Monday, February 11, 2008

Uggggg

Exhausting. I was up last night (of course!), then up this morning for breakfast. Went to test the waters in 3 classes, Sustainable Development (sounds fairly interesting and looks to be good teaching), Economics (looks interesting but today was just signing up for stuff so no actual lecture), and Social Anthropology (fascinating, exactly the stuff I would be interested in doing....but GOD was it deadly dull and the lecturer said nothing over...and...over...again). So. Also had Psychology (more of the same) and Philosophy, Knowledge and Reasoning (arguments, formal logic and epistemology, which should be useful if not riveting). So I think I have some tough decisions, but it should be interesting. I may see if I can take 4 classes instead of 3, though last time I asked I was told students weren't allowed to receive over 60 credits (each class being 20). I may just audit one, though which one? Who knows.

What else? I applied for an essay scholarship (submit an essay on learning techniques, win ££!) because it was only 500 words and I was bored. I wrote about the idea that you can never do too much. We'll see if that's true.

I asked about directing this semester and was told there was a chance and I should come to the theatre meeting on Thursday at lunch, so I'll go to that and in the meantime desperately read up on Moliere (my thought is to do a comedie del arte comedy--by the way mom do you have Vanessa's e-mail?). I'm still waiting to hear back about the job at the hostel, but I'm not thinking I'll be offered that at this point. There's some temporary work stuff at the library for decent pay that I may do instead. I found a St Andrews Travel Bursary where you can apply for money for any travel project, so I think I'll see if I can get them to pay for Costa Rica this summer. Speaking of which, I'm hoping to go to Costa Rica for a couple months over the summer and volunteer at Aviarios with the sloths. Fitting, no?

So, I've been keeping busy.

3 comments:

tsonia said...

No sloth, you, Brian! Glad to see you're starting in full gear. I'm always amazed at just how much you can accomplish. Especally since I know, deep down, you're basically slothful!

swallace said...

More evidence that the quality of the teaching is as important as the content, especially at the beginning. A bad teacher can kill someone's interest; a wonderful teacher can spark interest in the most boring subject. Why departments don't put their strongest teachers in their intro classes always amazes me (unless they are trying to scare away all but the most die-hard students).

Anonymous said...

i second steve's sentiments on teaching. one of my favorite profs said to me that in time, i will remember nothing of her words, except her enthusiasm (in literature and in her students) and i have never stopped...
i hope you enjoy hegel and heidegger, and if you understand them, please explain them to me, for i found them extremely obtuse... maybe it was the translation...