Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Jeremy dropped German Culture and Society, the traitor. The two people in the class who I knew from my summer semesters are people who are nice, but with whom I do not speak. Today (the second day of class), MeShawn appeared, but she did not complete the prerequisite sophomore-level course and therefore probably will vanish again.
The professor, Dr. Bonzo [hee], approaches German from a linguistic point of view, which of course makes me happy. I may have to move forward (I sat in the back row), though, because his speech is too soft, which further compounds attempts to comprehend his Deutsch. He allowed ten minutes today for us to read a German text, which I understood the gist of despite my woeful lack of vocabulary. I think I shall find this class most beneficial.
Young Mr. Underwood had us read aloud (about a line each) from a Greek passage, written in Greek (i.e. not Roman) lettering. I had worried I would butcher the pronunciation, but I only mispronounced phi (as ph with a stop, as in "uphand"); apparently phi sounds more similar to the ph in "telephone". Today we learned about the marvelous accents, which was a bit difficult to grasp because we have not learned anything from recognition yet, as it is only the second day of class. The quiz Friday ought to be simple enough, though. We shall see.
Dr. Forsythe gave a background lecture (mostly concerning the Paleolithic era and the emergence of modern man), which I found, unfortunately, boring; the telling of the prehistoric period is as scanty and piecemeal as the evidence available for it. I determined to remain awake, however, and glared disapprovingly at one girl who was reading a newspaper. Irritatingly, people in some of my classes have pulled that sort of stunt even with professors who aren't blind. If I taught a class, I would have those students evicted.
The little girl directing the philosophy discussion section is gentle and dorky, but encouraging and comprehensible. Also, she brought cookies, because, she said, as an undergraduate she used to bring snacks to help her remain awake during lectures. I found that odd, for eating tends to awaken my need to sleep.
The sexuality professor had assigned two readings, which he thoroughly reviewed, causing me to believe, perhaps erroneously, that if I happen to neglect an assignment or two, I shall still pass the course. The readings were modern interpretations about how to analyze sexuality, which I found interesting in themselves and may look up later to finish reading (he had e-mailed exerpts from two books). I printed the third this evening, and shall retire to my lair in a moment to read it and the next chapter in the ancient Near East text for the history class.
I officially leave the dorm office position Saturday and resume my former boring but more financially lucrative role at the campus minimart Sunday or Monday. I befriended all the community advisors (RAs) and shall continue to have them as dinner buddies. Breakfast I eat alone promptly at seven.
Ich muss Latein, Deutsch, Griekisch, Geschichte, Philosophie, und SEX studieren.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 5:21 PM]