Guess who's back?

HELLO ALL!

So, it’s been forever since I’ve written, mostly because it was finals week and then it was immediately after finals week and I was all burnt out and then it was summer and I didn’t really feel like I had much that was interesting to say. But I’m back at school now and I’ll try to get back to my old schedule of every other week.

First, to set the scene: I’m in my room, with the window open and a cup of tea on the sill and the rain falling lightly into the evening outside, hanging out with Charmaine and Katrina (one of my roommates) and a friend of hers, most of us having been here all day.  In a few hours, we’re going to go watch Man Of Steel (new Superman adaptation) in the Campus Center.

It’s been a lovely, lazy sort of Saturday—a perfect kind of day to recharge. Tomorrow will be lots of work, but it’s definitely worth it.

So, onwards to my life so far as a junior (I’M HALFWAY DONE WITH COLLEGE WHEN ON EARTH DID THAT HAPPEN??):

1. Room

I’m living in yet another building this year, on the second floor (I’ve been moving down a floor each year—does this mean I have to live on the first floor next year?). I’m in a suite, so there’s a common room with a bathroom, then two bedrooms off of that, a double and a single. I’m in the single and Hannah and Katrina are in the double. We’ve finally gotten everything decorated to our satisfaction, so it’s starting to look very lived-in and homey. I meant to take pictures, but I kept waiting for the light to be good today and it never got un-cloudy (and now it’s nighttime), so I’ll have to post them another day.

We’ve had some problems getting used to living with people we aren’t best friends with—Katrina has spent a lot of her time elsewhere on campus and Hannah and I have been a bit lonely, now that we’re not living with our people.  But we talked it out a bit and planned ways to make it better. We watched The Princess Bride last night in a giant, sprawling group with vast quantities of popcorn and had an absolutely lovely time. We’re going to try to do things like that—game nights, movie nights, teas—at least once a week so that we all feel more connected.

2. Classes

Okay, so new classes!! Always equally exciting and insane.

My first class is Postcolonial Theory (MWF 1:10-2:10). I love my professor, he’s very absurd and adorkable and charming. It turns out this class is cross-listed with International Studies, so I was concerned it wouldn’t really feel Englishy, but we’ve been studying the prose of what we’ve read in a very literary way, so that’s fantastic. And we only have one reading a week (usually a book, but still), so we really get to focus on that one thing. Also! He has us do a presentation on an additional book of our choosing, so I found a book about postcolonial art and art history in India that looks absolutely fascinating. I’m excited to read it!

Second is Gender, Sexualities, and Feminist Visual Culture (MW 2:20-3:50), which is with Joanna (who taught Art of the West II last semester and who is one of my advisors). I’ve really liked the readings so far, but I haven’t been as thrilled in-class. I feel like Joanna kind of has an agenda with this class, so she doesn’t really want us to interpret articles differently than she has (and I think sometimes she’s wrong in her interpretation!). When she isn’t talking feminist theory, she’s trying to give an overview of feminist art in history, which ends up being pretty repetitive for me. And, worst of all, she’s decided that I’m a student she can call on when no one has their hand up, but who she’ll ignore when lots of people have something to say. Which makes sense from a pedagogical perspective, but sucks as a student.

Third is Texts and Power (TR 1:20-2:50), which is fine. I think it’s going to be too easy for me, but that’s not terrible. Our professor clearly expects us to have no grounding in theoretical thought at all—and for us all to be freshman. But still, even if all I get out of this class is a space in which I am expected to read all these foundational texts in the field, that’s still pretty valuable.

And last, but ABSOLUTELY not least, is YA Creative Writing (TR 3:00-4:30). As I think most of you know, I was really skeptical going into this class, not least because of a last-minute professor change. I had signed up to take the class with a former Mac history professor turned published YA author, but she bowed out at the last minute and the professor was replaced. I was concerned that the person they’d picked was only an author, which I didn’t think would make her a very good teacher. Plus, I find creative classes far more intimidating than academic ones—not only does criticism of creative work hit closer to home, but doing well always feels like a more precarious concept.

ANYWAY. I was so skeptical for this class, but I LOVE IT. My professor—Megan—is not only completely warm and approachable and lovely, but she’s also done just about everything. She’s been a publisher, agent, editor, author, and now teaches regularly at Hamline (another school nearby), so she definitely knows what she’s doing. And the idea of a professor who’s like a friend doesn’t actually sound good necessarily, but she’s like that in the best possible way. I love her class so much, and always leave it feeling re-charged and happy. She has us turn in a short craft-analysis paper each week on the YA book we’ve read and then five pages of creative writing (a story, part of a story, writing exercises, whatever). Both have been challenging and exciting in equal measure. Anywho, this class is fantastic (even if next week’s book is so far VERY STRANGE).

3, Life in General

It’s weird and good to be back, and more exhausting than I’d expected. Somehow this semester, I’m more overwhelmed by all the people—being surrounded by people who you sort of know is more exhausting than being around strangers, and meeting/trying to remember the names of more than 100 people in a week is completely draining. But I’ve also made sure to have one-on-one dinners/teas/lunches with all of my friends, breakfast with Charmaine pretty often (we used to go to breakfast with each other at least four or five times a week), and we had a big Doty 4 reunion tea last weekend that was absolutely lovely.  So it’s been good, but I’ve also just had some trouble re-adjusting. And not just socially, but academically—I feel like my brain has stagnated, and I have to get it up and running again.

Anyway, I’ll try to write more in two weeks—I’m off to a movie!

Love you all!

(We took a picture of the tea reunion to send to one of the other Doty 4 girls, who's currently doing a study abroad program in Denmark.)

P.S. I just learned that defenestrate means 'throw out the window,' which I'm thrilled about for a wide variety of reasons. 1: There's a word that means 'throw out the window.' FANTASTIC! 2. Fenêtre. OH MY GOODNESS!