(no subject)
A quiet Saturday morning in my NEW HOME (pause for celebratory hand-clapping, because after three weeks the thrill hasn't nearly worn off yet), and I'm reminded that I usually do a beginning-of-semester, "here's all of the stuff I've piled on my plate and what I think about it so far" sort of a post. So I suppose this is it.
HOUSE
So I'm living in a HOUSE now, with koreyori and Eszter. funnythingis left for Scotland last night (well, really this morning, but whatever) with much fanfare. Gentlemen associated with the household came over, there were cookies, taking of silly polaroids, Jungle Speed (whyiloverain, this is totally our new game, it's like Egyptian Ratscrew crossed with Set and it's amazing), followed by a curbside send-off involving three young women hopping up and down and yipping like puppies on the curbside. I think it was all sufficiently dorky and childish that Katy can carry fond memories with her to Scotland.
Anyway, so now it's just the three of us in our wonderful 1908 four-bedroom house. (Next semester the downstairs bedroom will be filled, but for now... well, anyone want to visit? Or got a couple of illegal immigrants or illegitimate children they want to store somewhere safe?) Huge closets, a fireplace, hardwood floors, a little yard out back and in front, a screened-in porch, a dining room. Oh, and a kitchen. It is positively a castle after the dorms -- I can't even remember the last time I felt this spoiled and privileged, and I feel privileged on a nearly daily basis. I have the front bedroom over the porch, with furniture that actually sort of matches, even though it was all collected in different places. At some point I'll tidy it up a bit and take pictures or something, as my parents never saw it with all the furniture set up and everything.
(Speaking of parents, I believe it's been too long since I mentioned how amazing mine are. They gave up a week of their summer to come and help me move in, and honestly I haven't seen my family work so hard all on the same project since The Fantasticks. Apart from giving me a good home and an education, and just being generally a quite extraordinarily good set of parents, this leg-up they've given me into independent adult living is one of the most amazing things they've ever done for me. ... Have I mentioned I feel spoiled? God.)
So yes. It's going to be a good semester, living quarters-wise koreyori proposed we name our house "The Harem," and until another name is suggested, I suppose that's what it will be. Better than "The Coven," which I believe was my mother's suggestion. Votes?
CLASSES: Cognitive Neuroscience, Intermediate German I, Elementary Japanese I, and World Music
One day on the five-class schedule was enough to confirm, as expected, that I was insane to think there was any chance of me handling that. Since Intro Linguistics is offered every semester and I can probably squeeze it in somewhere else before I graduate, I dropped it. This means I'm actually taking the Japanese for credit, which is scary and probably silly, but... it's been a long time since I got really sucked into an interest. (Well, maybe not that long. Flamenco was only freshman year.) Anyway, follow your heart and all that. Japanese it is.
So. First Cogitive Neuroscience class wasn't anything new, but god it was awesome to be back in a neuro class. It had been an entire year, and it was so nice to realize that yes, this is an interest that has endured. Also, I still remember a lot. The professor did what neuro professors usually do, which is to get out an actual brain on the first class. (The "wow!" factor.) There was a whole brain in a jar, and then a dissected one which he laid out on trays and asked us to identify prominent bits of. (Most of us put on gloves and got right in there, but a few people hung back and were amusingly squeamish. Silly chemistry majors.) I still remembered all the major lobes, correctly identified optic nerves and hippocampus and cerebellum and hypothalamus and corpus callosum and other really easy bits, and actually remembered most of the functions of the bits I identified. All totally elementary, but it was more than I expected to remember. And since it looks like it won't be quite as difficult a class as Behavioural Neuroscience was, and there'll be a bunch of basic review at the beginning, I'm not nearly as worried about this class as I was before.
God. Brains. They're SO COOL.
Anyway, if no one's been squicked too badly by my unholy passion for Thinking Meat, I'll move on to the languages.
German is German... it's not my passion, and god have I ever forgotten a lot, but it's definitely worth my time to get more secure in it. Like French, I'll like it more when I'm better at it. German speakers on my friendslist -- there are scads of you, really -- give me kicks periodically, or comment in German or something. It'll be motivating. Thanks.
