Classes!!

If there's such a thing as being "jetlagged" in adjusting to classes, I certainly have it, as I've been tired on and off. But it's Friday and I survived my first full week as a sophomore! If you don't know or remember, I am taking five classes plus choir (which is one credit). My classes this semester are Ethics, American Nonfiction lit, Bib Trad (Biblical Tradition and Culture for you non-UP folks), Research Methods, and Powerful Ideas in Physical Science. Here's the 411 on my classes

Ethics: This class is at 9:15, so it's my earliest class. My professor has a Scottish accent, so I decided that no matter how much I end up liking the class, his accent will get me up in the morning. So far, we're discussing different kinds of morality (subjectivism, relativism), which is interesting. He's very flexible with test dates (we have 3, but no set dates on the syllabus) and understands the fact that we have classes other than his own. Another plus is that we have a paper instead of test for our final.

English: While reading 7 books this semester won't necessarily be a piece of cake (or quiche, as Debbie, French teacher fantastique, likes to say), I'll have to say I'm most excited about this class. I haven't read a lot of nonfiction, so I'll be expanding my literary horizons. The books I'll be reading are Walden Pond: Civil Disobedience, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Hiroshima, In Cold Blood, selections from an anthology called The Next American Essay, a graphic memoir called Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, and Dreams from My Father. As sad as I am not to have Herman (my prof from last semester who I loved), I really like Dr. Larson (my professor this semester) so far. He plays music at the beginning of every class, and is VERY passionate about the subject. He even told us on the first day that he's still learning about nonfiction lit, so it's cool that he'll be learning along with us as opposed to knowing everything there is to know. My class is a seminar, so there's a lot of discussion. While I will have a lot of reading to do, I will only have to write 5 short (1.5 page) papers every 2 weeks and 2 (one 4-5 page and one 7 page) larger papers. We don't have tests except for the final, which is also nice.

Bib Trad: The second of the three theology classes I have to take, this is everyone's most feared class. Rumor has it that students who take this class have to write a 25-30 page paper. However, this rumor is NOT true! While this class is one of three "writing embedded courses" (the other 2 are English 112 and Philosophy 150, both of which I took last year), most professors break the writing into smaller papers. My professor totally understands that this is everyone's most feared class, and encourages us to come to her for help. She is so sweet and funny, and when she talks, it's more like storytelling rather than lecturing. Plus, we do all the Bible reading in class, so the only thing we have to do out of class is write the papers.

Research Methods: I need this class for my psych major, and it's not the most exciting one I'll take. We have to work on a research project the whole semester, but at least we get to do it with a partner, which will make things more manageable. On Tuesday, we pick our partners and decide what we're going to research. I'm hoping to study bullying, cliques, and aggression in middle and high school students, having more problems with mean girls than I care to remember. I had the professor for cross-cultural psych in the spring, and she's one of my favorites because she's very engaging, not to mention friendly and helpful. She knows that everyone is taking this class because it's required, so she tries not to make class too boring.

Science: I don't know if I could have imagined this, but this is the last science class I will have to take in my entire life. For some reason, all the elementary ed. majors have to take this class. My friend Kaelyn (who's an el. ed major) took it last fall and said it was a joke. There's no tests, which is always a plus, and the our final project is essentially a middle school science project. We just do in class labs, read chapters from this book called Galileo's Daughter, and write summaries/answer questions. Pretty much everything is graded on completion. The main drawback is that the professor rambles a lot and my friends who took it warned me that going to class gets painful (which I'm already feeling after day two). However, I'm just happy to have a science class that I don't have to stress about, especially since I hate science and have other classes to which I'd rather devote more energy.

Choir's also fun. It's an easy A as all I have to do is show up. We have several concerts, including one at the Grotto (performance spot) in December. Today was the Activities where we got to put our name on mailing lists for different clubs. I'm now on the mailing list for College Dems, the English Society, and Study Abroad (advertisements for open house next week!). There was also a "pride slide" where people get covered in purple paint. My friends and I also attended 20 mins of the soccer game against U of Virginia (the score was 0-2 when we left, so the Pilots weren't doing so well). Our RA hosted a "speed friending" event where we got to know people on our floor, and that was a lot of fun. I took some pictures and will post them in a separate blog either this weekend or the next. Until then!

Moving In!

After what seemed like forever, I am finally back in Portland. I moved in Saturday afternoon, and it has been great seeing my friends whom I haven't seen over the summer (except MacKenzie, Dana, and Traci, who I saw in June, but still that's too long). My flight got in early and I was very fortunate to have Cady's dad and sister pick me up from the airport. While I had no problem unpacking, the storage room (where my stuff from last year was) was closed until 7. It was open from 7-8 and if you wanted to get your stuff before or after, you had to pay $5. Although two of my friends paid to get in early, I decided to wait it out. Even though the wait was long, I enjoyed catching up with my friends. 7 pm finally came and my friends and I made our way down to the storage room to get our stuff out of there. I had a lot of boxes, so it took me several hours to get everything out, organize it, and set up my printer. Yesterday I was busy decorating my wall, running errands around campus and at Freddy's (the local grocery store). My trip to Freddy's was my first trip with Zipcar, which made bringing the groceries back to campus much easier. The beauty of Zipcar is that I can use a car when I need to without paying for gas, insurance, or the fees required to park on campus. I don't need a car everyday, but it will be nice to have if I want to go to the store or go downtown with my friends. Last night our RA took us to dinner and I really enjoyed getting to know the new freshman on my floor. Afterwards, I skyped with Antonia and Bryce and talked to my dad briefly. I finally finished putting stuff on my wall and bulliten board, and then my friends came in. We chatted for a bit here, then went to Sam and Lauren's room where we chatted some more before we went to bed. My first class starts at 9:15 and I am both nervous and excited. More on classes next week!