A Good Beginning
Getting through the first week of a new semester always feels like such an accomplishment to me. I have slain my giants, and I’m ready for week two.
My first class of the week, meeting three times a week, is Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Definitely trying to fill a Gen Ed requirement there. My impression of the class is that it will be interesting in content, but it has a lot of abstracts involved and I don’t much care for abstracts. If all I had to do were sit and listen, it would be a very interesting class, but I find it hard to take notes on the lectures. There are only about ten gradable aspects of this class. It puts a lot of pressure on doing well on everything because you only have to blow one thing and you’re sunk in the good-grade department.
The class has around 45 people in it—a little big for my taste. The reading assignments have potential of being overwhelming, especially the second half of the semester. I’m not too pleased with the second book that we have to read. It’s a 400-page book about a voodoo priestess. Ugh!
I think this is only the second teaching semester for the prof so I hope his ideals aren’t too high. I was amused when, on the second day of class, he informed us that even though he has his doctorate, it gives him the willies to be called Dr. M. We are to call him by his first name.
Right after Anthropology, I have German II. It will fulfill my one-year of a foreign language requirement. For the first time since we started college, Kris and I have a class together. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not. It’s nice in the sense that we can do the homework together, but I can feel the pressure of the competition already. Whoever does better than the other on something will have to deal with the bitterness of the other. Sometimes competition can be a good thing; sometimes it’s a bad thing. I haven’t decided which one it is yet.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have my first accounting class. I’ve only been to it twice but I think it’ll be a good class. I always like to establish my place in a classroom before the majority of the students arrive so they have to choose to sit next to me, not vice versa.
I arrived on the first morning and sat at the end of one of the tables. I’m always amused to watch people fill in the ends of tables before filling in the middle. The room began to fill up, when in walked Brandon. I first encountered Brandon in my Speech class and drew his name for introductions that night. Much to my mortification, I managed to butcher his last name that night. He didn’t seem to hold it against me.
Brandon showed up next in my Computer class last semester and sat next to me in that class. Now, he showed up in my Accounting class. He smiled and asked me if I’m trying to show up in all of his classes. “I seem to do well when I sit next to you, so I think I’ll sit here,” he said and sat down next to me. I was glad to have at least one familiar face in class.
There is actually a guy from my German class last semester in my Accounting class, but for some reason he has never given me the time of day. I could meet him on the sidewalk anywhere, anytime and he would always look straight past me or through me as if I was as transparent as a sheet of glass. I guess it’s just a difference in people. Maybe he’s embarrassed to be associated with me?
After Accounting, I’m taking the first of three required Economics classes—Microeconomics. I’m taking the same professor that Kris had for that class. I’ve got a friendly face in that class as well—Monique from Algebra. She is quite gleeful that we are in the same class. I’m afraid she’s going to be disappointed.
The prof for Economics is quite unique. For instance, he will talk about a concept, give an example, and then pick someone out of the class and ask them if they got it. If they say yes, then he has them explain it back to him. If they say no, he’ll ask someone next to them and if they say yes then he tells them to explain it to their classmate that doesn’t get it.
While people are explaining stuff to each other, he’ll have these little undertone conversation with students. He’ll catch someone’s eye and start talking to them in a low tone. This, of course, distracts me because he’s talking just quiet enough that I have to look up in order to combine hearing and lip-reading to catch the conversation.
On the second day of class, he had one such conversation with me. He looked at me and said, “I’d have known your name even if you hadn’t told me.” “You would?” I said. “Yes, how much of an age difference is between you two?” he asked. I told him there is a difference of two and a half years. “You really could pass for twins,” he said, just standing there gazing at me. “So I hear,” I said.
Kris found him highly amusing, so I expecting great things from him. I fully expect to struggle with the concepts, but at least I’ll be amused while I struggle.
My original plan for the semester was to have all of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I could work full days Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That plan was shot all to bits when I discovered that my German class was only held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I rearranged my classes.
Once I was done with my schedule, I discovered that my MWF classes are both in the same building and my TR classes are held in the same building. Even though it was unintentional, I felt pretty clever. No rushing through the teeming masses trying to get to class before it starts. It’s just a walk down the hall in one building and down one flight of stairs in the other building.
