Clases

It's been great to study here at the Universidad de La Serena. I'm taking three courses here and continuing my internship at CTIO, giving me a total of four credits for my study abroad program. The Chilean students in each "carrera" (major) are required to take mostly the same courses during their four to six years of study, and they can choose a few electives in other carreras. I'm lucky to take three electives in distinct carreras and on different campuses, in order to know the various students, professors, and assignments characteristic of the "facultades" (departments). Most of the grading seems to happen in the latter part of the semester, so my coursework is sure to pick up pace soon. Thus far, I have found that the professors are approachable for questions; the students are friendly and interested in the coursework, although fairly relaxed about scheduling; and obtaining the reading assignment happens through a complicated word-of-mouth process and a trip to one of many photocopiers near the university campus. Here are my courses:

Chilean Economics
This class is in the carrera Commercial Engineering, and is an elective with about 30 fifth-year students who have taken macro- and micro-economics. The professor is an economist by profession who works part-time at the university, and he assigns some very interesting readings from contemporary books and articles. In addition, we're responsible for browsing the library and searching the internet for pertinent sources, and I've found some really interesting readings about Chilean history.

The course is split into two parts: pre- and post-military government. Until now, we have covered the periods in Chilean history from the 1800s through 1973, which brings us to the transition from Allende to Pinochet. In the earlier times, Chile developed the mining which is still its livelihood today. Now, we will consider the recent few decades, which have brought many changes and formed the current Chilean economy. One class per week is lectured by the professor, and the other is spent doing a group "taller" (workshop) or debate. This class studies economics, but truly, the economics of Chile is directly related to its dynamic past, so I have learned a lot of Chilean history which gives me a better idea of how Chilean became the country it is today.

Archeo-astronomy
This course is taught by a professor who studied history and astronomy, and the course title appropriately combines "archeo" (the past) and "astronomy" (the study of the stars) to describe the interdisciplinary field which is very pertinent in this part of the world. We've learned about the night sky, and how the sky influenced the ancient Andean people. Last week, we used a telescope to look at the moon and saturn (yes, we even saw Saturn's rings!), and in a few weeks we will look at petrogliphs and camp at the "Valle del Encanto" (Valley of the Enchantment) near Ovalle (south of La Serena).

In addition, I'm working with my professor this semester to study a platform called "ushnu" which is found in many Inkan settlements in Peru and Chile. The ushnu is where the king would sit for festivals, and also was used to view the sun and create an early calendar. My professor hopes to find more ushnu's in this area, which may help historians understand the conquest patterns of the Incans.

Digital Circuits
Five other students take this elective offered in the physics department, although most days no more than three students come to class, so we work together in small groups with the professor looking over our shoulder. On Wednesday our professor teaches us theory based on "Boolean Algebra", and on Friday we apply this in lab using circuit project-boards. It's been fun to connect all of the wires, battery, circuits, resistors, diodes, and then measure the voltage to see if we get the expected power to run through our circuit.