So, I'm back in Utah and back in school and finally back in the ward as a member (but they still haven't given me my organist-entitled church key!), and life is BUSY. I'm only taking four classes, but I'm also working as a TA for two Humanities classes, and working on the American Studies Student Journal Americana, and teaching Relief Society, and trying to flirt with this super cute guy in my... hmmm, how did that get in there?
Anyway, though my life is pretty much consumed with school at this point, I do promise to try to spend a little more of my time writing my blog, since it's fun once I get going, and I've always wanted to keep a better record of what I'm doing over the semester besides attending class and writing papers.
So these are my classes, in the order of how I attended them on the first/second days of the semester:
Emerson: Meets at 1 on MWF. The official title is Humanities 440R, but I pretty much just call it Emerson, or Em in my notes (as in "Write em paper!" "Do em readings!" and so on). With a subject like the teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the class has a lot of boredom potential, but it's actually one of my favorite classes. It's a pretty diverse group of students: There are some graduate students, all of whom are real characters (more to come... so much more), and I have TAed (it's a spoken verb - trust me) (but don't put it in your paper, or I'll take off points) for classes taken by several other students. And two other students are in two of my other classes this semester. So pretty much, I always have someone to talk to and something to talk about in class, even if it isn't Emerson. The class material itself is great, though. We do a lot of reading, but not too much, and we can bring up anything we want to discuss in class - no stiff lecture/powerpoint formats here! Our teacher, Carl Sederholm, is one of my favorites from the Humanities department - so sensitive and sincere, yet funny and witty when he wants to be. Oh, and we're in a special "seminar" classroom on the 3rd floor of the JFSB (y'know, next to all the professors' offices), with a long table and swively chairs instead of desks - which adds to the class a distinct air of superiority over the hoi polloi (that's for you, Grandpa) taking 200-level classes in the basement.
Humanities 250: The subject is something like "Interdisciplinary Humanities," and the class is basically an introduction to the Humanities major - it covers what you need to know to analyze art, literature, film, music, theater, etc. It meets MWF at 1 and 3, but of course I can't go to the one at 1. The 3 pm class is small - only about 10 students - but low pressure and fun (well, any class is low pressure if you're the TA, I suppose). I basically sit around and study for my other classes, or take notes on a few of the new things Dr. Call (the teacher - he's an extremely nice, well-bred, intelligent, and enthusiastic young guy) has added to the course since I took it. I like Dr. Call, but he does me make feel a little uncomfortable - for one thing, he is so upbeat and enthusiastic that I can't help but suspect him of faking it. He's also very conservative and proper in his relations with me - to the point that I feel awkward and embarrassed when I have to talk to him alone. But this probably has more to do with me than him, and it's ten thousand times better than having to deal with a crabby teacher who doesn't care about the class or his relationship with the TA. Anyway, the class is fun and low-key because of the small numbers, and the students get more opportunities to express themselves and act dorky, which is great.
Humanities 202: The other class I TA for! It meets MW from 4 - 5:15 in a crowded room in the JKB, about 5 minutes walk from the JFSB, where my first two classes are. This was the very first Humanities class I took at BYU, and I love the material - Literature/Art/Music from the Renaissance to now.
Western American Culture and Literature (also known as American Studies 300): 9:30 - 10:45 on TTh. This class is cross-listed with some class from the English department, and it's taught by Phil Snyder, who - surprise, surprise - turns out to be the husband of one of my favorite teachers from the English Language department, Delys Snyder ("Delys" rhymes with "police") -who has the power to make a 2-hour class three times a week on English grammar fun and exciting! Phil is a bit of an eccentric - starting with his preference that we call him "Phil" - but a thoroughly entertaining and smart guy to be around. He knows his stuff, and he loves it, and he cares more about getting us to know and love the stuff than torturing us with memorization and arbitrary busywork. We've already gone on two field trips (which included roping, seeing bulls up close, and riding horses) to his home and his neighbors' ranches in Salem, Utah, and I absolutely love doing the reading for the class - actual autobiographies and novels rather than textbooks! - so I have high hopes for the semester.
Civil War Era: 3-4:15 TTh. I love just about everything about this class. The reading is absorbing, the work is challenging yet rewarding, the lectures are absolutely fascinating, and the teacher, Matt Mason, has been one of my academic heroes for the past three years (ever since I took my favorite college class - American Heritage - from him as a freshman). I really love this class because I am passionate about the American South. It is the land where I feel the strongest connections of home, family, and country, and I know that in my dreams I want to live there and raise my own family there. But enough about that. My only problem with the class as of right now is that I don't have any good friends to sit with or talk to. Oh, and we had a big test last week and I didn't get to study for it as much as I wanted to, but I still think I did pretty well. We'll see when the tests get returned, I guess.
Great Films: My last class! Meets on Wednesdays from 5 - whenever the movie ends (usually 9 pm). I pretty much just call this class "Film," but its official title is Theatre and Media Arts 498R. It's not quite as low-key and entertaining as my Honors 304 class on Genre, but it's still fun and maybe even more stimulating - we actually have to do the readings to get credit, for one, and the readings are actually worth reading and discussing, for two (By the way, what IS that? Can you say "for two"? Why or why not? Discuss). Unfortunately, our class somehow got mixed up with the Freshman Academy group in the Film/Media Arts category, so we have about 15 freshman in our group of superior humanities/snobby film/crazily intelligent grad students. It's...interesting. Our teacher - Dean Duncan - is great, though. Just as casual and impassive and sardonic and shabbily-dressed as 100% of all my film teachers, and full of just as many great quotes (i.e. On the first day of class - "Don't feel scared if you're young or superior if you're old, because I'm older and superior-er than all of you."). And he actually STAYS in the room during the obligatory movie shown in the last hour and a half or so of class. I guess he wants to refresh his memory of the themes of the movie in relation to our class discussion. Or maybe he wants to catch the people who sneak out early. Or maybe he just likes watching movies - don't we all?
And that's the bulk of my life, attending and doing homework for these classes. All in the hope of four tiny little As on my transcript come Christmas. And, yeah, sure, knowledge and stuff. Wish me luck for tomorrow - I have to prepare a prospectus for my research paper in the Civil War class, finish up some grading for my Hum 202 class, and do a bunch of reading. Did I also mention that I'm also working to get a paper published in the Americana journal this year? Yep, yep, life is busy. Good and busy.
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