Another First Day

Today was another first day of classes. Today's classes were on 1 Samuel, Colonial America, and Advanced Hebrew.

1 Samuel was interesting today. The prof that teaches that course is also the same one who teaches Advanced Hebrew. I learned things today in 1 Samuel that I would have never even thought of, such as comparisons he had made (such as the Hebrew word for 'ask' is 'saul' which is the name of the first king over Israel - remember that the people had asked for a king and it was Saul whom God chose for them). I hope the rest of the semester is as interesting as it was today. Our text book (if you could call it that) was written by the prof, but so far according to the syllabus, it doesn't mention if we do a book review on it or that it is just "extra" assigned reading for certain classes or what...I'm sure I'll find out though.

Colonial America scares me. While some aspects of this course I find interesting, all in all I was feeling rather anxious and as though I would hyperventilate while we went over the syllabus. We have to do a group presentation and teach the class on a specific topic (there are 5 groups and he will pretty much put the groups together. He's supposed to let us know next class.). I hate presentations...ok, maybe not hate but really really really strongly dislike. We have three books to read (one is a little over 400 pages of smallish print) and a term paper. We have a choice in how to do the paper and book reviews. The first option is this: a term paper of no less than 3000 words, do a book review on each book (can either do it in advance to be handed in, or come to class the day it is due and write it in the alloted time for the class) and have no final exam. Our other option (which he recommends for non-history majors) is a term paper of no less than 2000 words, read all three books but only do 2 book reviews (same thing as the other, either do it in advance or that day), plus the final exam. I am at a loss on which I should do. I like the idea of not having a final exam. I don't really like the book reviews as I never am really sure if I am doing it right...with this alone I am told by a history major that this prof wouldn't be marking the book reviews as strictly if you do it the day of the class instead of doing it in advance and handing it in, because you don't have as long to write as you would if you did it at home. The paper I wouldn't be overly worried about. I enjoy the 2000 word count, but I'm sure I could get a 3000 one done as well. But, I am going to play it safe and go and see the prof next week after class to discuss it all with him to see what he would recommend that I do.

Advanced Hebrew wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be...at least today wasn't. We are going to be going through 1 Samuel (I'm lucky that I get this in both classes as he tells stuff in the Hebrew class that was mentioned in 1 Samuel class, so I get a little review that will hopefully help me along the way as well). Today we listened to and translated the first 10 verses of 1 Samuel 1 and while I couldn't remember all the words (and of course there were plenty that I didn't know because we never took them last year) I didn't do too badly. In this class we will have 2 tests and a final exam and on all 3 of these we will be translating a paragraph (or several) and probably parsing some verbs...so I'd better start my reviewing of this stuff so that I can do well.

I also spoke to someone in the registrar's office today about my classes. I wanted to make sure that I have all of the required classes I need in order to graduate this year. I am fine and was able to even drop one of the history classes I was going to take next semester. However, I need to email her and ask her about my minor in history, to see if I have enough courses for it...if not I might have to end up taking that history class. Though, I hope I don't have to because then I'll only have 3 classes next semester. My drawing prof was saying that he is trying to get someone to come in next semester and teach watercolour painting which I would love (I took a few lessons in that on my own a few years ago), so hopefully that won't be on a Wednesday evening, otherwise I wont be able to take it due to conflicting schedule...we'll see.

Well, I have tomorrow off, thankfully, as this year I don't have any courses on Fridays at all...wooo hooo!! Gotta like that...now I need to train myself to actually DO some homework on Fridays (would like to use it especially to do my tons of reading that is required)...