DOOM. And other things about my day.
Sep. 5th, 2002 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksI have met my Nemesis, and he is a professor in my major.
Damn.
My schedule this semester is not precisely an easy one; I have one beginning intensive language (Ancient Greek), one required lower-level Cities course, one excessively high-level class on Aristotle for the Classical Studies major that is the only thing that would fit into my schedule, and one 300-level architectural history seminar. The first meeting of said seminar was today, as it is a once-a-week two-hour (which should probably have warned me).
The professor is a very sweet human being with a darling British accent. He is insanely knowledgeable in his field and wrote one of the texts that I know most grad schools use as a generalized introduction to the ideological schools currently active in architectural history. He's charming and funny. It's just a shame that I'm not either in grad school or taking his class as my only course.
We'll only be actually meeting as a class for about the first three weeks of the semester, during which time he'll give us some basic information on the architect and historical period the class is meant to be about. After that, he'll see us in December. We are to spend the intervening time working on a research project for individual presentations to be held in said semester-end, each presentation to be a fifteen-minute slide lecture accompanied by a five-page (at least) annotated bibliography. Quote: 'If you have any problems, I generally manage to hit my office once a week, but my new book is taking up most of my time, so I can't say with any regularity when I'll be there'. As those of you who went/go to the Mawr may know, fifteen minutes will be five minutes longer than my thesis presentation, which will not require slides (although it will have the bibliography, and will have an associated paper). But for that, I get an ADVISOR.
Also, since twice as many people signed up to take the course as will fit in the room, and every one of them is a declared Cities or History of Art major junior or senior who Really Needs this course (if I don't do it, this semester, I won't have time for the double major), he's decided not to lottery, but instead to decide the class list on the basis of a research project proposal from each of us to be emailed to him by Monday (although, thank gods, no tentative bibliography required yet).
I honestly believe I will be able to do this, assuming I can write a good enough proposal to get in when I know squat about the architectural period-- I mean, if I'd known a lot about the architectural period, would I be needing to take this class? Hello? However, it is at least six times the work I had expected to do for any class this semester. I am a junior. I am not a grad student. (Do they do this to you people who are in grad school?) So, this semester, we get to see just how much I really love my field. I'll probably even enjoy myself, most of the time, I hope. It's just-- DOOM. This class is looming and going 'Blaarrrghhh' at me.
The first thing I did was go and get a carrel in Carpenter. If you lose touch with me at any point during the semester, I will be living in T-13, in the Thomas stacks just to the right of the change machine. If you wind up not hearing from me in a month or more, please arrange to have food delivered to that address.
Angst-O-Meter: I am not angst-ridden. I am just incredulous. My Cities thesis is next year! Next year, I tell you! And it won't be on Neo-Palladianism...
Damn.
My schedule this semester is not precisely an easy one; I have one beginning intensive language (Ancient Greek), one required lower-level Cities course, one excessively high-level class on Aristotle for the Classical Studies major that is the only thing that would fit into my schedule, and one 300-level architectural history seminar. The first meeting of said seminar was today, as it is a once-a-week two-hour (which should probably have warned me).
The professor is a very sweet human being with a darling British accent. He is insanely knowledgeable in his field and wrote one of the texts that I know most grad schools use as a generalized introduction to the ideological schools currently active in architectural history. He's charming and funny. It's just a shame that I'm not either in grad school or taking his class as my only course.
We'll only be actually meeting as a class for about the first three weeks of the semester, during which time he'll give us some basic information on the architect and historical period the class is meant to be about. After that, he'll see us in December. We are to spend the intervening time working on a research project for individual presentations to be held in said semester-end, each presentation to be a fifteen-minute slide lecture accompanied by a five-page (at least) annotated bibliography. Quote: 'If you have any problems, I generally manage to hit my office once a week, but my new book is taking up most of my time, so I can't say with any regularity when I'll be there'. As those of you who went/go to the Mawr may know, fifteen minutes will be five minutes longer than my thesis presentation, which will not require slides (although it will have the bibliography, and will have an associated paper). But for that, I get an ADVISOR.
Also, since twice as many people signed up to take the course as will fit in the room, and every one of them is a declared Cities or History of Art major junior or senior who Really Needs this course (if I don't do it, this semester, I won't have time for the double major), he's decided not to lottery, but instead to decide the class list on the basis of a research project proposal from each of us to be emailed to him by Monday (although, thank gods, no tentative bibliography required yet).
I honestly believe I will be able to do this, assuming I can write a good enough proposal to get in when I know squat about the architectural period-- I mean, if I'd known a lot about the architectural period, would I be needing to take this class? Hello? However, it is at least six times the work I had expected to do for any class this semester. I am a junior. I am not a grad student. (Do they do this to you people who are in grad school?) So, this semester, we get to see just how much I really love my field. I'll probably even enjoy myself, most of the time, I hope. It's just-- DOOM. This class is looming and going 'Blaarrrghhh' at me.
The first thing I did was go and get a carrel in Carpenter. If you lose touch with me at any point during the semester, I will be living in T-13, in the Thomas stacks just to the right of the change machine. If you wind up not hearing from me in a month or more, please arrange to have food delivered to that address.
Angst-O-Meter: I am not angst-ridden. I am just incredulous. My Cities thesis is next year! Next year, I tell you! And it won't be on Neo-Palladianism...
