back to school

This week was the first week of the semester, although it didn't feel so much like a "week" to me, since I have an odd schedule in which all of my classes are jammed into one intense block beginning at 10 am on Wednesday and concluding at 7 pm on Thursday, after which I have five uninterrupted days to either write or screw around (doing things like clearing out half-finished blog posts, for example). I am aware that this schedule will require a level of self-discipline I may not currently possess, since I do, in fact, have quite a lot of work to do this semester. I'm telling myself it will be a good learning experience.

The upside is that if the first week is any indication, all of my classes are going to be fantastic. I have two new writing teachers, for my thesis class and a rewrite class, both of whom seem top-notch and really focused on creating strong characters, which is exactly what I need. Both of these classes are also filled almost entirely with people I've never taken a writing class with, and there seem to be a lot of interesting and diverse projects in each. And my critical studies class with Professor Boyd, about which I've already written one post, promises to be SO AWESOME I think my head might explode. In the first class alone, we talked about the Wolfowitz Doctrine, Blackwater, the CIA's covert interrogation program, and what the 2000 election says about American democracy. It's like candy for mah brain!

On a side note, my sister and I calculated that this is the first time in twenty years that I will be going to school while she is not. (She graduated from college this spring and is spending a year working with AmeriCorps VISTA in our hometown, Baltimore, living in a house and being all grown-up and shit.) Weeeeird...