Japanese... well, wow. I mean, it isn't hard yet, because I taught myself hiragana over the summer, and all the Takarazuka has given me familiarity with the sounds and a bunch of random words, but it will be, I know. And I'm incredibly excited for the challenge. And irked with myself for having sprouted yet another interest, demanding yet another language. The professor is a slightly pompous young man, just finished his doctorate (on Korean men in Japan -- his general field-of-study interests are popular culture, performing arts, gender, and outsiders; are we laughing yet, Takarazuka fans?), but very thorough and clear. We haven't learned much yet, so I have nothing to say except that I feel very awkward bowing and that hiragana mnemonics are hilarious and that I'm absurdly excited for my next class.
World Music is taught by another very young professor, nervous but thoughtful and clearly still very much in love with his subject, although probably not thrilled by having to teach an intro-level course. The class is huge for a music course-- nearly thirty people, possibly even more than there were for 19th century music -- and of those there are only three music majors and one minor. The rest are economics majors, international studies majors, biology majors, and other random fields of study, taking this because it fulfills their fine arts requirements and still sort of overlaps with their field of study. I don't know if this will make discussions more or less interesting -- on the one hand, people may be less motivated, on the other hand there'll be lots of new perspectives. At any rate, there are lots of opportunities in the syllabus to do independent, self-directed projects, which means I'll be spending more time on this class than I expected (because I always pick projects that suck me in), but also that I can create my own special little flamenco-focused version of the class. I may even be able to get class credit for the palmas/cante workshops I'm planning on taking. Score.
MUSIC
The choir's going to be good this year. Just a couple of new people in each section, and all very strong, though the baritones will definitely miss Daniel. Altos, naturally, are still by far the best musicians and the sexiest section as a whole. Because we always are. So there. (God help me if I ever actually get moved to soprano...)
Haven't started voice lessons yet, but Lauri's agreed that we should take a step back this semester, choose just one or maybe two arias and keep the rest as nice fairly easy art songs. Having very difficult, slightly-beyond-me things thrown at me has been interesting, but I probably haven't made as much technical progress as I could or should have if I'd stuck to easier stuff. Time to solidify. So it looks like it'll be Brahms, Ravel, Mozart, Handel and a bit of Argento in there, just to keep things lively. Mostly what I want to work on this semester is performance nerves and self-confidence, which still tend to be crippling handicaps for me, even more than technical issues. I have a feeling that a lot would fall into place if I could just ... turn my ego off. Give myself a break once in a while. Wish me luck.
HOBBIES
Takarazuka love continues apace. (Hahah... I just realized I mentioned it for the first time on livejournal in my last beginning-of-semester post. I was still in the dazed and desperate phase then, struggling not to talk about it. Poor me.) Anyway, maybe one day I'll even learn to talk about this interest without blushing. Eszter, being a darling and all, wants an introduction to it, and has been stalking the Takarazuka playlist on my iTunes library. Maybe I'll have some companionship soon in my obsessive love for this theater company, though I hope for her sake she won't get as addicted as I am. But just having somebody around who might, possibly, come when I shriek "Kiriyan! Asa! Fedoras!" get a slightly goofy grin on her face would be... awesome. And make me feel much less closeted as a fan. ... No pressure, though, Eszter, in case you ever read this. God knows I get more than the recommended daily dose of companionable squeeing on livejournal as it is.
Flamenco stuff hasn't started yet, but as I mentioned I'm planning on doing a workshop in palmas and cante with the guest instructor La Conja Abdessalam, in addition to the regular beginners class. Ben's talking again about starting a Macalester Ensemble. One day we WILL get that together, dammit.
And because I didn't have enough dance forms I was interested in already, I bought myself a series of 10 classes at the ballroom dance studio around the corner. They're always short of men, which means I've been fulfilling my more or less lifelong dream of learning to lead. (In the last five minutes I switch to following, and since it's usually just a matter of relaxing, reversing the steps, and not thinking too much, it's kind of like getting two classes for the price of one.) The people at the studio seem to think it's awfully cute, and rather handy, that there's a girl who wants to lead, though I suspect they also think I'm sort of weird. (Funny, how quickly people catch on to that.) Anyway, I've done classes in waltz, salsa, merengue, rhumba, and a couple in tango, which is by far the most difficult and also my favorite. It all makes me incredibly happy. Luckily I'll be too busy soon to take classes more than one or twice a week, otherwise this new interest would totally suck my money away.
