The rain continues to fall, but Ranger Dave assures me that this is a weather front that will move out. Luckily, the company is good, the crew is reunited, and classes start today.
As of 49 minutes ago, I've started my duties as computer lab (called the Apple Cellar here) assistant. It's roaring here with one professor working away in a corner.
The Vermont campus has a much more serious and studious feel than Santa Fe and from all accounts, the courses will be more demanding. Certainly the opening speeches and ceremonies have focused on the rigor and the challenge ahead, which is disconcerting, but I'm sure we'll all rise to the occasion and that it will be a good challenge rather than an impossible challenge. At any rate, it takes some adjusting coming from the whole Santa Fe feel. That is not to say that the coursework at Santa Fe was not challenging, but the focus was much more on community and togetherness whereas the focus appears to be otherwise here.
I am taking Fictions of Finance, which I have twice a week for a long block. The focus should be on how writers portray the economic world, how they take on capitalism, especially the stock market's influence on ordinary lives. I don't know anything about economics, so I think it will be interesting and hopefully not over my head.
My other class is Male, Female, Other, which is about the history of gender and how "others," those who don't quite fit society's roles of gender, have faired. The syllabus is daunting and the class starts at 11. I'll keep you posted. It has been enlightening reading and there is nothing quite like reading Deliverance while camping in a new forest. Can you hear the banjoes yet?
That's a line from a Johnny Cash song? I hear a guitar in the distance...a better front is coming, coming down the line, I hear that whistle blowing, and I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy those courses...sounds interesting!
love mom
Biting my nails for you!
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