I started my morning hunting around the Psychology building (where the department of Germanic Languages was recently relocated when the Economics department bought their building) for a small classroom located in a remote corner of a back hallway. Good thing I misread the time on my schedule and arrived half an hour early!
Once the time for class rolled around, the professor arrived and started talking. He didn't stop until the end of the hour, and, quite frankly, rare have been the occasions when I have laughed as much in a single hour.
There are around twenty students in this German Theater class. Most of them are two or three years older than me and Liberal Arts majors. However, they are quite interesting people, and I am certain that this will be one of my favorite classes this semester. Not that it will not require work, of course, as we must produce and perform an actual play by the end of the semester (Frühlings Erwachen by Frank Widekind), which means evening rehearsals and lots and lots of memorization. I've never been in a play before (unless you count the one line in Hamlet and the silent appearance in McScottishPlay [not really silent, I added in some screaming during the murder scene so I wouldn't be too bored] when we did the Shakespeare program in the sixth grade), but I grew up surrounded by the theatrical arts (an occupational hazard of having your mother be an arts manager at a theater academy) and have wanted to try my hand at acting, propping, costuming, and producing. I really look forward to it.
My second class today was Biostatistics, which is essential to any researcher in the life sciences. The class seems interesting, the professor engaging, and the course load gargantuous. I can already see myself burning the midnight oil between statistical problem sets, rehearsals, Organic Chemistry assignments, chapter and chapters of reading, and three different research projects (yes, Biostat requires a full research paper too!)
Oddly, though, I am looking forward to it all. My classes this semester really are exciting!
I haven't met either of the Genetics professors yet (Edit: After Googling them, it turns out that I have actually met one of them at a summer introduction lecture for new students), the Science Seminar professor, or the Ochem II professor, so I'm not sure what to expect yet. Hopefully they will be interesting!
On a side note, both of the professors I met today are British and much younger than I expected. I also ran into my (exceedingly handsome) Ochem I professor on the way to class, and he recognized me! Maybe there are perks to paying attention in class after all!
It was quite lovely to walk around campus again, stopping by the Turtle Pond to greet the precarious piles of turtles sunning themselves on the logs and on each other (social climbing, you could say) and hearing the bell tower pretend to be Big Ben as it rings the hours. It's nice to be back.
In between the academia,
I was there, cheering and clapping with the other students in the Reading Room, where they had a projection screen set up (the only time we have been allowed to make a sound louder than a whisper besides the times when we watched the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates).
It's a bright new beginning.
And while it's still bright and sunny outside, I will now go read a book on the grass under the trees.
Once the time for class rolled around, the professor arrived and started talking. He didn't stop until the end of the hour, and, quite frankly, rare have been the occasions when I have laughed as much in a single hour.
There are around twenty students in this German Theater class. Most of them are two or three years older than me and Liberal Arts majors. However, they are quite interesting people, and I am certain that this will be one of my favorite classes this semester. Not that it will not require work, of course, as we must produce and perform an actual play by the end of the semester (Frühlings Erwachen by Frank Widekind), which means evening rehearsals and lots and lots of memorization. I've never been in a play before (unless you count the one line in Hamlet and the silent appearance in McScottishPlay [not really silent, I added in some screaming during the murder scene so I wouldn't be too bored] when we did the Shakespeare program in the sixth grade), but I grew up surrounded by the theatrical arts (an occupational hazard of having your mother be an arts manager at a theater academy) and have wanted to try my hand at acting, propping, costuming, and producing. I really look forward to it.
My second class today was Biostatistics, which is essential to any researcher in the life sciences. The class seems interesting, the professor engaging, and the course load gargantuous. I can already see myself burning the midnight oil between statistical problem sets, rehearsals, Organic Chemistry assignments, chapter and chapters of reading, and three different research projects (yes, Biostat requires a full research paper too!)
Oddly, though, I am looking forward to it all. My classes this semester really are exciting!
I haven't met either of the Genetics professors yet (Edit: After Googling them, it turns out that I have actually met one of them at a summer introduction lecture for new students), the Science Seminar professor, or the Ochem II professor, so I'm not sure what to expect yet. Hopefully they will be interesting!
On a side note, both of the professors I met today are British and much younger than I expected. I also ran into my (exceedingly handsome) Ochem I professor on the way to class, and he recognized me! Maybe there are perks to paying attention in class after all!
It was quite lovely to walk around campus again, stopping by the Turtle Pond to greet the precarious piles of turtles sunning themselves on the logs and on each other (social climbing, you could say) and hearing the bell tower pretend to be Big Ben as it rings the hours. It's nice to be back.
In between the academia,
I was there, cheering and clapping with the other students in the Reading Room, where they had a projection screen set up (the only time we have been allowed to make a sound louder than a whisper besides the times when we watched the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates).
It's a bright new beginning.
And while it's still bright and sunny outside, I will now go read a book on the grass under the trees.
2 comments:
Makes me want to be young again. No, on second thoughts, scrub that. Being young is too much like hard work!
I dipped my toe into academe too many times out of necessity and certainly not out of love. No, youth may keep academe and I shall keep age.
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