Anyway, here are little explanations that of my classes this semester. Just because I'm bored and for the off chance someone might be interested.
WRITING THROUGH LITERATURE w/ Prof. Watson
This, obviously, but the title, is an English class, so of course I am partial to it. And yes, to you North County APers, it is pretty much Dr. Poole's class. But Prof. Watson adds a more grown up feel to it. The material is different with only a few overlaps. I adore the first novel we read as well as the movie that was somewhat related to it. Even so, it annoys me to some points. I can't stand some of my classmates, since they are in the class only because it's a general education requirement. I'm not saying that they're not intelligent, because they have to hold some sort of brains to not only get into Manchester, but to survive the first semester. They just know very little on a lot of the things they try to talk about. Prof. Watson will do one of those movements where he will freeze, stare at them a moment and then say, "Well, yes, buuuut..." It's almost comical. Also, I knew reading was a problem with a lot of people, but when I offered my copy of the novel to a classmate to borrow since I had already finished, I didn't expect her to stare at me as if I had two heads and gawk. It's sad really, that those of us who actually read the material, much less enjoy reading it, are a minority. It makes me lose some faith in humanity. Overall, I enjoy this class. I keep a low profile. I'm the only English major there, (since I know the rest of them by face since it's a pretty small department) and I plan to not show off, since I have technically taken the class, and also because it's just easier that way. I've come to terms with the "take advantage of the English major - and edit my paper" and have decided the best way around it is to keep it quiet. I enjoy it, but chances are that I have other things I have to be doing.
JUDIASM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM w/Prof. Bowman
Yeah, you can tell I go to a Christian based school. As a general education requirement, we have to take a religion class. Since I am Christian, I decided against the full blown JESUS class, and settled for the one that touched on things that maybe I didn't know about. Although, history in these terms is dry as hell, no pun intended. I know a lot of the Old Testament - excuse me, we're Jewish right now: the Tanak - so it's also very repetitive. But Prof. Bowman makes things a little more interesting. He's a Church of the Bretheren pastor, but has a degree in comparative religions. He tells all of these biblical stories in a more colloquial manner and it definitely adds gusto to the class. Granted, he's a little hard to follow when taking notes since he gets excited and gets sidetracked, but all in all, it could be worse.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION w/Prof. Tinsely
Another class that grates on my nerves as a do over. Only this one is time number three. I took World Civ. in tenth grade, and then AP World last year. Same class, different degrees of study. This though, is exactly what we did last year with Joffe, only a little bit more straight, since Joffe always has his moments. I enjoy history, so it's nothing challenging. It's a new experience, as far as college goes, since it's a lecture format in a stadium style classroom (one of two on campus, this one holding only forty students). But I like it. She speaks and it really easy to follow with notes and the book. The only slightly irritating thing about her is that she repeats everything she says at least three times. It helps if you weren't paying attention, but if you are it gives you time to doodle more in the margin of your notebook.
SURVEY OF MATHEMATICAL THOUGHT w/Prof. Beery
I have never, ever enjoyed a math class but I adore this class. However, I don't know if you could really call it a math class. At least not with what we have done so far. For the first few classes, we learned ancient numeral systems and then wrote our birthdays and ages in them. We spent a good three days going back and forth, translating the odd numerals to our familiar Hindu-Arabic. It's a class made for people like me who don't really need advanced math in their professions. Those of us that only need math for taxes and grocery shopping. I probably could have kept afloat in the Algebra class that I was eligible for, but why bother? Why take a harder class that might result in a lower grade when it's only going to frustrate me and lower my GPA. Besides, I like being a big fish in a slightly small, simpler pond. The professor is great. He's funny, yet humble. He knows my name out of everyone else's because somehow I ALWAYS end up under his radar and getting skipped when he passes out papers. It has gotten so bad that all I have to do is clear my throat and he knows exactly what he did. He's great though, and explains things thoroughly.
BAND w/Prof Gindin
Some of you heard about my little problem with band at the beginning of the year. It made me more homesick than anything else and I had a hard time fitting in. This was, after all, stage band and not marching. Well, now I have a few friends, and most people at least know my name. The director is awesome. She's a horn player - how could she not be awesome? She greets me by name every day, and has genuine love and fun directing us. I didn't go to Puerto Rico with them, which I am regretting more and more, but that's okay. Thanks to my flute lessons though, the music is getting easier to read. But, I am still struggling with some issues in instruments and comrades.
FLUTE LESSON w/Ann Donner
At the beginning of last semester, I hated it. I hated her. I hated that everything I had ever learned or taught myself meant nothing and everything that I had ever worked for and earned meant nothing. Now, I adore it. I have learned so much and have gotten to know Ann as well. She's awesome. She cracks me up half the time, especially when she flicks my stomach and yells "Jessie, fart more!" The only thing with the lessons is that my flute won't cooperate. I have Laura's, but as we found out at my first lesson this semester, one of the pads used in the upper-upper registers has a leak. It's just because it's slightly bent, so I'm just going to go ahead and get it fixed. Meanwhile, my flute is in for an overhaul. Thanks to tax season, my parents will be able to afford to fix it. Don't worry Laura, your baby is fine. I'm taking extra good care of it, I promise. Better than my own, most definitely!
JOURNALISM II: EDITING w/Prof Ings
This is basically my major. I LOVE IT. I don't think people would dare to think otherwise anyway. It's so much fun and I adore the things we're learning. This week we focused on headlines. We learned what not to do, the different kinds, using decks grammatically correct, etc. But Prof. Ings throws things in there that make us roll on the floors! She likes to show us real life examples of what not to do. Like showing us the importance of spell checking in a GIANT headline, "Pubic school attendance on the rise." And then my personal favorite to show us the importance of proper spacing and that you don't always need the little words, "Governor penis busy." (pen is) I also love that we get to edit each other's work. I love doing it to a certain extent, so this is a great thing. The only thing is - my article assignment for next week is on the vocation entitled "The Vagina Monologues." I have NO IDEA what it is. Although by the name, I think she should have assigned it to a guy. My favorite day though is Thursday, when we spend the first part of class proposing story ideas. Just the things that go on on a college campus are intriguing and hilarious! With all the snow we got last week, people built a giant falice on the middle of the mall, which the security guards knocked down after taking pictures. And also, in the middle of one of the main streets of the town that runs through our campus, people built a six foot high, three foot wide wall of snow across the whole road. The police ended up being called and they knocked it down too. I really want to know who thinks of all this random things that makes life so interesting.
Well, I think that's it, class wise anyway. The weather has been apocolyptic. For the last two weeks, we have had thunderstorms, a total accumulation of about a foot of snow that was then in turn all melted by two full days of pouring rain. Then for the past two days straight, it has snowed all day and night. But this is not the good kind of snow. This is tiny little flakes that you can hardly see at times but succeeds in making the maze of sidewalks unwalkably slippery and just plain miserable. With all the rain and snow melting, our campus is practically a skating rink. There was water everywhere -- everything flooded and then it froze! The river that runs through the town is considered dangerously flooded at 9 ft - and it was measured yesterday at 12 1/2 ft. There are reports all over the area of flood damage and some of the images are almost of biblical proportions. And then we had a tornado watch earlier in the week? It's seriously the end of the world.
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I FEEEEEEEEELLLL FFFIIIIIINNNNEEE!"
No comments:
Post a Comment