Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Barry Greive, this is my first time "blogging" so please bear with me.
I am taking a class at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota titled "Hispanic/Latino Cultures and Civilizations.  I am excited to be participating in this and have hope of learning a lot about the history and culture of the people.  I don't know a lot about the subject at this time but should be able to ask questions more intelligently when done.

A few take a ways from the first class this week was that this should be an educational class but also fun and enjoyable, our facilitator seems to have a lot of real life experience in the subject and will make this fun as we go on our journey for the next 7 or 8 weeks.

I have  a lot of reading to do and just ordered the text book, I hope to have time this weekend to get caught up.  I will have to travel for work during a few of the classes and am sorry to the partner I was teamed up with for the duration of the class.  Michelle, my partner, gave me a suggestion of watching a movie called "A Better Life",

I am going to try to locate and watch it, she said it is heart warming so I will need to watch it when no one is home if you know what I mean :)

A few of the items I am to cover for this weeks assignment are covered below:

1. My first impressions of  this class are…
   I am really looking forward to this class, I think I will learn a lot as I know I have much to learn on the subject, I have always wanted to learn how to speak Spanish and hopefully this class will put a renewed spark in me to pursue that.  The class seems like there will be quite a bit of reading on my own but it is a hybrid class with some classroom and online components.  I am not 100% of the exact items that we will be covering but the Facilitator/Professor has a good outline for us.  I can see being excited to go to class to see what is in store for us and he is making it interactive and participatory which will make the time go faster and should be more fun.
2. My first impressions of my classmates/ class lead are… 
   Oh boy where do I start, just kidding, we have a nice mixture of young and old and male and female, many at least 40% are bi-lingual which will be interesting and valuable.  I have a great partner (Michelle) who speaks Spanish and is immersed in the culture.  We were also teamed up in groups, I have 4 in mine and they seem very nice and I look forward to meeting with  them weekly.  The class lead seems to be intelligent but has a sense of humor that will keep you on your toes.  I can tell there will be very few dull moments in this class.
3. My first impressions of what my next 8 weeks will be like are…  
   Informational, fun filled, educational, and enlightening.

More to come so keep an eye out for new posts, as the title says this is a journey for me and I look forward to the road I will travel on the way.
Next week I will have to miss class due to work (sorry Michelle) but will keep up on the assignments and this blog.  I intend to see if there is much Latino culture in Sudbury Ontario Canada.

Thanks,
Barry