I'm so excited!
And I just can't hide it! I'm-about-to-lose-control-and-I-think-I-like-it! [not really, but you get the picture]
The time for me to update properly is here! Shocking, I know. In the past weeks I've taken upon a bunch of projects, simultaneously, which isn't what I'm used to. My first two years at university were a bit of a muck-up, because I had the tendency of getting lazy sometimes; that happens when high school drains all the energy out of you and you see university as the perfect opportunity to relax a bit. During first year, I attended most of my classes , but I wasn't asked to do much else, which, at the time, I found pretty convenient. I spent time with my friends and made new ones, went on trips, went out a lot and generally had fun. Exams bored me a bit. When second year began, I came back all energetic and ready in the fall, but there was general turmoil in Greek Universities. And for good reason, too; but it's a long story and I don't want to bore you with the details. Suffice it to say, my school was closed down in December 2006, and reopened in mid-May 2007. Half of the school year was lost. I was more than a little frustrated, feeling that I was doing nothing as a university student. But things have changed.
This school year is shaping up to be something entirely different, something I'm really excited for. OK, there's the fact that I had to sit 16 different exams in 2 months and kinda exhausted myself, but I passed them all, and it led up to a pretty awesome semester. The classes are very interesting, and I have all these projects on the side that require research and give me an immense sense of satisfaction when completed. Also, they will help me with grades, or will serve as term papers, saving me from taking a lot of exams in February. I've already completed one project for my "Music Culture" class. Yeah, that doesn't sound like it's related to communication/media studies, but our professor is really nice and cool, and can jump topics in a conversation quite easily; case in point, we go from discussing Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, in seconds. It's even cooler because he would seem like a very rigid, academic person - approximately 65 years old, and smoking a pipe (LOL). Anyway, I did my project on Flamenco music, and did a 1-hour presentation before the class. I showed some scenes from Carlos Saura films (that man is a genius), played some flamenco tracks, and talked, talked, talked. I'll tell you, that was a bit scary, I was trembling a little. But it went really well, and that was a huge relief.
Right now I'm in the middle of two other projects: one is for my Rhetoric class, and it's analysis a dialogue by Plato called Gorgias. I have to analyse the structure, the arguments and the counterpoints, write a paper and present it to the class. The other is this enormous research we're conducting in another class, about Greek news shows. We're making assessments on the kind of sentiment they impose on the viewer with the way they present each news item, and my part is to watch one news show every day, for two weeks, determining the hidden meanings and the feelings caused. The research might get published, too. :DDD
I saved the best for last, though. Starting from next week, I'll have my own radio show! It's on my school's Web Radio (which means we pre-record shows and have them stream on the school's website), and I'm not getting paid of course, but it's a job. ON MY OWN RADIO SHOW!!! I've been a little hyper these past few days, because I'm trying to figure out what my first topic will be. My show will be covering society issues, but I'm trying not to make things sound too grim, or too chirpy. I'm also in search of a title, but everything that comes to mind is either totally lame/cheesy, or hugely inappropriate. Obviously I'll have to put a lot of work into this, because I have to do my own research and write about 45 minutes of "speaking material" at a time, but I can't let fear of workload or panic diminish my excitement over this. I'll also get to finally learn HTML, because along with a classmate of mine, we will be uploading the recordings and updating the site with news, pictures etc.
I am so, so happy and excited that I'm getting all these opportunities this semester. I want to be really careful and not screw anything up. It's an incredible surge of power, all these ideas are flooding in, and I feel like managing 10 different things at the same time. Truth is, I never wanted to get into university just to get in. I actually wanted to learn, collect experiences, be creative and do things I'm proud of. And it's finally happening.
The time for me to update properly is here! Shocking, I know. In the past weeks I've taken upon a bunch of projects, simultaneously, which isn't what I'm used to. My first two years at university were a bit of a muck-up, because I had the tendency of getting lazy sometimes; that happens when high school drains all the energy out of you and you see university as the perfect opportunity to relax a bit. During first year, I attended most of my classes , but I wasn't asked to do much else, which, at the time, I found pretty convenient. I spent time with my friends and made new ones, went on trips, went out a lot and generally had fun. Exams bored me a bit. When second year began, I came back all energetic and ready in the fall, but there was general turmoil in Greek Universities. And for good reason, too; but it's a long story and I don't want to bore you with the details. Suffice it to say, my school was closed down in December 2006, and reopened in mid-May 2007. Half of the school year was lost. I was more than a little frustrated, feeling that I was doing nothing as a university student. But things have changed.
This school year is shaping up to be something entirely different, something I'm really excited for. OK, there's the fact that I had to sit 16 different exams in 2 months and kinda exhausted myself, but I passed them all, and it led up to a pretty awesome semester. The classes are very interesting, and I have all these projects on the side that require research and give me an immense sense of satisfaction when completed. Also, they will help me with grades, or will serve as term papers, saving me from taking a lot of exams in February. I've already completed one project for my "Music Culture" class. Yeah, that doesn't sound like it's related to communication/media studies, but our professor is really nice and cool, and can jump topics in a conversation quite easily; case in point, we go from discussing Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, in seconds. It's even cooler because he would seem like a very rigid, academic person - approximately 65 years old, and smoking a pipe (LOL). Anyway, I did my project on Flamenco music, and did a 1-hour presentation before the class. I showed some scenes from Carlos Saura films (that man is a genius), played some flamenco tracks, and talked, talked, talked. I'll tell you, that was a bit scary, I was trembling a little. But it went really well, and that was a huge relief.
Right now I'm in the middle of two other projects: one is for my Rhetoric class, and it's analysis a dialogue by Plato called Gorgias. I have to analyse the structure, the arguments and the counterpoints, write a paper and present it to the class. The other is this enormous research we're conducting in another class, about Greek news shows. We're making assessments on the kind of sentiment they impose on the viewer with the way they present each news item, and my part is to watch one news show every day, for two weeks, determining the hidden meanings and the feelings caused. The research might get published, too. :DDD
I saved the best for last, though. Starting from next week, I'll have my own radio show! It's on my school's Web Radio (which means we pre-record shows and have them stream on the school's website), and I'm not getting paid of course, but it's a job. ON MY OWN RADIO SHOW!!! I've been a little hyper these past few days, because I'm trying to figure out what my first topic will be. My show will be covering society issues, but I'm trying not to make things sound too grim, or too chirpy. I'm also in search of a title, but everything that comes to mind is either totally lame/cheesy, or hugely inappropriate. Obviously I'll have to put a lot of work into this, because I have to do my own research and write about 45 minutes of "speaking material" at a time, but I can't let fear of workload or panic diminish my excitement over this. I'll also get to finally learn HTML, because along with a classmate of mine, we will be uploading the recordings and updating the site with news, pictures etc.
I am so, so happy and excited that I'm getting all these opportunities this semester. I want to be really careful and not screw anything up. It's an incredible surge of power, all these ideas are flooding in, and I feel like managing 10 different things at the same time. Truth is, I never wanted to get into university just to get in. I actually wanted to learn, collect experiences, be creative and do things I'm proud of. And it's finally happening.