The Linguistics Odyssey: A Tale of College, Exams, and New Adventures

Ok. I'm beginning to blog again, after about two months of inactivity. Last time I blogged, I was in Tampico, teaching English at a high school and at a university. I was actually teaching for the language center under the Law School at the college I graduated from.

My blogs will be in either Spanish or English. I'm thinking of writing one in English and then one in Spanish and continue like that. I enjoy writing in both languages, but because not all my readers know both languages, I want them to enjoy at least every other blog.

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Spanish: Mis blogs serán ya sea en español o en inglés. Estoy pensando en escribir uno en inglés y otro en español y seguir así. Me gusta escribir en ambos idiomas pero porque no todos mis lectores saben ambos idiomas quiero que disfruten por lo menos uno que otro blog.

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So, a little more than two months have passed, and I am now at Georgia State University doing my

Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics and ESL/EFL. I am actually here thanks to a scholarship, otherwise I don't know how I'd be able to pay for tuition, and as you may know, tuition is expensive, even more so for International Students. Anyway, let's just say that getting the scholarship was a lot of time, work, and money (I went to Mexico City several times to take a couple of expensive exams, and a few other things like getting my plane ticket to Atlanta), but it was all worth it. Now I have to keep up with classes and such.

Let me sum up the first two months for you all. We begin with Orientation Week. You would think that this meant going to a session where we were told about generalities about school, etc. Well, Orientation was actually several days, and we received TONS of information from many departments and individuals from Georgia State. I had never been so busy in my life, plus add the fact that it is my first time in Atlanta, so I did get lost a few times during the first month!

The feeling was kind of odd. After a day was over, I felt like it had gone by in three hours, but then when I looked back at everything I had done, at the end of the day, it felt like a week. I certainly felt tired after walking to so many places and meeting so many people. This happened for 5 continuous days. At the end of that first Orientation Week, it felt like a month had already gone by.

Next, let me tell you about classes. I have three classes per week, but the total work for each class is as if I had class every day of the week. That's good for a comparison. If you are reading me from the Mexican perspective (which some of you are), let's just say that you'd go on strike if you had to do these many things for a class at UAT (college I went to in Tampico: Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas). As if it weren't enough (time wise), I have to teach a Spanish 2 class because it is part of my assistantship. I'm not complaining, I love teaching Spanish, but it does get busy! Oh yes, I forgot to mention my classes: General Linguistics, Sound System of English, and Approaches to Second Language Acquisition.

Up to last week, I really enjoyed classes until we had Midterms. If you don't know what a Midterm is, it is defined like this: torture. We had to write 14 essays total (two take-home Midterms). The third Midterm was actually pretty acceptable. It was in class and it was easy. Love linguistics class! During Midterm week I also had to grade Spanish exams and writings, fun, huh?

Anyway, I really like my classes and would not change anything for the world.

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That was enough school.

Adventure-wise. I'm really loving Atlanta. They have a subway system, which in my opinion isn't bad. Mexico's City's subway has 14 lines, Atlanta's subway system only two. But then again, Tampico has NO subway system at all! (the picture below shows the station I use to get to school: Midtown Station)

I had already lived in the USA before, in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina to be exact, but Atlanta is so much different. F-V is small, peaceful and slow-paced; Atlanta is huge, noisy, lots of cars (with bad drivers, reminds me of Tampico; Mexico City is much worse) and fast-paced. Hot weather in Atlanta is enjoyable, considering we get hotter in Tampico. Sure, Atlanta has no beach (Tampico does) but at least we don't live in the middle of the country where they have it worse. I have people to be very friendly in Atlanta. When I've gotten lost around the city people are always very helpful, it even reminds me of Mexico. I find countless similarities between the people here and the people in Mexico, to some extent. Parties and music are not allowed here after a certain hour at night, or even during the day.

My classmates have all been really cool, and I have met many people from other countries. I have some friends from Turkey, Korea, Germany, different places around the USA and Mexico, of course. Southern hospitality is actually a reality, in my opinion. I have been to so many places too, but unfortunately, I just began blogging again. But worry not, I'll write more from now on!

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