Reflection of week 2

This week really felt like the beginning of college. I had a semblance of a routine and in my classes we discussed more than the syllabus. Emotionally I have been feeling better as well, my weird sense of homesickness still remains but it has lessened to the point where I can function without wanting to call my friends or family every day. I went grocery shopping 3 times in one weekend and I am one happy dorm girl now. However, the weather has been horrendous! I miss the California dry heat and the predictable 75 degrees and sunny (even though it has been 90 degrees there recently). I had a strong yearning to go to the beach today, along with multiple other times during the week. I have a lot of reading to do so I am going to finish that after I have uploaded this post.

My classes this week have been fantastic. I really love my Chinese class, and my professor is one of the best language instructors I have ever had. I feel like I am truly learning a lot and that makes me very happy. My professor recommended a book called The Beautiful Country and The Middle Kingdom which describes the history between China and the United States from 1776 to present day, I haven’t bought it yet though. I did not have Global Cities this week so I am excited for tomorrow to actually start learning the real content of the course. We are learning about Tokyo and that is where I would love to study abroad so I am very interested in learning more about it. Writing is still in a neutral position for me, I have never loved English class because I am not a very good writer. AUx has been going well, it is a class I do not have to worry about which is relieving. World Politics has been extremely riveting this week. We finished Awiti and are now playing a game called Diplomatic Risk, but before I get into that I want to talk about the article we read. To be honest it has been the only article so far where I did not fall asleep while reading it once! If that alone does not tell you how much I enjoyed the article, then you do not know me very well. I found the subject very relevant and the descriptions eye opening. Now on to Diplomatic Risk.

This game is not what I expected. I really enjoy working with my team to find the best path to our version of success as dictated by the player cards we were given. I have found that my vision of how the game would go has changed. I am entertained by the different negotiations that are going on during turns and what a group eventually decides to put down. Maddy is an excellent diplomat she is very calm when dealing with the other teams and is very good at communicating with Annie and I. Annie has a lot of great ideas and I am happy she is our Head of State, she understands what our end goal is and she is a team player. Even though the final decision for what goes on the board is hers, she always takes the suggestions Maddy and I make into account when placing our armies. I was very against going to war at the beginning of the game, but at this point it looks like a war may be inevitable and I am worried what it will do to our economy. I want to plan for the dip it will cause so we do not feel the full effects of a war time economy.

Wow I cannot wait to see what this coming is going to throw at me.