Umm... okay, that's all. These posts are silly. Also really damn long and dull. Does anyone read these except my family?
HOUSE
So I'm living in a HOUSE now, with koreyori and Eszter. funnythingis left for Scotland last night (well, really this morning, but whatever) with much fanfare. Gentlemen associated with the household came over, there were cookies, taking of silly polaroids, Jungle Speed (whyiloverain, this is totally our new game, it's like Egyptian Ratscrew crossed with Set and it's amazing), followed by a curbside send-off involving three young women hopping up and down and yipping like puppies on the curbside. I think it was all sufficiently dorky and childish that Katy can carry fond memories with her to Scotland.
Anyway, so now it's just the three of us in our wonderful 1908 four-bedroom house. (Next semester the downstairs bedroom will be filled, but for now... well, anyone want to visit? Or got a couple of illegal immigrants or illegitimate children they want to store somewhere safe?) Huge closets, a fireplace, hardwood floors, a little yard out back and in front, a screened-in porch, a dining room. Oh, and a kitchen. It is positively a castle after the dorms -- I can't even remember the last time I felt this spoiled and privileged, and I feel privileged on a nearly daily basis. I have the front bedroom over the porch, with furniture that actually sort of matches, even though it was all collected in different places. At some point I'll tidy it up a bit and take pictures or something, as my parents never saw it with all the furniture set up and everything.
(Speaking of parents, I believe it's been too long since I mentioned how amazing mine are. They gave up a week of their summer to come and help me move in, and honestly I haven't seen my family work so hard all on the same project since The Fantasticks. Apart from giving me a good home and an education, and just being generally a quite extraordinarily good set of parents, this leg-up they've given me into independent adult living is one of the most amazing things they've ever done for me. ... Have I mentioned I feel spoiled? God.)
So yes. It's going to be a good semester, living quarters-wise koreyori proposed we name our house "The Harem," and until another name is suggested, I suppose that's what it will be. Better than "The Coven," which I believe was my mother's suggestion. Votes?
CLASSES: Cognitive Neuroscience, Intermediate German I, Elementary Japanese I, and World Music
One day on the five-class schedule was enough to confirm, as expected, that I was insane to think there was any chance of me handling that. Since Intro Linguistics is offered every semester and I can probably squeeze it in somewhere else before I graduate, I dropped it. This means I'm actually taking the Japanese for credit, which is scary and probably silly, but... it's been a long time since I got really sucked into an interest. (Well, maybe not that long. Flamenco was only freshman year.) Anyway, follow your heart and all that. Japanese it is.
So. First Cogitive Neuroscience class wasn't anything new, but god it was awesome to be back in a neuro class. It had been an entire year, and it was so nice to realize that yes, this is an interest that has endured. Also, I still remember a lot. The professor did what neuro professors usually do, which is to get out an actual brain on the first class. (The "wow!" factor.) There was a whole brain in a jar, and then a dissected one which he laid out on trays and asked us to identify prominent bits of. (Most of us put on gloves and got right in there, but a few people hung back and were amusingly squeamish. Silly chemistry majors.) I still remembered all the major lobes, correctly identified optic nerves and hippocampus and cerebellum and hypothalamus and corpus callosum and other really easy bits, and actually remembered most of the functions of the bits I identified. All totally elementary, but it was more than I expected to remember. And since it looks like it won't be quite as difficult a class as Behavioural Neuroscience was, and there'll be a bunch of basic review at the beginning, I'm not nearly as worried about this class as I was before.
God. Brains. They're SO COOL.
Anyway, if no one's been squicked too badly by my unholy passion for Thinking Meat, I'll move on to the languages.
German is German... it's not my passion, and god have I ever forgotten a lot, but it's definitely worth my time to get more secure in it. Like French, I'll like it more when I'm better at it. German speakers on my friendslist -- there are scads of you, really -- give me kicks periodically, or comment in German or something. It'll be motivating. Thanks.
