First Impressions

Okay, so, Monday and today were my first two days of class and as of tonight I have attended each of my four courses once. Mondays have Jane Austen and Psych. Tuesdays have Sociology. This Tuesday I also attended a Newspaper meeting as an intro-to-Newspaper sort of thing (usually the "class" meets Thursdays at 9pm).

First impressions:

I am going to love my USEM (University Seminar) "Jane Austen: Then and Now". I love Jane Austen's work, her wit and characters, my professor is really cool and chill, and my class is full of girls I have known for five days in all, so I'm already beginning to love them. The homework load doesn't look like it's gonna be too much and since we're reading Pride and Prejudice right now it's rather enjoyable. (a big high-five to anyone who knew that P&P was originally called "First Impressions" but was changed after Sense and Sensibility's title was so well-received).

I am also going to love my Psych class. The professor's teaching philosophy is that the students should be teaching themselves from the book for the test and that class-time/lectures should be devoted to educating us personally, beyond what is in the book. I actually like this idea (as of now), because it gives me the space I need to read the textbook and make my notecards on my own time without the added pressure of assignments (he doesn't give any homework). He is really sarcastic and his humor is dry, but I really enjoy it and the way he talks about things.

I am going to struggle a lot with my Sociology professor's style. She will also not be covering everything that is on the test IN CLASS, but unlike my Psych prof, she is adding to the test things she will be lecturing on in class, so I have to add that to my work load. She assigns a lot of homework (not TOO much, but still a bunch) and seems to be really anal about due dates and has a very strict no make-up work rule. She also has a VERY VERY heavy accent and I have a hard time understanding her (she said Karl Marx in class and NOBODY understood her until I asked, ".... Karl Marx?" and then everyone was like, "oooohhhhhh~"). Also, her homework is mostly things we have to download and print out ourselves and the website she uses is not very user-friendly, so that's a pain.

I think I will enjoy Newspaper even if it is a tiny time-suck. Newspaper was sorta just a chill meeting and the overseeing professor wasn't even there. All of the department heads did a little spiel on their topic and then we split up and talked to the group that we were most interested in joining. I joined the photography group whose editor was very charismatic and friendly, but very down to Earth and warned us that he would be taking our commitments very seriously. Kelli (my friend from middle school) was also at the meeting and in the photography group, so perhaps we will be working together on the newspaper this quarter! :)

So those are my first impressions of my four courses. I'm happy to have the stress of my first classes over!

On a different note: I'm keeping a little black (it's actually dark grey..) book of all the people I've met who I think I will see again (people on my floor, in my classes, ect.). Now, that does sound a little creepy, but I'm really bad at remembering names and am doing this at the counsel of an alumni from King's (my high school) who was also bad with names and discovered that keeping a book with a name and a short description really helped him remember people. So that's coming along nicely and I'm proud of it.

I'm really liking SPU so far and am very much in danger of the freshman fifteen with Gwinn's (the cafeteria) dessert display case being the first and last thing you see when you enter and leave... O.o I seriously must regulate how many desserts I have per week. Maybe one every two days. We'll see.

So, there you have my first impressions after 6 days on campus and 2 days of classes. :D

"What is this feeling?
So sudden and new?
I felt it the moment
I laid eyes on you:
My pulse is rushing:
My head is reeling:
My face is flushing:
Oh, what is this feeling?" - Galinda and Elpheba ("Wicked")