Sunshine hereonout?
Summer, year after year, seems to come sooner than it used to.
It's kind of hard to believe it's that time of the year already, and even so, there it is. I should know - while "busy" is what I've been lately, even so, I find that such free time as I have, I seem to spend outside. Lately now, it's been about as warm, green and bright as it ever gets here - and what's more, there's been a flock of swans, near forty of them by my count, about the island for a few weeks! So I've been spending a alot of time walking about the shores. It's kind of scary to see how quickly the seasons shift, the older you get.
That applies to University, too, I suppose. My second year is now drawint to a close, more like a thief in the night than anything! The great majority of my existence lately can pretty much be summed up as reading books and writing extensive essays on them. It's occured to me, and as something of a surprise, that this isn't actually an ideal way for me to study. I guess I've always thought of myself as a bookish guy, but the thing is, I find I really prefer being in class, having teachers and professors you can actually talk and argue with.
The thing that really kept driving me over the edge was Jean Bottéro's Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia, possibly one of the worst books I've had to read as academic discourse. Meanwhile, on the plus side, I've been on a number of genuinely interesting courses, the stand-outs being these two on the history of the Near East during the Hellenic and Roman periods, respectively. That experience definitely drives the point through: real education really needs educators, that's what makes it dynamic and interesting. I like reading and I like writing, but when they're all there is, it's not just a chore, it's also, how can I say, not an efficient use of my time.
On the other hand, this past week I sucked it up and actually got damn near everything done, which is good.
It's not like I'm running free - The good news of this entry is that I'll be employed the whole summer, near enough, starting... why, it's only a little more than a week from now! Then I'm off to excavating around Finland in one of the test excavation teams for the National Board of Antiquities. Oddly enough, I really look forward to this: Higher education has roughed me up a fair bit, this last period, and in contrast, there's something unequivocal about manual labour that I think will do me a lot of good for a change. Then, there's the not insignificant matter of money and paid work experience to boot!
Right now, of course, I ought to be learning Enuma Elish by heart, seeing as that's the only reasonable strategy I've been able to think of for the exam on Monday, which the professor impromptu decided we were going to have after all. But once that's out of the way, well... I guess I'll still be short on time, ahaha. But at least it'll be in a different scenery!
It's kind of hard to believe it's that time of the year already, and even so, there it is. I should know - while "busy" is what I've been lately, even so, I find that such free time as I have, I seem to spend outside. Lately now, it's been about as warm, green and bright as it ever gets here - and what's more, there's been a flock of swans, near forty of them by my count, about the island for a few weeks! So I've been spending a alot of time walking about the shores. It's kind of scary to see how quickly the seasons shift, the older you get.
That applies to University, too, I suppose. My second year is now drawint to a close, more like a thief in the night than anything! The great majority of my existence lately can pretty much be summed up as reading books and writing extensive essays on them. It's occured to me, and as something of a surprise, that this isn't actually an ideal way for me to study. I guess I've always thought of myself as a bookish guy, but the thing is, I find I really prefer being in class, having teachers and professors you can actually talk and argue with.
The thing that really kept driving me over the edge was Jean Bottéro's Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia, possibly one of the worst books I've had to read as academic discourse. Meanwhile, on the plus side, I've been on a number of genuinely interesting courses, the stand-outs being these two on the history of the Near East during the Hellenic and Roman periods, respectively. That experience definitely drives the point through: real education really needs educators, that's what makes it dynamic and interesting. I like reading and I like writing, but when they're all there is, it's not just a chore, it's also, how can I say, not an efficient use of my time.
On the other hand, this past week I sucked it up and actually got damn near everything done, which is good.
It's not like I'm running free - The good news of this entry is that I'll be employed the whole summer, near enough, starting... why, it's only a little more than a week from now! Then I'm off to excavating around Finland in one of the test excavation teams for the National Board of Antiquities. Oddly enough, I really look forward to this: Higher education has roughed me up a fair bit, this last period, and in contrast, there's something unequivocal about manual labour that I think will do me a lot of good for a change. Then, there's the not insignificant matter of money and paid work experience to boot!
Right now, of course, I ought to be learning Enuma Elish by heart, seeing as that's the only reasonable strategy I've been able to think of for the exam on Monday, which the professor impromptu decided we were going to have after all. But once that's out of the way, well... I guess I'll still be short on time, ahaha. But at least it'll be in a different scenery!