education (and hopefully edification)

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    HUUKAY. Let's talk school. I just got my schedule for next semester worked out. This is what it looks like!

• HUM112. Civilization and Culture II: From the 16th Century to the Present. More history! Basically the second half of the history class I'm taking right now. Or rather the continuation. Or something. History. This is good because I already know I don't have to actually read for it to succeed.
•  BTS112. Old Testament Studies II: Psalms, Wisdom Literature and Prophets. (Christian college, we kind of have to study the Bible.) Same situation as history, only instead of doing "ancient civilizations to the 16th century" followed by "from the 16th century to the present," it goes first-half-of-the-Old-Testament (the Pentateuch and the historical books) to second-half-of-the-Old-Testament (psalms, wisdom literature and prophets, obviously). New Testament next year. I am so looking forward to the Prophets bit of next semester, I love me some prophets.
• ENG101. Composition, Writing and Research. Don't know much about this one. I'm going to be taught how to write things.
• ENG 201. Introductory Studies in Literature. Usually taken sophomore year, apparently, but all the other class options had prerequisites, conflicted with Old Testament, or sounded too boring/scary. Upperclassman Shelli says both English classes can be handled at once (she did it herself).
• PHL111. Introduction to Critical Thinking. I have only a foggy idea of what this class is about, but I've heard it's difficult and fun and makes one learn things.

    So that's three professors for five classes. History and Critical Thinkin' with Dr Mac, Old Testament II with Professor Mine Enemy, and  the English double-feature with the young, beautiful new English professor. I sat at lunch with her a couple weeks ago when Shelli took her to the cafeteria, she seems nice. We admired the reuben sandwiches together. She's tallish and dark and lean and well-dressed and I've heard that she owns a cat named Gatsby.

    WAIT WHAT IS THIS I AM NOT READY FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER I NEED CHRISTMAS BREAK TO BE LIKE AT LEAST TWO MONTHS AKGH

    (but! on the upside, no more math or public speaking.)

midterm week

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    Oh lands. I used to think I was clever. I admit that now. These past few years, I had good discussions with my parents and mentors about literature and history and theology and poetry and philosophy. I got good grades. I had close middle-aged friends who were charmed by me, I was used to talking about interesting, mature things with intelligent middle-aged people. I made people laugh with my wordplay. I thought I was on my way to becoming a Proper Intellectual.

    College has revealed to me that my intellect is not gazelle-like in its grace and speed. Academically speaking, I am in fact a grubby, dirty little three-legged kitten with many fleas and only one eye.

    The odd thing is, I care more about how this is perceived by some than others. I'm proud when I do well for Math Professor because I have been shedding my mathematical fleas and doing better and he's lately become quite happy with my progress - being a dirty three-legged kitten is fine because I started from rock-bottom and have been improving, and he is a kind handler of kittens. I can handle Dr Mac seeing me as not brighter than average; I can't think of a good simile for him, but maybe he's like an intellectual bear. I respect him very very much, but his intellect comes across as being built on a normal person who's quite smart. Being a dim kitten is fine with him because he's approachable and understands dim wits and hurried writing and the struggles of students. In a way, I suppose he requires his students to work hard without expecting brilliance matching his own.

    Professor Mine Enemy, on the other hand, is a saber-toothed tiger whose brain operates on a Higher Level. I'm not sure he understands how dumbness works. After his class yesterday, I paced furiously around campus, occasionally stomping, occasionally tearing at my hair, occasionally muttering, "I hate not being clever I hate not being clever I hate not being clever." This three-legged kitten wants to be able to totter up to the great, looming saber-toothed tiger and say, "Look at me! Look at me! I'm clever! I'm clever! I can brain, too! Just like you!"

