For the reader's who don't really know me, let me just inform you all that I am a scholar. My scholastic achievements actually helped me make this semester happen. I'm a member of three honors societies and I've been on the Dean's list every semester since I've started college. I say all this to remind you that although this semester is not only about me traveling the world and having the time of my life. I'm STUDYING abroad (emphasis on the study!).
I attend the University of Nicosia and I'm taking 12 credits of electives. The plan was to take at least one major course while i was out here but the university is not offering and communications classes that I need this semester. Womp Womp. I actually wrote this entry in my super irrelevant intro to hospitality management class. We have two teachers because it's a two part class. I absolutely love one and plan on telling the other teacher about his backside before I head back to the states. The one I do like, Chris Heracleous, teaches the cooking portion of the class (the portion that made me want to take the class) and was trained at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. He is hilariously candid and laid back, not to mention amazing in the kitchen. A few weeks ago, he made some bangin' vegetable purèe soup and fresh crutons in like 20min flat. I would give you the receipe but I'd rather cook it for my honeys when I get home =). Sadly, he gets easily side tracked (i.e. while I was writing the class broke off into a 10min discussion about the life span of people who drink Coke on a regular basis. One bold faced woman had the nerve to ask the man "Since you and I are both 33 let's ask the class which one of us looks better. I was a good girl I ate my vegetables and I don't drink or smoke. Look at the difference!" Now she clearly, looks way younger than the teacher so it wasn't even remotely fair. I was like "Why are you trying to embarrass him?" She claims it was for jokes but it wasn't funny and he was clearly uncomfortable.)
Sidenote: Cypriot students are SO disrespectful. It is ridiculous. The come to class 25min late, talk throughout the entire lesson, leave and don't come back after breaks. The first few weeks in my classes I was beyond appalled at the students and the teachers too for allowing it to happen. Thinking about it now I guess the teachers treat the students like adults and don't stress themselves out with trying to alter their attitudes towards their education. Whatever! Most of these Cypriot students wouldn't last a minute in a Morgan classroom. Back to the regularly scheduled entry.
Chris also makes class super long by taking at least 4 smoke breaks. The breaks aren't bad though because on the days we're not in the kitchen it prevents us from getting restless. So far we've only handled food in one class session but next week we'll be in the class for the entire 5 hours. Usually we do 2 hours with Chris and the other 2 with Nicholas Orphanides. He teaches practical hospitality management which is how to run various food service venues/how to be an efficient kitchen team member (i.e. setting and waiting tables, polishing glasses, etc.) We get into petty arguments at least once a week. It's probably because he can sense how much i hate his portion of the class ::kanyeshrug:: Moving on!
Naturally, because I'm abroad in a country that speaks a different language I am taking a foreign language and that language happens to be Greek. Before I started the class, several natives warned me that Greek is very difficult and more than likely I will not learn to o much of the language before my time in Cyprus is over. Sadly, they were telling the truth. Seriously, I can't even order my food in Greek at a restaurant. It doesn't pose a problem because almost everyone is fluent in English (Cyprus used to be a British colony at some point in history), I just feel silly. When I went out to eat with Yasmin and Yodalis in Paris, they ordered in French. When I went out with Efrata in Rome, she ordered in Italian. Joshua ordered in Spanish in Barcelona but he's Dominican so it doesn't count. The other three have been taking the national language of their study abroad countries prior to this semester but still man! I feel like restaurant vocabulary is a basic part of learning a language and for the purposes of being abroad it should be taught early in the semester! I literally just got the worksheet with the restaurant vocabulary today and their are only 42 days left in the semester. The teacher is really nice and I know she has the best intentions but I do not like the way she arranged the syllabus. We were writing sentences in Greek letters before we even learned any vocabulary! Plus, the class is through Global Learning Semesters which means whenever a group from the program is traveling, class is cancelled (i.e. Semester in the Mediterranean (that's my program) got back form their travels on Monday evening so class was cancelled for all students on Monday morning). Despite all that, I'm doing well on paper. I got 100 on the first quiz and a 98 on the midterm. Blah.
My only REAL class is Criminology. My teacher, Stelios Stylianou, studied at the University of Seattle and he loves to talk about how the media skews the public's perception of criminals. Considering I'm not taking any communication courses his method of teaching allows me to receive some form of information relevant to my major this semester. In this class there are only two Americans, one of them is me, the rest of the class is predominantly Cypriot and this is where i learned about their lack of classroom etiquette. It can be frustrating to be in a class with so many Cypriots because sometimes they spark up class discussion in Greek and even if you ask nicely they refuse to continue the discussion in English. The fact that Stelios answers them in Greek doesn't help the situation but it's okay. I suppose they understand somethings better when the teacher explains in their own language so I won't selfishly complain. I took the midterm today and got an 85. I could have done better but I was in a rush to get to cooking because I thought we were going to be in the kitchen. Welp. I actually have to write a paper for the class right after I finish this entry and I'm going to wrap it up right now because we all know how long it takes me to write things. The fourth class is photography but I told you about that two entries ago so I don't have to elaborate here.
I have SO much to write about my Mediterranean trip and I haven't even touched Paris and London and I'm going to Israel tomorrow. I might have to just do highlights from the trips or photoblogs and that makes me sad. We'll see. Wish me a safe trip please!
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