Japanese... well, wow. I mean, it isn't hard yet, because I taught myself hiragana over the summer, and all the Takarazuka has given me familiarity with the sounds and a bunch of random words, but it will be, I know. And I'm incredibly excited for the challenge. And irked with myself for having sprouted yet another interest, demanding yet another language. The professor is a slightly pompous young man, just finished his doctorate (on Korean men in Japan -- his general field-of-study interests are popular culture, performing arts, gender, and outsiders; are we laughing yet, Takarazuka fans?), but very thorough and clear. We haven't learned much yet, so I have nothing to say except that I feel very awkward bowing and that hiragana mnemonics are hilarious and that I'm absurdly excited for my next class.
World Music is taught by another very young professor, nervous but thoughtful and clearly still very much in love with his subject, although probably not thrilled by having to teach an intro-level course. The class is huge for a music course-- nearly thirty people, possibly even more than there were for 19th century music -- and of those there are only three music majors and one minor. The rest are economics majors, international studies majors, biology majors, and other random fields of study, taking this because it fulfills their fine arts requirements and still sort of overlaps with their field of study. I don't know if this will make discussions more or less interesting -- on the one hand, people may be less motivated, on the other hand there'll be lots of new perspectives. At any rate, there are lots of opportunities in the syllabus to do independent, self-directed projects, which means I'll be spending more time on this class than I expected (because I always pick projects that suck me in), but also that I can create my own special little flamenco-focused version of the class. I may even be able to get class credit for the palmas/cante workshops I'm planning on taking. Score.
MUSIC
The choir's going to be good this year. Just a couple of new people in each section, and all very strong, though the baritones will definitely miss Daniel. Altos, naturally, are still by far the best musicians and the sexiest section as a whole. Because we always are. So there. (God help me if I ever actually get moved to soprano...)
Haven't started voice lessons yet, but Lauri's agreed that we should take a step back this semester, choose just one or maybe two arias and keep the rest as nice fairly easy art songs. Having very difficult, slightly-beyond-me things thrown at me has been interesting, but I probably haven't made as much technical progress as I could or should have if I'd stuck to easier stuff. Time to solidify. So it looks like it'll be Brahms, Ravel, Mozart, Handel and a bit of Argento in there, just to keep things lively. Mostly what I want to work on this semester is performance nerves and self-confidence, which still tend to be crippling handicaps for me, even more than technical issues. I have a feeling that a lot would fall into place if I could just ... turn my ego off. Give myself a break once in a while. Wish me luck.
HOBBIES
Takarazuka love continues apace. (Hahah... I just realized I mentioned it for the first time on livejournal in my last beginning-of-semester post. I was still in the dazed and desperate phase then, struggling not to talk about it. Poor me.) Anyway, maybe one day I'll even learn to talk about this interest without blushing. Eszter, being a darling and all, wants an introduction to it, and has been stalking the Takarazuka playlist on my iTunes library. Maybe I'll have some companionship soon in my obsessive love for this theater company, though I hope for her sake she won't get as addicted as I am. But just having somebody around who might, possibly, come when I shriek "Kiriyan! Asa! Fedoras!" get a slightly goofy grin on her face would be... awesome. And make me feel much less closeted as a fan. ... No pressure, though, Eszter, in case you ever read this. God knows I get more than the recommended daily dose of companionable squeeing on livejournal as it is.
Flamenco stuff hasn't started yet, but as I mentioned I'm planning on doing a workshop in palmas and cante with the guest instructor La Conja Abdessalam, in addition to the regular beginners class. Ben's talking again about starting a Macalester Ensemble. One day we WILL get that together, dammit.
And because I didn't have enough dance forms I was interested in already, I bought myself a series of 10 classes at the ballroom dance studio around the corner. They're always short of men, which means I've been fulfilling my more or less lifelong dream of learning to lead. (In the last five minutes I switch to following, and since it's usually just a matter of relaxing, reversing the steps, and not thinking too much, it's kind of like getting two classes for the price of one.) The people at the studio seem to think it's awfully cute, and rather handy, that there's a girl who wants to lead, though I suspect they also think I'm sort of weird. (Funny, how quickly people catch on to that.) Anyway, I've done classes in waltz, salsa, merengue, rhumba, and a couple in tango, which is by far the most difficult and also my favorite. It all makes me incredibly happy. Luckily I'll be too busy soon to take classes more than one or twice a week, otherwise this new interest would totally suck my money away.
Umm... okay, that's all. These posts are silly. Also really damn long and dull. Does anyone read these except my family?