One week of school down!
Saturday, Sept 22nd
I suppose I’ll give y’all a recap of some of the highlights of the week? Here goes!
So the first week of class is down and so far things are going well. Ancient Greek is starting out VERY slow, but that’s a good thing. I’ve already done most of the material we will be going over this semester, but have forgotten most of it, s the chance for review is very welcome. Also, I won’t lie, It feels really great to be ahead of everyone. Most everyone else is struggling to pronounce the words and doesn’t know even the most basic words and I just brush right through. Can’t let that make me lazy, but it’s nice to feel accomplished.
The second class I am taking this semester is (drum-roll please) Landscaping the Ancient Greek World. I can’t really think about how to describe it yet to other people. It’s a lot about trying to understand and learn about the Greeks through a comprehensive study of space. It has a bit of an archaeology lean, which is one of the reasons I like it, but there is some theory there as well. Mostly I just love the professor. She is very energetic and passionate and places a lot of faith in her students’ abilities, and I really respect that approach. She’s also just fun, and that can go a long way. Loving the class so far, and I think it will be very useful for the kind of work I want to do.
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really spend much time in class though. I have 4 hours of Greek a week, 2 hours for this other class, and the rest. . . Well, I have to do a lot of reading, but when I compare my school year so far with the summer I just had of 4 jobs and an internship. . . Well, I have far more free time now than I did last summer. Seriously, life is so much easier now, even though it is challenging academically I’m not feeling nearly as overworked as I was all summer, so that’s been nice. As a result of this freetime, I’ve been able to work out a bit. My goal is to go to the gym at least 3 times a week, and so far I am accomplishing that goal. It helps that I can get on a bike and practice Greek Vocab, thus combining workout with study and thus killing to birds with one stone. Feels very good to be physically active again.
Let’s see, what else have I been doing. . . Well, Wednesday was sort of a big day. Don’t have class on Wednesdays, so I woke up late and then spent the day doing some reading. The afternoon was jam-packed. Apparently almost all of the student societies I want to join meet on Wednesday, So I was doing a bit of juggling. From 5-6 I was at the Alexandrian Society, which is the student Classical society on Campus. It was the first meeting of the group, so it was a very lovely meet and great that included free wine, so I was a fan. Then from 6-7 I was at the archaeology club meeting, which also had free booze (in this case, beer), which was nice. Ended up talking to a girl from Greece who is in my ancient Greek class, so that was nice. This one was more of business meeting, so at 6:45 ish we went through and elected all the officers and council members. They needed a postgrad to be a general member on the committee to represent postgrads, and I had become a wee bit tipsy by this time so I volunteered and am doing that now. No idea what it means (again, tipsy), so we’ll see what happens. From 7-9 ish was the LGBT clubs social event, which was a bit more structured but in a good way. They put people into groups and had as play silly games, so it was a great way to break the ice and get to know people. Then I had to go to a friend’s house for dessert. Like I said, very busy night. I’m not complaining, as it was all very fun, but it would be nice if the fun could be spread out.
The only other exciting thing I can think of that I did this week was last night A bunch of us went out to celebrate our friend Veronika’s birthday. We went to This really great bar called the Book Club, called that because the building use to be an old library. There were 10 or so of us there, and we ate and had a very delicious alcoholic punch served out of a big gramophone. No kidding, there is a big punch bowl were the record should be, and everyone grabs a straw and has a drink. I didn’t bring my camera, but everyone else did so there should be some pretty good pictures.
Not much else to report beyond that. Some people might be very excited to hear that I have already done some Christmas shopping. In fact, everyone will probably be getting presents from Scotland this year, so that should be exciting. I’m actually about to head out to pick up a few more, so that is pretty exciting. This weekend should be pretty laid back, or at least that is the plan. Today Vicky and I are going to watch our friend Bastian play floor hockey, and tomorrow me and all my flat mates are planning on staying in and having a flat-mate night of pizza and conversation. As always, I shall keep you posted.
