Going into this class, I had no idea what to expect outside of the topic of Jerusalem. However, after learning about the course through the first few classes, I know that there is so much to look into that could be studied for years and years. I believe that the set up of the course is quite different than any other course that I have taken. For me it will take awhile to get used to because I am not one of those who respond well to others' dialogue and reactions.
As we spoke about today in class, I am curious to see how the blogs turn out. I think that they could be a success, or they could cause some trouble. It is hard to keep up with 30 people writing blogs about similar, yet broad issues. With all of the time and effort put into these readings and blogs, there could become a potential time problem for me in this class. Between those and understanding what we are actually reading with the history, it could create some havoc.
After the first few sets of readings, I think that the most interesting ones were about the Festival in Washington D.C. When reading about it and finding out that the main reason why it did not happen was because of financial issues, it really made me think whether or not to believe it due to all of the other issues that were going on at the time between the Israelis and Palestinians. However, on the research side, residents just wanted to have their own designations of certain things such as food, art, and living quarters. The aspects of this allowed each side to have their own parts of the Festival, but unfortunately, money was the most important thing and could not be resolved.
Through the first few classes, I can tell that we have a variety of people in our class including male and female, Jewish and non-Jewish, and people who know absolutely nothing about Jerusalem. There is nothing wrong with this. Actually, I think it is great because of all the different perspectives that will be brought up through the semester. I am looking forward to hearing everyone's opinions, whether we agree or not because that is what this class is all about.
Max, I agree with many of your opinions. I am in the same boat as you are. I had no clue what to expect from this class, but I have already learned a lot in just a few days. As far as the blogs go, I feel like it will be difficult to keep up with reading and commenting on these blogs as we get deeper into different subjects throughout this course, but overall I feel like reading others' opinions and creating a dialogue is what part of this class is about. I'm excited to hear more opinions as this class continues.
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