Classes at QM

I only have to take four courses at Queen Mary instead of the five I would take at Boston College, but this is still considered a full course load. I was told that "communications is an American major" basically meaning that any course I take over here in London that is related to communication will not transfer into credits at BC. So I'm just taking courses that I thought would be interesting and that are different from any course that is offered back in Boston.

The classes here only meet once a week for two hours which leaves me with a lot of free time. My schedule works out so that I don't have any class on Tuesdays or Fridays which is reaaaaally nice especially for traveling on a long weekend. The way classes are conducted here are different as well. The majority of my classes only have two papers due the entire semester meaning that each paper is worth 50% of my grade! Really puts the pressure on, but at the same time also lessens the workload. Papers are marked blindly here as well in order to reduce any bias towards students which I thought was interesting.

So I'm taking Linguistics of Storytelling which looks at the importance of storytelling throughout cultures and families as well as how telling stories aids in the development of the individual and social life in general. It's really interesting and I can see a relation to my sociology classes at BC.

I'm also taking a drama class called Theatre for A Change?: International which looks at the preservation of culture as well as how cultural interventions are used in areas of social development through different theatre practices. Pretty interesting. I'm also taking a class called Brief Encounters: Short Stories and Tall Tales. Let me tell you...the stories are not that short!! I still really enjoy it though. A different English class than any I've seen at BC; we look at stories that are really dark and creepy, kind of like anti-fairytales.

Last, but definitely not least, is the history class that I'm taking (which I never thought I would voluntarily sign up for seeing that I pretty much despise history). But this class is surprisingly interesting!! It's called Architecture in London and so every other week we go on an architectural visit around the city. It's really cool and you can tell that our professor loves teaching the class so it makes it that much better. The majority of students in this class are Americans seeing that it's a great way to learn about where we're studying for the semester!

So far we've visited.....

1) Admiralty Arch & Buckingham Palace (the flag means the Queen is in!)


2) Houses of Parliament (Big Ben, too!) & Foreign Office



3) Leighton House & Melbury Road (located in Kensington: extremely wealthy area where all the top artists lived during the Victiorian period)

This building pictured above called "Tower House" is where the guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin currently lives. We saw him pulling out of his driveway in a mini-van!!