First Day of Class- July 1st

     Monday, July 1st was our first day of class. In the morning from 10-1 at SURCO we had our course in Medical Anthropology with Dr. G. Each week for Dr. G's class on Monday mornings we had a specific reading to complete and be prepared to discuss in class. Our first reading was Medical Choice in a Mexican Village by James Young and Linda Garro. In their book, the type of medical care which is used by a Mexican village was described. How the people in the tribe went about selecting their routes of treatment, how they prioritized certain factors, and how they chose what type of medicine was best for them were all discussed in the book.  This was a very fascinating first read because I did not realize how big traditional and herbal medicines are to people. It was something I had never really thought about before. This book also introduced us to how much culture can affect one's health decisions, something we had much more to learn about during the program. It was a interesting first read,and a little challenging too, but we picked it apart and discussed it in further detail in class so it all became clear.
     Later that day we had our first Spanish class. Spanish class was Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights from 5-7:40. We had Spanish class at a local language school called Amigos del Sol (friends of the sun, such a cute name). The school was not within walking distance and we had to take a bus so for the first day, we all met up and Stephanie and Yamila's house and their host mom Irma took us and showed us how to get to Spanish class. At first when we got there I was a little nervous, I did not know where I would be placed. Since our group had such a variety of Spanish skills coming in, we were broken up into 3 different classes; beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I was hoping I was placed into beginner because I was not too confident with my skills and thankfully I was. The class consisted of Nina, Monica, Chris (who eventually moved to a higher level), myself and our amazing teacher Esteban. We were all nervous because we had to do first day and last day videos so we could be evaluated. Of course no one wanted to step up and go first, so I thought "why not" and volunteered to go first. It was a piece of cake. Then I got to return back to class and started learning. Esteban was wonderful. He was super helpful, went slow, and answered every question. It was a little scary at first because his English was very basic but then I realized how fun it was going to be to learn another language. Then it became exciting and a fun challenge for all of us. We knew it was going to be tricky, but we also knew we were going to learn a lot and that was the most exciting part. It was just the first day but I was getting good vibes and I could tell it was going to be a great time.

- Lindsay