First (half) week of classes

     I have now had all my classes, and I can say that I will enjoy every one of them to some degree or another.

     I have to say that Professor LeBlanc, who teaches Computing for Poets, is now up there in the ranks of favourite professors with Professors Drout and Polanichka. This is after one class. That's how good he is. He explains things very clearly, is incredibly funny (of the brand where he either says something completely straight and keeps going and then you realise that he was completely joking, or he simply comes up with something incredibly understated and incredibly funny. That was a bad description. I'm aware of that fact) and really knows how to keep a class moving. The material in the class is going to be a little bit tough, especially at the beginning, I think, since I have little to no experience with (X)HTML and the programs with which you write HTML, but once I get over the OH-MY-GOSH-I-DON'T-KNOW-WHAT-I'M-DOING stage, I'm sure I'll be fine.

     I thought 290 was going to be the bane of my existence this semester, but I now realise that this is not going to be the case at all. Professor Krebs is fantastic, and I think the way she approaches the class and literary crit. will teach me a lot in a way I can enjoy, understand and apply. I'm super excited. How many classes involve the professor handing out Kindles for the use of the class? Not many. We'll also be blogging about our reading experiences, and I will post links to my posts if you're interested.

     Latin is probably going to be the most frustrating and challenging class, as it always is, but having decided to drop from the 300 level to the 200 level has made the whole situation slightly less intimidating. The professor is very enthusiastic, and I think will make the classes enjoyable. We haven't started with actual translations yet, but will be doing so this weekend.

     History of England is, as I expected, nothing short of fantastic. I'm really excited for a number of reasons, the first being that it's the history of England. Secondly, Professor Polanichka is teaching it, so that's also quite awesome, and the third is that the class spans all of my favourite periods of English history. We're starting with Roman (and a wee bit of pre-Roman) England, then moving on to the Anglo-Saxons, then continuing straight on through to Elizabeth. Epic? Yes, I think so. Unfortunately the class is HUGE. I hope people are intimidated and drop out. (They won't be. This is pure wishful thinking on my part, and I can't help but be pleased that so many people either want to learn about England, or love Prof. P. ... we'll ignore the fact that it might be a requirement for some people...)

     Medieval Lit. is also splendid, how could it be otherwise. Most of the readings are going to be of things I've read before, which is fine. I'm rather fond of most of it. But it does always make me wonder if I should perhaps sit on my hands until people catch up a bit. Needless to say, I'm very excited.

Well, homework and a horribly messy room call, so that'll be all for this time!

Go figure.

I'm on my way up to school, and what does the weather do? Gives us rain. of COURSE. *sigh*

I really don't like all the hassle of  getting to and from Boston, it sets me on edge, and never fails to put me in a bad mood!

I promise I'll write something more interesting next post.

Classes this semester

I have quite a full schedule this semester. I'm taking five and a half courses which are as follows.

1. English 207: Medieval Literature: Beowulf and Others
2. Latin 326: Eros and Erato: Love Poetry
3. History 298: History of England
4. English 290: Approaches to Literature 
5. Comp 131: Computing for Poets
6. Old Norse

In addition, I will be continuing World Music Ensemble and Chorale as well as continuing to lead the Archery Club. Do I have enough on my plate? Nope. Apparently not. :) I'm also taking a slightly more active role in the Christian Fellowship at Wheaton. Am I crazy? Probably. Am I really looking forward to it all? Definitely. 

I am most looking forward to Medieval Lit. and History of England. I'm deathly afraid of Latin, because I'm not great at it, and it's at the 300 level. Up till this point, I've been scraping by in the 200s. I may just die this semester. Sooo we shall see how I fair this semester... 

I'm heading back tomorrow. 

I'm back!

Sneaks in and hopes no one notices the long absence

So this past semester was insane. And amazing. And totally murderous. I survived, with fantastic grades (four As and a B!) but it was insane.

As a recap, I had Arthurian Lit. Senior Seminar, Chaucer, Carolingian History, Latin Epistolography and Old Norse as well as World Music Ensemble and Chorale. Not to mention Christian Fellowship and Archery. I have no idea how I managed all of it.

Sem. was amazing, I read so much and enjoyed most of it, I wrote a nearly twenty page paper on Sir Gawain (which involved reading SO much extra material.  I had an entire SHELF of reading I did for that paper. But it was very well researched, and I knew what I was doing when I wrote it, which meant that I actually KNEW what I was talking about. (There were fifteen books in my bibliography, and I read more books than I included in my paper. What can I say. I was pretty thorough.)
We read SO much for that class. HUNDREDS of pages of homework every week. We read, among other things, Le Mort d'Arthur, Idylls of the King, The Once and Future King, The Lays of Marie d'France, Chretien d Troyes' Arthurian Romances and The Mists of Avalon. Honestly, I didn't enjoy the last one very much, but the others were excellent.

Chaucer was great, I can now read Chaucer's Middle English fairly comfortably and quickly (now to try reading the ME of the Pearl poet...) and the class was really lively and interesting.

Old Norse was really great, VERY time consuming but very cool. I mean, how often do you run into translations that read "Now you shall drink the blood of the beast?"

Latin was its usual difficult self, though I feel as though I'm starting to get the hang of it, FINALY. It took long enough... and though I'm disappointed that I only got a B in the class, I'm glad it wasn't worse!  We had a new professor this year, and while he certainly knew what he was doing and was a good teacher, I missed Professor Schell.

Carolingian History was excellent, as anticipated, and I learned a lot about the Carolingians (also as anticipated).

Over all, this semester was a lot better than last, emotionally. There were still some things I could have done without, but I can't complain. Much.

My break has been really quite but lots of fun (but quiet, and the kind of quiet that isn't particularly interesting to hear about). And with that unsatisfactory comment, I shall include some hopefully more satisfying photos. :)

The more or less usual state of my desk.

Old Norse and Chaucer reading. All in a night's work.

count the languages!

All of my school friends gave me TARDIS related stuff for my birthday :)

I'll be going back to school on Monday, and am having mixed feelings about it. I'm excited for the new classes. I'm excited to see my friends. But I'm not so excited about the amount of work... or Chase food...

An another note, AAAAAAHHHHH SHERLOCK *sob* I have yet to work up the courage to watch the most recent episode... I'm worried. There had better be a season 3...

Hopefully next post will be more interesting. This was mostly to get the blogging juices flowing again.