First week observations

The first week of school is over, and I would say I'm pretty satisfied with school. I really like my schedule, which permits me to even be writing this post right now, as I don't have classes on Friday's or Monday's. :) :) :) So after I attend to informing you about the things I like about this semester thus far, it's on to productivity mode.

I really enjoy learning. It's like I forget that each time a semester finishes and I'm just ready for the end of it. I felt a little restless near the last of Christmas break, and it's really nice being back in school with some purpose! I'm taking all humanities classes-- English Literature, Kansas History, Early Modern Art and Shakespeare.

I've never had two of my professors before, so I took notes the first day of class on just little quirks about them from my first observation. I'm liking my English Lit. professor a lot. She's probably in her late 30's and looks a little like a mix of Ms. Cigler and Maggie Gyllenhaal. She appeared to be really nervous the first day, which I thought was interesting, but she's very eager and I can tell she's really passionate about the class. She said she wants the class to be very discussion-based and not just her lecturing all the time, so I will have to make sure I do all the readings. ;)

I wasn't sure how I would like Kansas History, but E.K. is in there, so how could it get better?! (You can recall him here or here). I already have my first quote from him. We went around the room introducing ourselves to the class, saying what our major was, what year we were and what our passions were. When it came around to E.K., he got this weird smile on his face and said all the "normal" things and then says, "And I guess my passion at the moment would be social networking. I'm really into socializing." Awesome. It's not quite like Human Impact, but I'm hoping for some gems.

And of course there's Dr. Janzen again for Early Modern Art, and she's in full swing again. It's a bigger class than I'm used to taking with her, but I'm thinking the non-majors will soon drop out once they realize what they got themselves into. I'm enjoying this particular period though, right now we're studying art produced during the French Revolution, like David's work.

I saved the best for last-- Shakespeare. I took an introductory course to Shakespeare two years ago with the same professor I have now, and she's great. She's a cute little British lady who is just a lot of fun! She's very knowledgeable about Shakespeare, but she just puts you in a good mood! Like when she referred to a group of kids as "tender little saplings," or when one guy who was introducing himself to the class and told us he was from D.C. She just looks at him and says, "Oh, I was just there last week, I should have said hello to it for you!"

We also watched a Simon Schama in my Shakespeare class about the tensions between Queen Elizabeth and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots. By now, I've seen this video about three times. I do enjoy the Schama quite a bit though. He has a way of describing things in a very dramatic, snarky and vivid way. I'll leave you with this quote from Schama, talking about one of Mary's suitors:

"One look at his shapely calves and Mary decided that she must have him."