on the past six months: part two
Part Two: February
There was only one major event of February, and it's not what you think it is. No, February was not defined by Valentine's Day, but by Santa Fe, New Mexico.
St. John's College was absolutely scrambling to get me to come to their school. They were doing everything in their power to convince me that I should finish my application and go to their school. They would email me twice a week, and when that didn't cut it, they started calling me. And when they called, they offered to fly me to New Mexico so that I could see how frakking amazing their school was and decide to spend the rest of forever there.
So I thought, "Sure. Why not spend a weekend in New Mexico. Might as well, even if I'm kind of using the school with no intention of actually changing my mind. Maybe I will..."
And thus, a trip was born. They send me my flight information (a very early flight there, a very late flight back, and a minimum of time actually on campus), and say, "Can't wait to meet you!" (read: Love me please...)
And thusly, I go! I wake up at 4:30 so that I can leave for the airport by 5, arrive by 6, and fly by 7. I arrive, and take the hour-long shuttle to campus. This is the point where the unstoppable yawning - caused by my five hours of sleep - began.
I finally arrive at campus, and am quickly sent to visit a music class. This music class was discussing Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in seminar form.
This is precisely the moment that I discovered I had absolutely no interest in this school.
As I was trying to act like I cared, the other visiting student in the class was actually paying attention and actually cared, laughing along with the professor's bad jokes and nodding in agreement. The other students were making insightful (read: repetitive and contrived) points. I was desperately trying not to look too tired and disinterested. And failing.
But, I still had practically 24 hours left. And so the visit went on.
Due to my complete disinterest in the school and its curriculum, I had a slightly difficult time making friends. The visiting student from before - who turned out to be my roommate - tried talking to me, but because our viewpoints so wildly differed, she quickly stopped trying. I ate dinner in a corner of the dining hall with James Joyce as my companion, who turned out not to be such great company.
After dinner, I had one more class to attend. This one was twice as long as the music class had been, and ended at 10:00 at night. I should have known then.
Practically as soon as I had sat down, I was falling asleep in my chair. And that honestly just seemed rude. But I honestly couldn't stop myself from dozing off. At one point - while the class was discussing Dante's view of heaven - I think I actually conked out for a good 20 minutes.
There was no hope. But still they strove!
The next day - after an entirely insufficient amount of sleep - St. John's started throwing the interviews at me. Each interview went just about the same way.
Interviewer: So, what are you interested in?
Me: Astrophysics.
Interviewer: ... Why are you looking at St. John's?
Me: That's the thing. I changed my major, and now I'm not really interested in St. John's.
Interviewer: ... Well, St. John's is great for science! In fact, I think it's the best thing you could possibly do to advance your scientific career.
Me: Right.
Every time! Even though they obviously didn't believe it. Two seconds earlier, they were honestly befuddled at why a science major would ever choose St. John's.
I visited one more class - a Classical Greek language course - before I had to leave for the airport. I mentioned this in the final interview, that was with the woman who had scheduled the trip for me. She was deeply dismayed. "I know science is what you're interested in, it would have been good for you to see how we teach it here."
This is coming from the woman who scheduled both my flight AND my classes. She should know that scheduling me to visit a class that starts after my flight leaves is not going to work. Is that what they teach at this school? Honestly...
So, that basically sums up February. More mishap and adventures to ensue in March and beyond!
aliceheist