first day of school! first day of school!
I sat in on five classes today. All of which I would love to take. At least one of which I am not going to be in at the end of two weeks.
USEM first. Though the prof is sooooooooooooooo gold (LHS IB kids get me)...... anal, just anal about everything and strictly organized -- the class seems really interesting. Coming at language/identity from a completely different angle than Anth 139 did last semester. Like, from gender and the deaf community versus all foreign languages, respectively. And this kid Michael in it (Doyle fingers, voice down almost at a Murray pitch) seems really, really cool. Belongs in Boulder.
French is perfect for my level. Though the prof talks at Paris conversational speed (2,000 miles a minute average), I caught a good 2/3 of what he was saying; the other kids in class were responding at the same speed and level I would. And the girls around me were equally lost about the same things I was. This bodes well. Perfect level (not too low like Em at Pitt, not too high like I feared). Even though, unexpectedly, we will apparently be studying politics in France more than anything else. Meh. Gives me a good world perspective and the conversation's what matters. There's another, more culture-based section of 100-level French, but it's at the same time as...
Renaissance poetry. Cool subject, cool prof (he knows his shit, talks about it well, and puts the material in a modern-words context. Accurately summarized Donne's "The Flea" in about ten seconds), supercool classmates (NAOMI!), and guess who the TA is? That's right, my UWS teacher. Fucked up! Yet amusing. Brandeis is such a small world. I knew at least one person in every one of my classes today. Couple UWS girls in USEM, a UWS girl and a Roosevelt Fellow/Anth 139b'er in French, Jojo from RHPS and Naomi in poetry, and Martha from RHPS (as well as a kid in Ren Poetry) in....
Ancient Greek! This is the one I'll be dropping to take next year. I sat in on a whim, and later learned the prof is apparently one of the foremost teachers of Greek in either the States or the world, and that he's working on the latest translation of The Iliad, to be used in college campuses nationwide. Very cool. But I don't have the time for it this year, and it's offered every year. Plus, I got a handout of the alphabet already! Teeheehee. Lead straight into:
ARCHAEOLOGEE! The light of my break, the foremost reason I was looking forward to coming back to school. Cohen wears a wedding ring, but my gaydar bleeps with him. Maybe he just grew up in FL, like Adam Schwartzbaum. *rolls eyes* Anyway, it looks as promising as I made it out to be. Lots of work, but it'll be so yummy!
Tomorrow I'm skipping Greek and there's no archo (that's an hour and a half M/W), but other than that the same classes as today. Friday is for Intro to Literary Method (which I think will be the one I drop) in favor of Anth 186b. McIntosh is teaching it, and she asked last semester if I'd be taking it, and though I said I wouldn't, I talked to Jess this morning and she convinced me to at least sit in on it. I was also thinking about dropping in on Topics in ... art of ancient Greece and Rome, or something. This year's focus is mythology. i.e. mmmmmmmmmmmm. But I don't have the time for it. Sigh.
45 minutes steady state was so much better than I expected! 45 minutes, a 9k by my typical estimate, turned into 9576 meters. Which means that... hmm... 500 meters takes two and a half minutes. Or, in today's case, 2.21! Wheeeeee! Nine seconds is a fuck of a lot! Especially when it adds up to two and a half minutes' worth of extra meters. So, cool.
It is so cold outside. My snot freezes inside my nose. I had to wear my Irish wool sweater under my ski jacket to stay warm walking across the street. I mean, Jesus. And now it's supposed to snow from now till Friday. It's already started. Here goes....
Oh, and Matt came over and fixed my spacebar. Even if it's not how it should be fixed. It works better than it used to (well, after the half stopped working) without two of the pieces originally in it. Oh well! So long as it gets me spaces.
I think that's it. Oh, and chorus audition tomorrow, I guess. :) As well as first workout back with the team! Who wants to bet it's gonna be 2ks to see how we've improved? As Ems says, "Ay bruuuuuto....."
I ordered (re-ordered, I suppose) textbooks from half.com instead of buying them from the bookstore. Saved 40 bucks. I'll save another $58.95 if I return the seven Lit Method books. (USEM has ten. Those are the ones I re-found for cheaper after getting them initially at the bookstore.)
