Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Huzzah! There was class today!

And there was much rejoicing.

So class was not canceled today and will not be canceled tomorrow, for which I am extremely thankful. And now that I've actually had each class at least once, I will describe them all.

This semester I am taking Beowulf, Ancient Astronomies, Music Theory I,  Roman Comedy, Chorale and Voice lessons. There is only one English class with Professor Drout, and none at all with Professor Polanichka, which is a bit saddening, but I am getting several requirements out of the way as well as focusing on a wider range of subjects.

Beowulf is, as I have said before, a great deal of fun, but so much work. This last weekend was particularly bad because I was so distracted for most of it, so my translations took way too long, but even so, it is an arduous process. Fortunately I enjoy it, and it's not actually hard per se, it just takes a loooooong time. My friend Simone, who is currently studying abroad in Scotland has been Skyping in, which is quite entertaining for all, and brings the number of students in the class up to ten.

Ancient Astronomies will be a lot of fun, if this first class this evening was anything to judge by. I've had Professor Barker before, back in my first semester freshman year, and this kind of astronomy is much more up my alley than the more modern and scientifically advanced stuff we studied in The Universe. We watched a short documentary on Stonehenge as an observatory, I don't have my notes at the moment, so I forget who the main professor was, but it was about the discovery in... 1964 or 5, I believe, where an astronomer discovered that certain stones corresponded with specific lunar and solar events, including a 56 year cycle of lunar eclipses over the heel rock. It was supper interesting, and was followed by some tinkering on an astronomy computer program and the obligatory mental references to the Black family from Harry Potter when confronted with Regulus, Sirius and Bellatrix all in close proximity to each other.

Roman Comedy is so very much easier than Livy was last semester, which is a bit of a surprise for me since I'm used to Latin being a constant struggle, but I breezed through the eighteen lines this evening, and have been almost entirely correct in all my translations! Furthermore, Professor Schell has a wonderful, dry sense of humor which is humorous under any circumstances, but is rendered even funnier in contrast to the outlandish things she is commenting on. Wow that was a convoluted sentence. I suppose this is what happens when I write after midnight? That does not bode well to any future three am papers...

My last class, and I'm not sure why I put it last, is Music Theory I which is focusing almost completely on "Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music" and which should be informative without overloading me with stuff I don't understand. The professor, Professor Urban, seems to be both fun and business like, though, having never had him before, it is a bit hard to judge from just the first day of class.


I am also, as I mentioned before, doing Chorale and voice lessons again -- sadly I will not be able to be part of World Music Ensemble this semester, because Ancient Astronomies meets at exactly the same time. We're doing a Beethoven mass, which promises to be quite nice once we learn it, and I like particularly because it's all in Latin, which is probably my favorite language to sing in.  I have not had a voice lesson yet, but have met with Joanne, and will be working on a fairly broad range of pieces , if our conversation was any indication.

Well, it is late, and I must be off!

1 comment:

  1. Nami – it sounds like a wonderful semester is in store! I'm really intrigued by that Stonehenge documentary. So glad to hear, too, that all of your translations are going well and that you will be fitting in some singing along with all of your studies.

    Sounds like you found the school perfect for you and cannot believe that you're already into your second semester of your sophomore year…amazing!

    Thinking about you & sending you lots of love – XO

    Rhonda

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