    Except that that is only wishful thinking.

this post is longer than six long things at a funeral

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    At last, this week is done! The first exam I had was a Bible exam on Wednesday (Professor Mine Enemy's class; he's the Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at this college and I'm in his general first-half-of-the-Old Testament class), which was predictably difficult. And P.M.E. was obviously amused by our wailing and gnashing of teeth, damn him. I think I did pretty well, though.
    The second exam was for my remedial algebra class on Thursday morning. Did I ever mention that my math class normally starts at 7:55am? The test started at 7:30am, which is just straight-up vulgar. I didn't manage to finish all 90 questions. Still waiting to hear if I passed that.
    The third exam was for my public speaking class, and started ten minutes after I was done with my math exam. This was not a big deal, though, as we weren't giving actual speeches or anything, just doing a normal papery test. I did well.

    I AM GLAD TO BE DONE WITH THIS WEEK IS ALL

    Now this weekend I have to revise my tribute speech for public speaking class and start practicing it before delivering it on Tuesday or Thursday, start writing a paper for Old Testament class, catch up on reading for History class and start thinking about my next paper for that and do a frig-ton of math homework.

    On a completely different note, I think the clearest and simplest difference between a Christian and a non-Christian might be the way they react to being given a free Bible. I go to a Christian college, see, and during chapel this morning our guest speaker (who is a different person every week) was somebody who - if I remember correctly - had been involved in the original marketing of the ESV (English Standard Version) Bible, which is a pretty commonly used edition on this campus, and he brought a few boxes of lovely, supple, engraved-faux-leather-with-gold-edges ESV Value Thinline Editions to give to us students for free. We were all totally thrilled like "SWEEEET, FREE BIBLES!" I chose a brown one and I love mine and appreciate getting it very much. But if I was a nonbeliever, somebody trying to foist a Bible on me would be super annoying and I would be irritated at them trying to tell me how to live my life and so on.

    Professor Mine Enemy had to go and murder my joy, however. He was in chapel that morning too, and I have his class right after lunch which is right after chapel, and in that class he made clear to us that we were not allowed to take our new, super-light ESVs to his Bible class but had to keep bringing our ESV Study Bibles for reference as usual. Have you ever seen an ESV Study Bible? They're different from the ones we got today, those are just the straight-up Bible with nothing added. ESV Study Bibles are the ones with a million billion trillion notes and maps and things. Their pages are so thin you can read the other side easily but nevertheless they weigh a ton. They are actual factual bricks. I use mine as a bookend to prop up my very very heavy collection of textbooks. I was so hoping I wouldn't have to lug mine to his class anymore! But no. Damn him.

    To be fair, that was a really good class he taught today. Much too exciting for a Friday afternoon, but good nonetheless.

    TOO MUCH BLATHER, TIME FOR A LIST
   
    Things I am looking forward to in October:

• October 8th Professor Mine Enemy is taking any students who are interested on a hike up to/around the Hollywood Sign and then driving us to Amoeba Records. I am excited for various reasons.
• October 14th-15th is one of the campus visit weekends, and because Best Friend is a high school senior now and looking at colleges, she is visiting my college to look at it and therefore she is also staying with Roommate Courtney and me. I am going to see her again! It will be exceedingly excellent.
• I believe that on the night of the 15th the dance club (which I am in) is going out to a contra-dance studio to learn a spot of contra-dancing. Don't know if Best Friend will still be here or not, but if she is she will not object to going out dancing on a Saturday night. I am looking forward to this.
• Sometime the week after that, Best Friend's father is flying down to my campus and is taking me out for lunch. He's not coming down specifically to take me out to lunch, he's on the board of directors or trustees or something and has to go to meetings or whatever. He's actually the reason I'm here, as I would never have heard about this college if he hadn't suggested it when I was looking at colleges.

    This is me ignoring the papers, midterms, exams and book reviews due in October. Blaahh.

    STILL TOO MUCH BLATHER, HERE IS A PICTURE

Some of my classmates and me next to a piece of the Berlin Wall.

    AND ANOTHER PICTURE BECAUSE THAT WAS A LOT OF TEXT

L to R: me, roommate courtney, freshman sheilla, also my posture is not always that bad

    i think being forced to write clearly and concisely on essay questions and papers is making me take out my natural piffle-mindedness on my poor unprepared blog and my long-suffering mother, i'm going to stop writing now