First Week

I’ve had my first week of classes and it’s been a busy week.  It has been nice to see some familiar faces in classes this term.  About half of the students from my 601 class last semester are in my 602 class, and a few history students are also in it.  My Wed. class ended up getting out really early, which was nice.  I also hung around afterwards and was able to chat a bit with the girls I had been sitting with and I may have made some new acquaintances.  I’ve decided that my Thursday class, Crusades, will be more challenging than I first thought.  The professor, who is also my advisor, is an Oxford graduate and wants to teach the class using as much of their style as possible.  Which is mostly small group discussions between instructors and 1-3 students.  Since there are 12 of us it will be a bit harder but he is going to make sure we all talk and discuss.  We sit at a table and he said we will just rotate around and answer questions/comment.  It will be good for me to start talking in class; and knowing it’s going to happen will let me prepare.  We have to read a book a week, do a short critique and email him discussion questions before each class.

Yesterday was rough.  I had a very long day, I woke up at 6:15, and it was also -12 degrees when I left my house at 7:45 am.  I had three classes, took the bus back and forth between campuses, inhaled meals and struggled to remain warm when waiting for the bus.  Thankfully my mom loaned me her boots, so my feet were dry and warm.  I finally wore my heavy winter coat for the first time; I figured the frigid temperature demanded a good coat.  I was right.  My stats class doesn’t seem like it will be horrible; it probably helps that I’m in a study group with two students I already know. 

My history research seminar seems like it will be really easy; which seems odd to me.  The professor wants us to each read one overview book on the American Revolution and pick paper topics in the next two weeks.  We then need to write, over the course of the semester, a 10-15 page paper based on primary sources.  15 pages seems rather short for a grad level research class; even if only using primary sources.  My senior sem paper was huge compared to that.  Anyway I guess that class may turn out to be the easiest of the semester, so I probably shouldn’t complain.  My night class got out over an hour early which was a relief; because my 8:30 my brain had checked out.  The course doesn’t seem too demanding and there are several students in it who took records management last semester.  It also doesn’t have a textbook; which is nice, just lots of articles and web resources. 

So all in all it looks like I will have a busy semester, but it seems doable.  Lots of reading, several small projects, a couple of big projects/papers and a couple of tests.  At this point I think I have a good chance of actually surviving it, as long as I stay on top of things.  Now I’m off to work on Saracens, the first Crusades book.