I Never Knew Graduate Students Raised Their Hand

~Today's Nameday-Jeroným~

As far as I have been able to glean, no American University does late start like UofC. But finally, I can say I have been to all of my classes. There are surprises around every corner of life, and why should a first year of graduate school be any different. I am in what is officially the smallest program at the school, hence one rarely meets his colleagues. So despite the uphill climb to get answers about language classes and course advice in general, I have bought my first thing by Bloom and things have taken shape.

Ignoring the audit, I am enrolled or soon to be therein in four classes all of which seem to have their advantages and lack their of. The term seminar is a term which no one seems to understand in any meaningful way, or at least across the board in any one way. Not that any institution does. (I mean to make no claims that the alma mater had that one straight.) Some are more Berquistian (albeit, with more swear words) and some are more workshop-like. I would lay this one at the feet of the students more than the professors, though. A little disagreement never hurt anyone. Although, a need to present myself clearly, strongly and nonpugnaciousy has long been ignored.

Ironically, my language classes look like they might be the easiest. Literature makes me feel like I need to play catch-up. I feel like this is the highest concentration of the Roman alphabet I've seen all week. Even my keyboard is taped over withCyrillicc figures. It's a careful and sheer cliff of time-management and discipline to read that much Russian. Already, I have to pace myself and systematize fearing the risk of burn out and discouragement. (Already, one may ask. To you then I say-you may love to read, you may even like dictionaries, but try looking up 50 new words every 3 to 5 pages.)

Then there is the abyss that is literary criticismm. If Aristotle was a little rough in the Poetics... (mimetic? didactic? cathartic? to this day I shudder), the Russian addition to the field leave one a bit short-changed, as well, although somewhat differently. I got to a point in one of my readings last night, wherein it mentioned, "the formalists, very much influenced by Husserl..." and I decided it was time for a nap before I dug into that one.

I do miss some of the old community, though. I miss eating lunch with tutors. One in particular I wish I had around to throw ideas off of. I miss people with the same reading background as myself, as every now and then I want to run down some modern philosophic trends or talk Augustine. I miss people wanting to talk about classes over beer, in the woods, in the dark. I miss calling my professors Mister, Misses, Miss, and having them call me so in return.

But I love the incredible resource that is a real active university library that has all the Russian dictionaries a girl could need. I enjoy getting to talk to people in completely unrelated programs like math and biology and being able to discuss something new and unrelated to Russian verbal systems. I live with people from all over the world. I live with nerds.

I am sure more will come as the jam-packed 10 week quarter unfolds. Hopefully, I won't still be reading the same Andreev story I am tonight. But I am happy to finally saddle back up in the academic pace.