Week 3 of the Semester

So I survived that crazy 'shopping period' for classes, and managed [unofficially] to get into four of them, besides the two German as a Foreign Language classes. So far, the class on Toni Morrison is very interesting, and surprisingly enough turns out to be mostly in German, besides for the books and I assume the paper at the end. I already understand more of what is going on than I did three weeks ago when I first stepped into the class, which is a good thing (it is sooo much easier to zone out when you cannot understand what is going on). I have a history course on the Middle East, taught by apparently a well-known scholar from Jerusalem. Since this is the first non-American, non-European history class I have ever taken, everything is new to me. The very first day he made the Americans rather uncomfortable with some of his comments about Iraq, but all-in-all he is engaging (and I have long since developed a tough skin; as an American I have not always been well-received during my travels). My other two literature courses are The Gothic Novel and a course on Henry James, which are taught by incredibly different professors. The first is a very scientific, 'let us dissect the meaning of "Gothic"' type person, whereas the second is more of a 'what is the meaning of life' type guy. Both are brilliant in their own way, but whoever came up with the idea of researching for a literature paper and using x-number of secondary sources should be forced to read only instruction manuals for the rest of their lives. I think that is the part about my AU education that I miss most. So AU professors, I should just say that I now fully appreciate your insanely fun and insightful way of going about teaching. Heaven forbid you make me come up with my own ideas and interpretations for what I read, rather than just regurgitating what someone else has already come up with! But, thankfully, I can handle this totally uninteresting way of writing a paper (aka I can BS with the best of them), I just make no promises that I will enjoy it very much.

In any case, the addition of some homework, even though it's a rather small amount, is putting a cramp in my future travel plans. I still have so many places I want to see in Germany and other places in Europe, but I think soon I will have to come to terms with the fact that I eventually will have to write those three papers and prepare for two tests and one presentation (in German, of course). May not sound like a lot, but considering my entire grade is based upon one assignment per class, I have no room for putting it off.

By the way, who can imagine that I have already been in Europe for over 11 weeks?


Anyone?


Yeah, me neither...