First Impressions

So, my classes. I'm taking six of them, making for a total of 16 credit hours in actual spring term (that's nineteen total because of j-term).

And can I just say, before my synopsis of my classes, that I LOVE QUILTS!!!

Anthropology - Funny funny professor (his name is Cobb). Not funny as in humorous so much - well, OK. He's humorous. But it's more like.... he's ridiculous. He does these.... motions.... with his hands. When he says "ethnography" or "ethnology" he sticks his hands way up over his head (his fingers are sort of pinched together like a meditation pose) and stands on his toes. When he talks about "cultural relativism" he invariably winks at the entire class both before and afterward, and then immediately afterward does this little.... I'll call it his "moral judgment" dance. He has this thing with suspending moral judgment and trying to understand cultural beliefs and practices from within the culture itself. Seeing the culture through the eyes of its people. So whenever he talks about cultural relativism, he does this little dance, where he prances along and his voice goes up real high, and he squeaks laboriously along the lines of, "ooh, that's nasty and bad! They're going to hell!" Now, while this in itself would be amusing, it's even more so because of who he is. He's this sort of.... jolly looking professor. He told us to call him "Doc" and he's short and sort of pudgy, with a long white beard and long white hair that he pulls back in a ponytail, and he's balding on top. Let me tell you, it's really hard to pay attention to the lecture when he does his little "moral judgment" dance. Or perhaps I should call it more of a .... happy moral judgment shuffle.

Form, Space, and Media - Botts strikes me as really nice, but definitely wacky. I get the feeling he won't put up with any of that catering stuff. We're going to have to make it up by ourselves without a lot of feedback from him, and definitely without catering to his tastes. Good I guess, but the lack of feedback might make it a bit hard. Our first project is sculpting a piece of cardboard without any kind of adhesives. Should be interesting. It's due on Friday.

Art History - I had my first class today, and Professor Caroselli is absolutely hilarious! I think I'm also going to like this class because it's not a survey class - that is, it doesn't have dates and we don't have to identify a lot of artwork and their creators. It's definitely.... I dunno. I may need more information before I can guess what it'll be like. I really like the professor though, and I know tons of people in the class because, well, it's an art class, and most of the first year art students are in it.

World Civilizations from 1500 - Scary, scary class. I'm not much of a history person. The prof seems nice (Bernardo Michael) but he also scares me, because it doesn't seem like he'd have that much patience with non-historical minds like mine. The professor of my seminar (Stoner-Eby) seems nice enough, but demands respect and attention and above all participation. Which is a bit difficult for me this semester. There's a lot of people in all of my classes, and I don't really usually feel comfortable talking. In fact, I don't even think when there are that many people around usually. = )

Life Fitness - GAH!!!! It'll be good I suppose, considered objectively. My professor looks like George Bush, which is sort of creepy. He speaks eerily like him (not voice so much, but oration style) and he brings God into absolutely everything, sort of like George Bush. (Don't misunderstand me - it's not a bad thing to bring God into everything. But most people don't associate working out directly with God. Just as most people don't associate politics or going to war directly with God. The parallel there was a bit funny, at least in my opinion.) I also know a lot of people in this class, so that's cool. I should have people to work out with at any rate.

Intro to Bible - LOVE THIS CLASS!!!!!!!! I have Dr. Miller, who's a messianic Jew, and while I'm not sure I'll agree with everything he says, I totally love the class so far. It's fascinating to find out how much more there is. I'm sure most of you know how frustrated I get with.... well, easy stuff. The surface teachings, and the downright wrong teachings. I mean, c'mon, when someone interprets 1 Cor. 13 to mean you should have good self-esteem, well, you've got a problem. And it frustrates me. So to be taught not just new facts about the Bible, but to be taught a different mode of thought to use about the Bible, to be given tools with which to better study it, it's great. I also know a lot of people in this class. So I'll get to study with them, which will be cool.

Written, of course, in no particular order of enjoyment. If it was, World Civ would be way down at the bottom, right below Life Fitness.

Ok then, that's rather a lot. I hope you can digest all that. It'll be interesting to see how my first impressions compare with my final impressions.