I'm taking this class because I want to explore different cultures and ways of life. In particular I am interested in Latin America because I have latin friends so I would like to learn more abouttheir history, values, beliefs, religion, etc. I am from Iran so I'm also curious to see what the similarities and differences are because I've heard that hundreds of years ago people from the middle east were in Latin countries so our culture, food, and even some comonly used phrases are similar in some ways.

But the main reason I started to think about taking this class was becauseit is in one of the categories for my general education that I have to take. I haven't taken any other online classes before. So another reason I'm taking this online course is to get a feel for online courses and see if it's something I like or not. I also like it because of the flexability of doing assignemnts whenever you have time. And I really like this classes "self-research" approach bceause it really feels like you are actually practicing the humanities, not just memorizing boring dates and facts you wont remember later.

I live in Marin county ( san rafael) so I'm around 33 miles away from the JC by car. It usually takes around 40-45 minutes to drive there.