Day One

First day of class:

1) Jazz dance 1-2: The professor seems really laid back and fun. The clock was running a few minutes slow and she goes "Oh well, why dont we still go by that clock to start since it'll give you a few extra minutes to get here in the morning?" I mean that's rare for a professor. However, she still seems to be very professional. She's classically trained so we get to do some ballet in the warm up and work on alignment and hip placement, using abdominal muscles so it should be a challenge even though I've danced since my posture was alwways horrible. Also, even though it's an intro class we might get to leaps and turns which should be fun, we'll do combinations and across the floor and stretching, which I am beyond thrilled for, since I lost all my flexibility. But I need to go home and find some old dance shoes now.

The work load is manageable, we have to attend two shows outside of class and do a two page critique on each, and then mid term and final project which is a five minute presentation with a 2-3 page paper and choreographing a dance- and we can do it in groups. Awesome.

2) Holocaust on the stage and screen: The professor explained that he is a very laid back intense guy. He said the material is already going to have us really swamped with intense emotions and it will really hit us emotionally so he wants to create a very informal class setting where we can really be open about the material. He really reiterated how hard some of this stuff is going to be to deal with and I believe every bit of it, but he was really relaxed and open with us, and didn't have that intimidating professor attitude AT ALL. For the entire period I was riveted and wide awake, taking notes and even participating. We'll have to give a lot of time to watching things outside of class but the three papers are only 4-5 pages each and then there's a midterm and final. So, it's reasonable and I feel like it will be a very important class to take and a challenge to get through. Which means hopefully it will have an important impact on how I see things.

3) Literary theory: This is my uh-oh class. All the kids who were in Oxford last year are in it so the level of performance in the class is set high just by then. Their writing skills have pretty much been perfected as Oxford really is like academic boot camp. What's worse is I was falling asleep during the whole class. I was frustrated and mortified but nothing I tried would perk me up. I pinched myself, concentrated on taking deep breaths in and out, leaned back into the a/c behind me, tried to take notes to keep me attentive but despite my best intentions I could not focus and my eyes were so heavy. I was miserable because I like the professor and it's an upper level course and this is just NOT acceptable. I also had no idea what he was talking about couldn't really find any interest in what I was trying to follow which was really worrisome. I am just not into abstract theory I guess. I really couldn't grasp exactly WHAT literary theory was but everyone else in the class was taking notes so they had to have gleaned SOMETHING that I was missing. There just didn't seem to be any solid facts or ideas that I could write down so I was utterly lost as to what he was talking about.

It was frustrating and I feel guilty over the whole fiasco but I cant drop it since it's mantadory to have for the english honors program. So it was a bit of a unhappy ending to a really great day. So I guess I'll just work as had as I can and hope for the best. Though if anyone has tps for staying awake, I need them, I had no reason to be suddenly exhausted and usually dont have such a problem so any advice is welcome! Also its a back to back class with the Holocaust class so there isnt any time to grab a coffee!!

So that would be about it for today.