They swallowed it whole, they went for the gold.
We fall for the same lies, we all have the same shoes to fit.
The preachers and books of your empire will fight here alone,
someday they will be forgotten and die one by one.
Fanfarlo, The Walls are Coming Down
Today, the first day of the new semester, started with a knot in my back.
I only had one class change, from taking Health to British Lit.
Ms. Wolverine* teaches Brit Lit, which is actually a class for Seniors. I am not a Senior, so even though the class is small I don't know anyone in it personally besides Adelaide, the one other Junior girl who's in it with me. There are Seniors I recognize (Large Fringe Kid is in there, as is one girl from my Health class, and JG's older sister). It's a student-run class, so we voted on what books to read and turned in our ballots, so I'll know what we're reading, hopefully, tomorrow. We each have to lead a discussion/activity two days out of the semester and we're probably going to take a field trip to Seattle to see a play.
Dubliners was a choice on the ballot (one guy seriously said "I'm voting for it! I LOVE JAMES JOYCE!"), and I briefly considered it when I had one vote left and couldn't decide what else to vote for (we got five votes). I thought maybe since J and S had already read it they might be some help to me, but in the end I used that vote for Alice in Wonderland because it was obviously going to be one that everyone else voted for, so there was no use in resisting it (I, unlike many children, didn't read it when I was little and at this point the prospect of reading it really creeps me out after seeing the movies). I really hope we end up reading A Picture of Dorian Gray and Waiting for Godot because those were my top two picks - I also voted for A Comedy of Errors and Taming of the Shrew. I weighed Hamlet as an option, but I'll have to read that next year in AP Composition and Literature, so while it might be helpful to already understand it when I'm in that... I don't really want to read it twice if I can help it.
With this class, I've set the goal for myself to try to make friends in it. I'm not exceptionally good at that anyway, but it's probably going to be worse in this class just because everyone is older than me. I'm already friends with Adelaide and she's in the same boat as me, although her side of the boat is a bit more outgoing...
I feel like I'm always looking towards the future these days: I found a new college I like this weekend and next week we're signing up for next years' classes. Plus, it's this time of year when I start to dream about summer like it's just around the corner already. I want to buy film for my camera, I want to get sundresses and shorts and have the freedom to do what I want every day, and I'm so looking forward to writing camp this year.
It's like I can't live right here, right now.
I blame it on the fact that the school I found has the option of being a student teacher abroad, which really puts my whole dream-life that much closer to me.
Worst thing about today: one boy in my Chem class saw Phoenix on Saturday. And I don't mean the real concert, I mean the KEXP acoustic set at the Triple Door. How come stuff like that doesn't happen to me?
*Pretty much Best Changed Name Ever?
did you get what you want in brit lit?
ReplyDeleteI don't know yet! We did a second vote today -- Godot and Dorian Gray were still in the running, though, so I'm hoping!! Cross your fingers! (I almost wrote "cross your gingers" hahaha, typing in French makes my fingers go wonky for a while...)
ReplyDeletehaha made me think of opening a jam jar. crossing your gingers?
ReplyDeleteDON'T READ DUBLINERS! It is evil and we've been analyzing it for weeks and I'm soooooooo sick of it...Alice in Wonderland would be really neat to read in a class, though...outside of class it's just a cute little story :D
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about the school in Minn? I LOVE IT too but my mom pointed out that going to school out there, there's truly no culture at all. No stores, not particularly interesting or experienced people, no concerts...It made me sad. Not sure I could live in such isolation for four years...
A: that's gross.
ReplyDeleteDubliners dindn't make the second round, haha. :P
If you look up the towns the college is in, there are four other colleges and actually lots of stuff there... just saying. Plus it's a college, basically, for people who want jobs that require travel and a global perspective, so I'd think that anyone there (or at least at that college) would be interesting.
Hahaha, C, have you ever BEEN to Minnesota? Do you realize how privileged of a "culture" you've grown up in? Not to take the wind out of your sails or anything--I am seriously looking at Concordia too, as it's one of the only schools I've found that offers Spanish, Chinese AND Russian as majors along with journalism and nursing (so if I went there, all my bases would be covered whereas other liberal arts schools would "lock" me into a future)
ReplyDeleteI'm just saying that I personally would probably jump off a bridge after the first year.
Besides. Look at that flatness. How could you avoid boredom? http://www.littleblackstar.com/scoot66/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/imgp5340_800.jpg
(although...it DOES have Boundary Waters...)
Oh, and what books were picked???
ReplyDeleteFirst: I'm not stupid.
ReplyDeleteSecond: I basically have to go to school in MN for Norwegian -- Hampshire is the only other school I've found with the option of it (or, at least, a feasable option of it), and there it's independent study. MN is, like, Land of the Vikings, haha. :P So I'll deal.
(Also, boredom avoidance is covered: STUDY ABROAD! I'm not doing just a semester, haha.)
We ended up with: Hamlet, Dorian Gray (YAY), P&P, A Tale of Two Cities, and Alice in Wonderland. So now I've got them all (went to the bookstore today) and I'm excited for most of them (not really for Hamlet...). I read two chapters of P&P on the ride home today and thought it was good, so we'll see about that, as it's going to be our first book.