PEACE!
I suppose I’ll give y’all a recap of some of the highlights of the week? Here goes!
So the first week of class is down and so far things are going well. Ancient Greek is starting out VERY slow, but that’s a good thing. I’ve already done most of the material we will be going over this semester, but have forgotten most of it, s the chance for review is very welcome. Also, I won’t lie, It feels really great to be ahead of everyone. Most everyone else is struggling to pronounce the words and doesn’t know even the most basic words and I just brush right through. Can’t let that make me lazy, but it’s nice to feel accomplished.
The second class I am taking this semester is (drum-roll please) Landscaping the Ancient Greek World. I can’t really think about how to describe it yet to other people. It’s a lot about trying to understand and learn about the Greeks through a comprehensive study of space. It has a bit of an archaeology lean, which is one of the reasons I like it, but there is some theory there as well. Mostly I just love the professor. She is very energetic and passionate and places a lot of faith in her students’ abilities, and I really respect that approach. She’s also just fun, and that can go a long way. Loving the class so far, and I think it will be very useful for the kind of work I want to do.
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really spend much time in class though. I have 4 hours of Greek a week, 2 hours for this other class, and the rest. . . Well, I have to do a lot of reading, but when I compare my school year so far with the summer I just had of 4 jobs and an internship. . . Well, I have far more free time now than I did last summer. Seriously, life is so much easier now, even though it is challenging academically I’m not feeling nearly as overworked as I was all summer, so that’s been nice. As a result of this freetime, I’ve been able to work out a bit. My goal is to go to the gym at least 3 times a week, and so far I am accomplishing that goal. It helps that I can get on a bike and practice Greek Vocab, thus combining workout with study and thus killing to birds with one stone. Feels very good to be physically active again.
Let’s see, what else have I been doing. . . Well, Wednesday was sort of a big day. Don’t have class on Wednesdays, so I woke up late and then spent the day doing some reading. The afternoon was jam-packed. Apparently almost all of the student societies I want to join meet on Wednesday, So I was doing a bit of juggling. From 5-6 I was at the Alexandrian Society, which is the student Classical society on Campus. It was the first meeting of the group, so it was a very lovely meet and great that included free wine, so I was a fan. Then from 6-7 I was at the archaeology club meeting, which also had free booze (in this case, beer), which was nice. Ended up talking to a girl from Greece who is in my ancient Greek class, so that was nice. This one was more of business meeting, so at 6:45 ish we went through and elected all the officers and council members. They needed a postgrad to be a general member on the committee to represent postgrads, and I had become a wee bit tipsy by this time so I volunteered and am doing that now. No idea what it means (again, tipsy), so we’ll see what happens. From 7-9 ish was the LGBT clubs social event, which was a bit more structured but in a good way. They put people into groups and had as play silly games, so it was a great way to break the ice and get to know people. Then I had to go to a friend’s house for dessert. Like I said, very busy night. I’m not complaining, as it was all very fun, but it would be nice if the fun could be spread out.
The only other exciting thing I can think of that I did this week was last night A bunch of us went out to celebrate our friend Veronika’s birthday. We went to This really great bar called the Book Club, called that because the building use to be an old library. There were 10 or so of us there, and we ate and had a very delicious alcoholic punch served out of a big gramophone. No kidding, there is a big punch bowl were the record should be, and everyone grabs a straw and has a drink. I didn’t bring my camera, but everyone else did so there should be some pretty good pictures.
Not much else to report beyond that. Some people might be very excited to hear that I have already done some Christmas shopping. In fact, everyone will probably be getting presents from Scotland this year, so that should be exciting. I’m actually about to head out to pick up a few more, so that is pretty exciting. This weekend should be pretty laid back, or at least that is the plan. Today Vicky and I are going to watch our friend Bastian play floor hockey, and tomorrow me and all my flat mates are planning on staying in and having a flat-mate night of pizza and conversation. As always, I shall keep you posted.
PEACE!