Finally Up to First Day of Class

The last couple of days have been so hectic I made a decision to avoid posting to be prepared for class here and to have material up and ready to go for all of my classes back at UWRF. Before I left, I had material for my Criminology and Sociological Inquiry class prepped and set up online so that these three weeks are full of the material they need. The Deviant Behavior class was the last and it was only Monday that I was able to get the video lectures for one of the topics posted. This is all a long way of describing the fact that these aren't free days and that there is a good bit of stress coming into this situation. Vacation this is not! It really is full-fledged work, just done in a different location from where I would normally be. I was up at 6 this morning prepping for 6 hours of class today.

The International Traveling Classroom group is a good one. They are a close knit group overall and you can see the ties they have developed with each other over the last four cities. In a certain sense I am the novelty because up to this point they have only had classes from Ken. For them it is a switch and for me it is a great short term experience. I am able to have them as a small class of 22, compared to having double that number in this class when I am on campus. It is hopeful, rather than assured, but it would be nice to really have lots of discussion develop as we talk about all of the topics and connect the topics to things that are in Freiburg and in Brussels. Last night was great from the standpoint that they were already making sure to do the reading for today's class. I walked into the start of class knowing that they made the effort to read at least 2 sections of material for this morning's 3 hour class and then be prepared with 2 more sections of material for this afternoon's class.

Socially a number of them have identified how much they appreciate being in Freiburg already. Having the chance to be outside a bustling city with a natural environment really outside of their door is a change of pace for them. Even though such things were pretty readily available in Verona, here they don't even have to seek it out, and I think they are enjoying that element of it. They are already hiking the trails, wandering along the river, and exploring their surroundings. There is still also palpable excitement around the fact that we will be going to a football match on Saturday. SC Freiburg's stadium is not even a quarter mile away, in fact we can see the north stand from the hostel. My nerves about having them all there are just from the fact that the stadium has standing terraces behind each end that we are going to be inhabit for the match. I have no doubts they will be fine, but I would be lying if I didn't admit to it being on my mind a little bit.

To all of you in the Twin Cities area, and anywhere else effected by winter storm Saturn (is it really named that, hmmphf) I hope you are all safe and warm and sufficiently dug out today.