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masterofmidgets Well. I have now had all my classes at least once (except for SLE section, but hey), so here are my first impressions. Cause it seems like the thing to do.
Fencing is fun. And hard. And full of grad students. Which yeah, was pretty weird. I felt short. Really really short and incompetent. Buuuut the coach seems nice - unlike some athletics teachers I've had who look at you like "you're not an Olympic level gymnast - in fact, you just tripped over air. I hate you." He was demanding and had a really thick accent, and I probably won't be best friends with him, but he seemed to be alright. I'm reeeeeeeeeally sore though, so I'm kind of worried about how I'll handle tomorrow. *is scared*
Japanese is made of win. Seriously. The teachers seem so awesome and incredibly enthusiastic and I think I'm going to like it a lot a lot a lot. Some of the pronunciations are a bit tricky - especially the words that have been integrated into the US but are pronounced differently, like sayonara and arigatoo. And I already hate learning hiragana, so kanji are probably going to be even worse, urgh. But I think I'm going to love it overall, I really do.
SLE strikes fear into my heart. We had our first Mark-lecture, and it was...well, indescribable. He is amazing. And passionate, and opinionated, and god, I'm becoming a Marksist, I swear. He was talking about education, and the purposes of a college education, and why the humanities are so important, and the things colleges don't do anymore but they should, and I felt so inspired and pissed off and like I could just sit and listen to him for hours. But I also felt really dumb and uninformed and useless and like I'll never have anything intelligent to say in section discussions and like Vasiliy - who is in my section - is going to rip all my arguments apart and laugh at me all the time. And I fear our essays. I'm thinking that we're going to get them back and it'll be like when I give an essay to my mom and all she tells me is "it sucks, do it over." I mean, I think I'm a pretty good writer - not brilliant, but decent at least - but that doesn't mean my profs are going to agree. I'm kind of freaked out. I'm still undecided at this point on whether SLE was a great opportunity or a huge mistake.
Fencing is fun. And hard. And full of grad students. Which yeah, was pretty weird. I felt short. Really really short and incompetent. Buuuut the coach seems nice - unlike some athletics teachers I've had who look at you like "you're not an Olympic level gymnast - in fact, you just tripped over air. I hate you." He was demanding and had a really thick accent, and I probably won't be best friends with him, but he seemed to be alright. I'm reeeeeeeeeally sore though, so I'm kind of worried about how I'll handle tomorrow. *is scared*
Japanese is made of win. Seriously. The teachers seem so awesome and incredibly enthusiastic and I think I'm going to like it a lot a lot a lot. Some of the pronunciations are a bit tricky - especially the words that have been integrated into the US but are pronounced differently, like sayonara and arigatoo. And I already hate learning hiragana, so kanji are probably going to be even worse, urgh. But I think I'm going to love it overall, I really do.
SLE strikes fear into my heart. We had our first Mark-lecture, and it was...well, indescribable. He is amazing. And passionate, and opinionated, and god, I'm becoming a Marksist, I swear. He was talking about education, and the purposes of a college education, and why the humanities are so important, and the things colleges don't do anymore but they should, and I felt so inspired and pissed off and like I could just sit and listen to him for hours. But I also felt really dumb and uninformed and useless and like I'll never have anything intelligent to say in section discussions and like Vasiliy - who is in my section - is going to rip all my arguments apart and laugh at me all the time. And I fear our essays. I'm thinking that we're going to get them back and it'll be like when I give an essay to my mom and all she tells me is "it sucks, do it over." I mean, I think I'm a pretty good writer - not brilliant, but decent at least - but that doesn't mean my profs are going to agree. I'm kind of freaked out. I'm still undecided at this point on whether SLE was a great opportunity or a huge mistake.
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Yay fencing!
Date: 2007-09-26 03:22 pm (UTC)Psht. You'll do fine in SLE, just you wait and see. Remember, you are now on a footing with your mental peers - it isn't just you and me and a couple others in a class full of people who can't write even a page on a poem. Challenging! Exciting! And, probably, absolutely terrifying. I'm starting to get over my huge sense of inadequacy, and since you're that much smarter than I, you should get over yours tolerably swiftly too.
Re: Yay fencing!
Date: 2007-09-26 06:55 pm (UTC)I don't have fecning every day - I have it Mondays and Wednesdays. Which is more than enough, in my opinion, as I need the intervening days to regain the ability to walk. Soooo soooooore... I like it though. And now of course I can't drop it because it's a matter of honor. And my ninja way. *grins*
I DO NOT like hiragana. Mine come out lop-sided and weird looking. I refuse to even think about katakana or kanji. Bah, I say! Bah!
Once again I hug you.
Re: Yay fencing!
Date: 2007-09-27 03:04 pm (UTC)Of course, now I don't remember any hiragana because I learned katakana and apparently there's only room in my head for one of them at a time...
Yay fencing! And ninjas! Today in Japanese we were talking about occupations. "Stock-san no okaasan wa kaishain desu ka?" "Ee, sou desu ka." Eventually we ran out of occupations, and our teacher asked us to suggest more. Silence. And then - "Ninja?" *grins* Yo mama's a ninja! So of course we had to learn how to say 'pirate' too. Kaizoku. And 'mo' hiragana is a ninjapirate and therefore does not exist.
*hugs*