School, again.

School started...sometime in August. Dates are once again irrelevant. I wake up, go to class, go to work, do some homework, then sleep. I'm taking five literature classes this semester--a rather heavy load in terms of reading--but everything is going well. I have a few friends and acquaintances in my classes, including a girl I work with at the library.

I'm enjoying all my classes at this point, especially Shakespeare II and Literary Criticism. My American Literature I class is difficult to judge. The professor makes the class entertaining; he's originally from New York and bears a frightening resemblance to Woody Allen in voice and mannerisms. The first day of class, however, he made it clear that he hates teaching literature survey courses and especially hates American literature surveys. Hmmm. The class seems more like a history course than a literature course, since we're reading mostly non-fiction documents, such as the journals of Christopher Columbus and John Winthrop, Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, etc.

Another class that I'm not sure about yet is British Literature III. I love the time periods we're studying (the Romantic period and the Industrial Revolution), but the professor's approach to studying the works we are reading irritates me. She has reduced our reading of the poetry of Coleridge, Shelley, Blake, Wordsworth, etc. to a hunt for Romantic themes. Exclusively. That's all we do. Every class, we "close read" (by our professor's definition) for glorification of nature, the supernatural, individualism, and "the sublime!"--the latter a theme which no one is clear on. Still, when called on in class it's easy to point out a line and yell, "look! This is the Sublime!" That answer always seems to satisfy my professor.

*sigh*

Lazy, Lazy

Well, summer is over, and I did not post as much as I had planned to. I attribute this lack of posting to my laziness. Here are a few things that I should have mentioned (or at least elaborated on):

My brother graduated from high school, and I attended the ceremony at the Air Force Academy.

Josh and I attended Yvette's wedding.

I experienced jury duty for the first time.

.... And I went to Nepal. This last event, especially, would have made a really nice post if I hadn't put off writing it. I will eventually post some photos and stuff (once school slows down, i.e. around Christmas break).