Community Service and Classes

Monday morning I met with the woman from my community service, Acción Ecológica, and talked about my project. Since our community service ends on November 30th, I am only going to have time to research the green economy. So far I have done a lot of research on Rio + 20, why agriculture is key to the success of a green economy, and the different agricultural policies that are being pushed for the UNCSD conference and just need to compile my results in a report. Although I have liked my community service and I have learned a lot, I still feel like I haven't really contributed that much to the organization or the community. Regardless, it's been a cool experience.

The outside of Acción Ecológica

Inside the building (the brooms are a joke about alternative energy)

My classes are also going well. Although I don't like our required course (The Construction of Pluricultural Nation-States in Andean America: Debates and Emergent Experiences, which I still have no idea what it means), I really like my other three classes. My Impresos class works with Photoshop and Illustrator and not only is it really easy, but it is extremely helpful and I hope to apply the things I've learned next semester at The Chronicle office. The other class that I take at Salesiana is Castellano, or Spanish grammar. Finally, I am taking a class at FLACSO, a graduate school, and my Agroecología class is turning out to be really interesting, although a little bit difficult to pay attention to considering each class lasts three hours. In general, my classes are a piece of cake compared to Duke. Four hours of homework per week compared to four hours of homework per night at Duke? I'll take the study abroad way any day.