My First Day of School! (For the 36th Time)

Hurray! School! Learning! Copious amounts of debt! Yay!

Today is the 26th of January, and I have officially begun my 6th semester here at Mac (I like to put it that way because it distracts me from the fact I'm almost a senior. Jeez.) My schedule is still in flux because I can't decide if I want to be an International Studies major (I've taken 2 of 5 required classes, along with all the required secondary classes - fulfilled by my Geography major and French minor (which I supposed have)). At the present, I am signed up to take:

Disciplines and Methods of Geography: Taught by Laura Smith, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 9:40-10:40. This is required for all Geography majors, and it is mostly about the mathematics behind geographical knowledge, like "What does it mean when 57% of the population has cholera?" or "How do you figure out if this housing development is, in fact, dilapidated and should be demolished for the good of humanity?"

Urban GIS: Taught also by Laura Smith, and Birgit Mülenhaus, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:40 to 11:10. Not required, but I like GIS, and it is an enormously useful skill to have. It's how geographers earn money. It teaches you things like how to make maps, and interpret them. It's much more difficult than it seems.

I have to digress at this moment. My housemates just read me a quote about Warren G. Harding, regarding his many cronyist scandals while in office:

"I have no trouble with my enemies. It's my friends that keep me up walking the floors at night."

He also popularized the word 'bloviate', and gambled away the White House china.

Culture & Global Capitalism - Past and Present: Taught by visiting professor Amanda Ciafone, Wednesday night from 7:00 to 10:00. I have no idea what this class will be like, but it sounded cool, and I need to cover my bases for the potential IS major.

Now, my other class is a choice between the extremely easy, but creatively engaging Intro to Creative Writing, or the extremely difficult, but intellectually rewarding Paradigms of Global Leadership. The former is taught by Steve Healey, a man I know nothing about, and by whom I was not super impressed. The latter is taught by Ahmed Samatar, a man that at once frightens and inspires me. He's the sort of professor with whom that if you don't do the work, not only do you fail, you lose his respect, and that's even worse. My dilemma is that I don't want to shovel too much work onto my plate. However, I don't want to find myself halfway through the semester saying "This is boring". And, Professor Samatar might be on sabbatical next spring when I would otherwise take this class. So, I'm planning on going to the class this evening, seeing how it goes, and asking the professor what I ought to do.

Other than that, I am getting settled into my house. I have so far unpacked my clothes. That's it. Oh, I also filled out a request to have my work study award increased by about $400 so that I can work for both the Geography Department (as a GIS Lab Assistant) and the French Department. We'll see if that flies. I've been told it ought to. Other than that, I am getting settled. My housemates are all nice people. There are seven of us - Nick, Kai, Jeremy, Peter, Andrew, Max and myself. It is a quite large house, and my bedroom is in the basement - fully finished and well-heated. So, that is all from my end of town. I'm off to go look for cheap furniture, like bookshelves.