Last week classes FINALLY began! On Monday I went to the first class for my optional module (we take one optional (that we've chosen), and one core (that everyone must take). Unfortunately, I hated it! While the title, 18th Century Writing, Gender, and Culture, seemed like something I would really enjoy, the material-- mostly obscure articles, letters, diary entries, criticisms, etc.-- were all completely obscure, with no "real" text to read along side them. The professor spoke barely above a whisper, with no linearity to what she spoke about over the two hour class period at all. She merely pulled random thoughts from there air, and whispered about whatever obscure thoughts came to mind. The eighteenth century is not my favorite, and I really have only briefly studied few, very specific subjects, within it. Therefore, I felt completely lost during nearly the whole two hours of random 18th century disorganization. (Additionally, the paper which gave our required readings gave no suggestion for how to locate these random pieces of text--be it letters, articles, or whatever-- and had no separation even between the names of texts; they were simply all one GIANT line of text). My brain which lives on organization just wanted to die.
I must thank my mom (several times this week) for teaching me to recognize that feeling inside that tells you when something is really right or really wrong for you, and to go with it, trust it. I thought I might be able to kill myself working for this class, disagree with the professor a lot, and spend copious hours simply searching for the texts before even beginning to read them, but I decided to fight my way out of that class, and into a different module. To simplify the story by a lot of back and forth communication with the English office, loads of stress and anxiety, I'll just say that by Friday I was changed to a module that I cannot wait to begin! It is called Colonial and Post Colonial Women Writers, taught by Dr. Zoe Norridge, who, should you google her, is quite the impressive, young woman herself! She already has communicated with me ten times more than the last professor (and I haven't even been to her class yet!). The class seems to consist of reading one novel per week with a few pieces of criticism alongside. PERFECT!
Ok. Enough of classes. I'll have to elaborate on the other one at a later time.
The rest of the week was spent doing a lot of reading, running lots of random errands, getting to know some friends better, eating a delicious nutella and caramel crepe, and going to church again. I really cannot say enough good things about this church. I'm so excited for the service every week, and last night's sermon was absolutely incredible. I've got some wonderful people to go with, and some exciting things coming up to get involved with there, including a Wednesday night student's Bible study. I can't wait!
Today is a jam-packed day, but I'm kind of beginning to realize that every day in London is, and sometimes just because with the way one has to travel here (as in not zipping around in my cute little jetta), things take a LOT more time than they do back home. Today I've got to exchange a book from my old module for one for my new module at Waterstone's, then head to an AKC (associate of King's College) lecture at King's (It's a pretty cool thing! ...http://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/principal/dean/akc/index.aspx). Then I've got to go to the V&A Museum with a "worksheet" of pretty in-depth questions to ponder while there for my core module. Then I'm going to hit up a highly-overpriced American foods store I found online yesterday (am feeling quite homesick for the feel of autumn in Texas, the smells, the foods...) so hopefully I can find some apple-cinnamon scents, pumpkin flavors, and a few other things to remind me of home :) and THEN I get to make dinner at a friend's. It's going to be a great day...but if I stall here telling you all about it any longer I'll never get it all done! So thanks for reading my not-always-interesting accounts of my weeks. See you soon! :)
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| GIANT Dutch pancake I had for dinner last week! |
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| One of the most incredible crepes ever.. <3 |
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