(no subject)
A student clothed in gown and tasselled cap,
Striding along as if o'ertasked by Time,
Or covetous of exercise and air;
[...]
My spirit was up, my thoughts were full of hope;
Some friends I had, acquaintances who there
Seemed friends, poor simple school-boys, now hung round
With honour and importance: in a world
Of welcome faces up and down I roved;
Questions, directions, warnings and advice,
Flowed in upon me, from all sides; fresh day
Of pride and pleasure!
So. A summary of two rather intense weeks:
Arrived on campus with dad and Glynis, spent a day in NYC with dad's old high school teacher and his Stalinist wife, visited a teacher/cable splicer and the daughter of one of the Mitford sisters in the East Village, bought August Sander prints at the Met, took G to drool at shoes along 5th Ave, etc.
Our room looks lovely, with many chairs/sofa. I think we overcompensated a bit for the lack of seating last year, but eh. Sharing a room with Angie is amusing as always.
Orchestras are down to Yale Symphony, Berkeley, and Saybrook. I get to take lessons every week with Mr. Killmer! Woot! Excitement! Unfortunately this means that I need to both practice and learn to make reeds. Damn.
The first meeting of the Political Union came off relatively smoothly yesterday. Regrettably, I was forced to dress up to take the guest speaker out to dinner. There seems to be a lack of consensus regarding how I look in a suit, with reactions ranging from "cute" to "intimidating." I ix-nayed heels, and as a result managed to stay surprising comfortable throughout the evening.
We now have a TV, X-box, and DVD player in our common room. I'm learning to play video games. Bad. Various cool people come over and hang out with me and Angie in the evening.
Classes:
LITR 433 - The Modernist Lyric
European poetry 1900-1940 plus Baudelaire. Eliot, Cavafy, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Mandlestam, Mondale, Rilke. Many annoying lit people in the seminar who think that a necklace of dead bees represents poetry because all the little black lines on the bees would look like words strung together. Oh well. Whee! Go lit seminars! Go poetry!
STAT 102 - Introduction to Statistics
Lecture with several hundred people. Nice prof, but looks to be easy and boring as hell.
ECON 159 - Game Theory
Playing games! Funny prof with British accent! Exclamation point! Another lecture, but should be amusing and educational. So far, I've learned that there are two types of people who play games: Evil Gits and Indignant Angels.
FREN 130 - Intermediate/Advanced French
At least we get to read real things this year. Sartre, Camus, etc. It's cute: there are a lot of freshmen in the class, and they're still under the impression that they should do the homework and come to class prepared. I told the prof that I like French poetry, so she's been having us recite in class. Voltaire with spelling apologies: "L'autre jour au fon d'un vallon / Un serpent pica Jean Freron / Que pensez-vous qu'il arriva? / Ce fus le serpent qui creva."
PLSC 389 - Nation and Class in Comparative Perspective
Hooray for more seminars. A bit more on the neo-Marxist side than I was expecting, but hey. A LOT of reading. Many hundreds of pages per week. Cool just-out-of-grad-school prof. More interesting and non-obnoxious students than most poly sci seminars. Term paper on essentially whatever I want as long as it relates vaguely to nationalism, or internationalism, or class identity, or something.
My success/amusement of the week was convincing half of the Party of the Right that they believe in utilitarianism and that property rights don't exist. Fun and mind games! Death and destruction!
Striding along as if o'ertasked by Time,
Or covetous of exercise and air;
[...]
My spirit was up, my thoughts were full of hope;
Some friends I had, acquaintances who there
Seemed friends, poor simple school-boys, now hung round
With honour and importance: in a world
Of welcome faces up and down I roved;
Questions, directions, warnings and advice,
Flowed in upon me, from all sides; fresh day
Of pride and pleasure!
So. A summary of two rather intense weeks:
Arrived on campus with dad and Glynis, spent a day in NYC with dad's old high school teacher and his Stalinist wife, visited a teacher/cable splicer and the daughter of one of the Mitford sisters in the East Village, bought August Sander prints at the Met, took G to drool at shoes along 5th Ave, etc.
Our room looks lovely, with many chairs/sofa. I think we overcompensated a bit for the lack of seating last year, but eh. Sharing a room with Angie is amusing as always.
Orchestras are down to Yale Symphony, Berkeley, and Saybrook. I get to take lessons every week with Mr. Killmer! Woot! Excitement! Unfortunately this means that I need to both practice and learn to make reeds. Damn.
The first meeting of the Political Union came off relatively smoothly yesterday. Regrettably, I was forced to dress up to take the guest speaker out to dinner. There seems to be a lack of consensus regarding how I look in a suit, with reactions ranging from "cute" to "intimidating." I ix-nayed heels, and as a result managed to stay surprising comfortable throughout the evening.
We now have a TV, X-box, and DVD player in our common room. I'm learning to play video games. Bad. Various cool people come over and hang out with me and Angie in the evening.
Classes:
LITR 433 - The Modernist Lyric
European poetry 1900-1940 plus Baudelaire. Eliot, Cavafy, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Mandlestam, Mondale, Rilke. Many annoying lit people in the seminar who think that a necklace of dead bees represents poetry because all the little black lines on the bees would look like words strung together. Oh well. Whee! Go lit seminars! Go poetry!
STAT 102 - Introduction to Statistics
Lecture with several hundred people. Nice prof, but looks to be easy and boring as hell.
ECON 159 - Game Theory
Playing games! Funny prof with British accent! Exclamation point! Another lecture, but should be amusing and educational. So far, I've learned that there are two types of people who play games: Evil Gits and Indignant Angels.
FREN 130 - Intermediate/Advanced French
At least we get to read real things this year. Sartre, Camus, etc. It's cute: there are a lot of freshmen in the class, and they're still under the impression that they should do the homework and come to class prepared. I told the prof that I like French poetry, so she's been having us recite in class. Voltaire with spelling apologies: "L'autre jour au fon d'un vallon / Un serpent pica Jean Freron / Que pensez-vous qu'il arriva? / Ce fus le serpent qui creva."
PLSC 389 - Nation and Class in Comparative Perspective
Hooray for more seminars. A bit more on the neo-Marxist side than I was expecting, but hey. A LOT of reading. Many hundreds of pages per week. Cool just-out-of-grad-school prof. More interesting and non-obnoxious students than most poly sci seminars. Term paper on essentially whatever I want as long as it relates vaguely to nationalism, or internationalism, or class identity, or something.
My success/amusement of the week was convincing half of the Party of the Right that they believe in utilitarianism and that property rights don't exist. Fun and mind games! Death and destruction!