From this end of things, it looks like it’ll be a good semester.
My first class of the week, meeting three times a week, is Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Definitely trying to fill a Gen Ed requirement there. My impression of the class is that it will be interesting in content, but it has a lot of abstracts involved and I don’t much care for abstracts. If all I had to do were sit and listen, it would be a very interesting class, but I find it hard to take notes on the lectures. There are only about ten gradable aspects of this class. It puts a lot of pressure on doing well on everything because you only have to blow one thing and you’re sunk in the good-grade department.
The class has around 45 people in it—a little big for my taste. The reading assignments have potential of being overwhelming, especially the second half of the semester. I’m not too pleased with the second book that we have to read. It’s a 400-page book about a voodoo priestess. Ugh!
I think this is only the second teaching semester for the prof so I hope his ideals aren’t too high. I was amused when, on the second day of class, he informed us that even though he has his doctorate, it gives him the willies to be called Dr. M. We are to call him by his first name.
Right after Anthropology, I have German II. It will fulfill my one-year of a foreign language requirement. For the first time since we started college, Kris and I have a class together. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not. It’s nice in the sense that we can do the homework together, but I can feel the pressure of the competition already. Whoever does better than the other on something will have to deal with the bitterness of the other. Sometimes competition can be a good thing; sometimes it’s a bad thing. I haven’t decided which one it is yet.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have my first accounting class. I’ve only been to it twice but I think it’ll be a good class. I always like to establish my place in a classroom before the majority of the students arrive so they have to choose to sit next to me, not vice versa.
I arrived on the first morning and sat at the end of one of the tables. I’m always amused to watch people fill in the ends of tables before filling in the middle. The room began to fill up, when in walked Brandon. I first encountered Brandon in my Speech class and drew his name for introductions that night. Much to my mortification, I managed to butcher his last name that night. He didn’t seem to hold it against me.
Brandon showed up next in my Computer class last semester and sat next to me in that class. Now, he showed up in my Accounting class. He smiled and asked me if I’m trying to show up in all of his classes. “I seem to do well when I sit next to you, so I think I’ll sit here,” he said and sat down next to me. I was glad to have at least one familiar face in class.
There is actually a guy from my German class last semester in my Accounting class, but for some reason he has never given me the time of day. I could meet him on the sidewalk anywhere, anytime and he would always look straight past me or through me as if I was as transparent as a sheet of glass. I guess it’s just a difference in people. Maybe he’s embarrassed to be associated with me?
After Accounting, I’m taking the first of three required Economics classes—Microeconomics. I’m taking the same professor that Kris had for that class. I’ve got a friendly face in that class as well—Monique from Algebra. She is quite gleeful that we are in the same class. I’m afraid she’s going to be disappointed.
The prof for Economics is quite unique. For instance, he will talk about a concept, give an example, and then pick someone out of the class and ask them if they got it. If they say yes, then he has them explain it back to him. If they say no, he’ll ask someone next to them and if they say yes then he tells them to explain it to their classmate that doesn’t get it.
While people are explaining stuff to each other, he’ll have these little undertone conversation with students. He’ll catch someone’s eye and start talking to them in a low tone. This, of course, distracts me because he’s talking just quiet enough that I have to look up in order to combine hearing and lip-reading to catch the conversation.
On the second day of class, he had one such conversation with me. He looked at me and said, “I’d have known your name even if you hadn’t told me.” “You would?” I said. “Yes, how much of an age difference is between you two?” he asked. I told him there is a difference of two and a half years. “You really could pass for twins,” he said, just standing there gazing at me. “So I hear,” I said.
Kris found him highly amusing, so I expecting great things from him. I fully expect to struggle with the concepts, but at least I’ll be amused while I struggle.
My original plan for the semester was to have all of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I could work full days Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That plan was shot all to bits when I discovered that my German class was only held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I rearranged my classes.
Once I was done with my schedule, I discovered that my MWF classes are both in the same building and my TR classes are held in the same building. Even though it was unintentional, I felt pretty clever. No rushing through the teeming masses trying to get to class before it starts. It’s just a walk down the hall in one building and down one flight of stairs in the other building.
From this end of things, it looks like it’ll be a good semester.
posted by Sharon @ 5:54 PM
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