School starts…and then vacation again!

The school I teach at is the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, or UNC. Imagine that! I’m back at UNC!

I went to my first class on Tuesday, and I’m so excited to be teaching an English literature class. I’m a nerd at heart and love reading, so they wouldn’t really have to pay me to do this job as I would probably do it for free. Anyhow, I was also very impressed with the level of English all of my students spoke. They are all very eager to learn (at least it seems so as of the first day).

We also did an exercise in which the students shared their favorite books/movies/t.v. shows/food. There were several popular choices including Friends, Harry Potter, pizza, The Kiterunner (who would’ve thought?), and of course, they all love hanging out with friends, listening to music, etc.

An interesting concept about the public university system: it’s basically free! I’m not sure how Argentina has figured out how to provide inexpensive healthcare and college education, but they’ve done it. However, another interesting concept: you can go to the next level of your coursework without passing the previous one. For example, if I fail the 2nd year level English classes, I have until the middle of the following year to pass my exams. Someone who hasn’t passed everything is called a “libre,” or a free student and and student who has passed is called “regular.”

Finally, I have to share that after one day of classes, we have a vacation. Wednesday my teacher has to take a board exam and Thursday and Friday are national holidays. Monday we don’t have class, but alas! we start again on Tuesday—with a short story called “The Littoral Zone” by Angela Barrett.

Since we have this nice long vacation, my friend Gillian and I are planning a trip this weekend! I will post more later on that when I have photos.