thesis and a correctly formatted paper, and we are all sick of that since we had writing classes our first couple years. So instead I’m going to try out a dance class tomorrow morning and see if I like that; it will be nice to have something not academically challenging as my fifth class anyway since I don’t want to be overwhelmed, especially since I will also be doing community service.

Speaking of community service, I signed up for an autism organization for children where I will hopefully be working with autistic children and becoming more familiar with the disorder. I feel very passionate about it since Jacquie has been such a big part of my life and is very dear to me, so I want to make a difference in the lives of other children who suffer the same disorder she does because it makes me feel as though I am helping her too. This also reminds me of how I miss my family, though I do not feel as homesick as I used to since I am becoming accustomed to being away from home for long periods of time. Plus I am so blessed to have Daniella, one of my dearest friends, and other great people here that I am slowly getting to know that keep my mind off home. I feel much more acclimated here than I did when I first went to Florence, and I seem to get along with people much better too; but that might be because we were forced to constantly be together the first week of orientation. In any case, I am so thankful for the people I’ve met so far and am looking forward to spending the rest of the semester with them.