Alli's filling out her CA application... I'm writing.... it's cold out, but perfect in here.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINZ!!!
USEM first. Though the prof is sooooooooooooooo gold (LHS IB kids get me)...... anal, just anal about everything and strictly organized -- the class seems really interesting. Coming at language/identity from a completely different angle than Anth 139 did last semester. Like, from gender and the deaf community versus all foreign languages, respectively. And this kid Michael in it (Doyle fingers, voice down almost at a Murray pitch) seems really, really cool. Belongs in Boulder.
French is perfect for my level. Though the prof talks at Paris conversational speed (2,000 miles a minute average), I caught a good 2/3 of what he was saying; the other kids in class were responding at the same speed and level I would. And the girls around me were equally lost about the same things I was. This bodes well. Perfect level (not too low like Em at Pitt, not too high like I feared). Even though, unexpectedly, we will apparently be studying politics in France more than anything else. Meh. Gives me a good world perspective and the conversation's what matters. There's another, more culture-based section of 100-level French, but it's at the same time as...
Renaissance poetry. Cool subject, cool prof (he knows his shit, talks about it well, and puts the material in a modern-words context. Accurately summarized Donne's "The Flea" in about ten seconds), supercool classmates (NAOMI!), and guess who the TA is? That's right, my UWS teacher. Fucked up! Yet amusing. Brandeis is such a small world. I knew at least one person in every one of my classes today. Couple UWS girls in USEM, a UWS girl and a Roosevelt Fellow/Anth 139b'er in French, Jojo from RHPS and Naomi in poetry, and Martha from RHPS (as well as a kid in Ren Poetry) in....
Ancient Greek! This is the one I'll be dropping to take next year. I sat in on a whim, and later learned the prof is apparently one of the foremost teachers of Greek in either the States or the world, and that he's working on the latest translation of The Iliad, to be used in college campuses nationwide. Very cool. But I don't have the time for it this year, and it's offered every year. Plus, I got a handout of the alphabet already! Teeheehee. Lead straight into:
ARCHAEOLOGEE! The light of my break, the foremost reason I was looking forward to coming back to school. Cohen wears a wedding ring, but my gaydar bleeps with him. Maybe he just grew up in FL, like Adam Schwartzbaum. *rolls eyes* Anyway, it looks as promising as I made it out to be. Lots of work, but it'll be so yummy!
Tomorrow I'm skipping Greek and there's no archo (that's an hour and a half M/W), but other than that the same classes as today. Friday is for Intro to Literary Method (which I think will be the one I drop) in favor of Anth 186b. McIntosh is teaching it, and she asked last semester if I'd be taking it, and though I said I wouldn't, I talked to Jess this morning and she convinced me to at least sit in on it. I was also thinking about dropping in on Topics in ... art of ancient Greece and Rome, or something. This year's focus is mythology. i.e. mmmmmmmmmmmm. But I don't have the time for it. Sigh.
45 minutes steady state was so much better than I expected! 45 minutes, a 9k by my typical estimate, turned into 9576 meters. Which means that... hmm... 500 meters takes two and a half minutes. Or, in today's case, 2.21! Wheeeeee! Nine seconds is a fuck of a lot! Especially when it adds up to two and a half minutes' worth of extra meters. So, cool.
It is so cold outside. My snot freezes inside my nose. I had to wear my Irish wool sweater under my ski jacket to stay warm walking across the street. I mean, Jesus. And now it's supposed to snow from now till Friday. It's already started. Here goes....
Oh, and Matt came over and fixed my spacebar. Even if it's not how it should be fixed. It works better than it used to (well, after the half stopped working) without two of the pieces originally in it. Oh well! So long as it gets me spaces.
I think that's it. Oh, and chorus audition tomorrow, I guess. :) As well as first workout back with the team! Who wants to bet it's gonna be 2ks to see how we've improved? As Ems says, "Ay bruuuuuto....."
I ordered (re-ordered, I suppose) textbooks from half.com instead of buying them from the bookstore. Saved 40 bucks. I'll save another $58.95 if I return the seven Lit Method books. (USEM has ten. Those are the ones I re-found for cheaper after getting them initially at the bookstore.)
Alli's filling out her CA application... I'm writing.... it's cold out, but perfect in here.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINZ!!!