Books for my Japanese and History of Modern China classes.
Books for my Intro to Asian Art, Economic Development, and Political Systems of East Asia classes.
Altogether, those textbooks were $415.00. And with the exception of the Japanese class books, they were all USED books. Gah. College, why must you be so expensive?! And this was actually my cheapest semester yet, book-wise. I’m just glad I’m not in the business or medical fields…I’m sure they have it so much worse. ;O;
Anyway, I figured I’d do a quick post on how I feel about my classes so far.
Political Systems of East Asia - I didn’t know what to expect from this class, because the subject is only moderately interesting to me, and my World Politics professors in previous years had been kind of boring. The professor for this class, however, is quite entertaining. He’s enthusiastic about the subject and he cracks a lot of jokes. I like his energy because this is my first class of the day, and normally it would be difficult for me to stay awake. 
Intro to Asian Art - This is an Art History class. We’re covering Japan, China, and India, but mostly focusing on China. We’re going to get into the social, political, etc. context that produced the art. I had considered going for art as a major, so I’m enjoying the subject so far.
Japanese I - I had the option of taking Japanese I or Japanese III this semester. I was quite confident that on a speaking/listening level I would have been fine taking Japanese III, but since I don’t know many kanji, I decided to opt for Japanese I. I assumed that since this was a college-level course, it would move fairly quickly. I was quite wrong. We’re only going to learn the hiragana and katakana writing systems in this course. I learned both wayyy back in 9th grade, when I taught myself. I talked to the professor (in Japanese, too) after class about my concerns about this course being too easy for me, and she talked with the director of the department to try to get me into Japanese III. However, my Art History class is at the same time as Japanese III, so I’m stuck in level I. *sigh* Oh well, at least it’s an easy A. I already did all of my assignments for the semester. >_>
Economic Development - One of my minors is in Economics (my other one is History), so I’m really liking this class. The professor has a very strong accent, though, and it’s hard to understand him.
History of Modern China - I’ve had the professor years ago for my Introduction to History class, and I really liked him. China is his specialty, so he’s REALLY enthusiastic and energetic about this. My only complain is all the reading we have to do. XD
I think this is going to be my best semester yet.
