Hey Jason! How was the first week of classes?
Hey there! The first week of classes went pretty well. Everything is a little different here and that’s okay but it’s weird. I’ve gotten used to the small school atmosphere of Wesleyan. It was strange going up to a professor after a lecture and recognizing he would never know my name or care I existed. He would just tell me about political economy. That definitely doesn’t go for all my courses though. My two senior level courses are both a little smaller, and one of the, is a seminar course so we meet and talk for a while as a class. It was meaningful that he had us introduce ourselves despite there being 40 of us in the course.
I am excited for all my classes. Ireland and EU membership I think is going to be a little dryer than I expected, and intro to politics and international relations 2 has a ton of people, but I think I will learn from all of them. Already I can see the value of taking political science courses in another country. In intro I can see politics from a different perspective with a different set of biases than in the US. And in Ireland and EU membership I can see how a smaller country interacts with the world stage. I’m excited for more in the coming weeks, but overall feel I’m off to a good start. 🙂
Jason's Journey in the Republic of Ireland 
Hello! Your journey sounds very interesting! I would be interested to see how the religious background of the country is ingrained in the day to day life of the people there.
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I am glad to see that your first experiences in Ireland seem to be going well. It sounds interesting that you are hearing about different perspectives in your classes. How do you think that understanding these different ways of thinking will play a part in your later life or career, and do you think it is beneficial to be experiencing them?
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Bro I am not sure. It has affirmed a desire to do work regarding international study, but beyond that I’m still learning. The other most beneficial thing is probably seeing just how genuinely interconnected the world is.
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I am glad to see your first few experiences in Ireland are going well. It is interesting to hear about the varying perspectives you are learning from in your classes. Do you think that this is a beneficial experience, and how would you expect it to impact your future life and career?
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Hi Jason, when you say it was “meaningful” that the professor asked the entire class of 40 to introduce themselves, in what ways? Were you able to discover other international students studying in the class? If so, how do you think that will add to the discussions?
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Hey Amy, it was just meaningful that he was taking the time to show care about us as individuals. And there are several other internationals in the course, already it has added a lot to discussions on discrimination in different countries and the different minority groups that are discriminated against in different countries as well as the different struggles each group faces for recognition.
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Hi Jason, I am glad to hear that your first week of classes went well. How often do your classes met? Are these classes more discussion based or lecture style? It seems others are also interested in knowing more!
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