My First Week @ UW (Cheese, anyone?)

Hola!

Whoa! Tres posts in one day. I'm on a roll. Take that Martha Stewart (and April . . . how do you like them apples France? hehe)! So, as my title suggests, this past week was my first week at University of Waterloo. Me being . . . well . . . me, I was late for all but one of my classes on Monday. Luckily, the profs don't seem to care all that much, but I'm not a big fan of drawing unnecessary attention to myself and (I know this seems odd, coming from me) I actually don't like being late. Lateness aside, most other things are going pretty well. I can now find all my classrooms relatively quickly and can locate a bathroom in all the buildings I have classes in. I'm even starting to meet people (although I have not met my future spouse . . . oh wait, my LAST school was bridal college, not this one. Guess I'm out of luck. Maybe I'll still get my ring by spring, and perhaps this time the turkey dump can be avoided . . . lol.) I read the school's newspaper today, which is called Imprint, and I was impressed by it, which I take as a good sign. Let me tell you a bit about each of my classes, and then I'll end with a funny story that happened to me today at school.

Drama - This class is not quite what I expected, which turns out to be a good thing. I take it Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:00 to 11:20. The part I didn't expect is no acting whatsoever in the class. The reason that this is a good thing is because, although I've been interested in theatre for quite a number of years and understand and appreciate all the work and effort that goes into it, I've never been especially good at acting. This course is all theatre history type stuff, which I find interesting. My prof's name is Gerd Hauk; he's really awesome and it sure doesn't hurt that he has a very classy European accent that I can't quite put my foot on. He surprised everyone (or at the very least, me) on the first day with his humour, wondering out loud if we took his course because we thought that we were going to sit around, smoke pot and hold hands, and telling us that the way we were going to me out future husband wifes boyfriend girlfriend was by getting closer (he wanted us to all sit close together). So far we have learned about theatre as an art and Theatre of the Absurd. Interesting stuff.

Music Theory - This one was also somewhat not what I was expecting, but in a negative way. I was all excited b/c I have always liked theory and wanted to learn more. I knew going in that it was a more advanced theory class than the other 1st year one that's offered, but all it really said was that the student needed to have a basic understanding of triads and such stuff. Which I do. But he pretty much super-quickly reviewed everything I had ever learned in theory in all my highschool years in the first 50 minute class. Naturally I was freaking out by then, and it didn't help that my prof (Brian Corely or something? forget his name) was the same dude that auditioned me for a choir (which I didn't make it into btw, and he told me that before I had left the audition). After some thinking, I've decided that freaking out and dropping the class is not my best plan ever. So I realize that I might not ace it, but I know for a fact I will learn. And that is what I'm going for. We'll see how much my tune changes (haha, music pun) when the final marks come in.

English - Definitely more interesting than I hoped it would be, and I'm actually an English fan. It's short stories and drama, which is great both because I like short stories and drama and because it means . . . the reading is (relatively) short. I'm impressed by the way our prof (who's name I forget and/or am not encouraged to remember) has chosen all different types of short stories and drama in all styles and by all different types of people (different ethnicities, religions, etc). This is the one class I have that is quite a way from all the others, so I was even more late for his class than I was for the others on that first day. I entered on what seems to have been a class-long monologue. He looks the way you'd expect an english prof to look: tall, white hair, glasses, clear and kind of loud voice etc. His monologue, had it been titled, would have been called "Why I Read". It was kind of odd in that it seemed really rehearsed and gave out information on weaknesses I would not have told students I had. For example, he told us that by reading he learned things about himself; for example Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations' showed him that he was turning into a snob. I think his lectures have the potential of becoming boring but at this point could still go either way. I'm excited to be exposed to so many authors I haven't had experience with as of yet. So far we read You Could Look It Up which was unlike anything else I've ever read but quite good. Allegorical, at least moderately. Woot.

Spanish - This one's good stuff, too. I wanted to take more Spanish since I took that interest level class a year ago. I think I've met the most people in that class. Nevermind that I went to school with girl's older brother. I have a textbook, which makes me a hot commodity in that class (they only got more in yesterday). Next week when we all have textbooks I will be way less useful but hey. I'm sure we're all familiar, at least to some degree, with the Spanish song 'La Cucaracha'. Well, to work on pronunciation and as a ploy (I think) to make us feel silly, we all had to sing it in class. The professor (Regina Vera is her name, she seems really nice and I like her, the one and only complaint I have is that she insists on using a red marker on the white board which is more than impossible to see from the back of the room) passed out an obviously 'educational' version of the song (I could tell by the awful fake drums, synth sounds and ridiculously long instrumental breaks) on paper with the song in Spanish and it's English translation so we could sing along with the CD. I remember La Cucaracha from when I was little and have long since forgotten what the actual words were in Spanish (in fact I'm pretty sure I just invented english ones that fit). But I'm pretty sure the translation is not 'one thing I don't understand/is grown men with their nintendo/they play those games all day long/playing makes them happy'. Perhaps 'nintendo' was the best rhyme the 'educational' people could come up with for 'comprendo'. . .which seems hard to believe when I consider all the Spanish words that end in 'o'. I'm also fairly certain that at no point during the original song do 'Ernesto' and 'Carolina' introduce themselves. Eh . . . ci.

Couples, Marriage and Family - Just as I thought would be the case, this one is turning out to be my very favourite. And it's a good thing, b/c it's the only class I have on both Tuesday and Thursday, and it sucks to get from Guelph to Waterloo (not to mention home in the middle of the day when no one is headed that way) for one class. My professor is Dr.Scott Kline and he is awesome; very funny and interesting. The class is huge, maybe 100 ppl, consisting of like 90% females. So far we've been looking at marriage as it was in history. Specifically in the Leave It To Beaver kind of era. He also showed some ads from magazines that sort of underhandedly reinforce stereotypes. For example, there was an ad that shows four pictures of one guy in the exact same setting with the same backpack but a different girl. The caption read something to the affect of 'Who says guys can't commit? He's had the same backpack for years!'. (In case your curious about the stereotype reinforcement, it suggests that guys can commit to something inconsequential like a backpack, but girls are disposable.) I was incorrect in assuming that since this course is offered by St.Jerome's College it would look at things from a more traditional standpoint, but I don't think that that is a bad thing. If all continues to go well with this course I think I will consider making SMF (Sex, Marriage and the Family) my major. Three cheers for decisions.

Phew! Now a quick recount of my funny story. So today and yesterday in the UW Student Life Centre was clubs day. Now that was cool b/c I don't know many people and I really want to get involved, especially with a Christian group. I saw a bunch of cool stuff and was especially looking for Navigators (aka Chris Hutton) and Campus Crusade (b/c I've heard good things about the UW chapter). So I see most of this sign which says Campus Crusade 4 Christ hanging down in front of the table. I quickly approach the table and the guy behind it says 'Are you interested in the Jesus club on campus?' Thinking it was a little odd for him to say such a thing but also a fan of his being bold for the Lord, I responded with a conviction-filled 'yes'. He goes on about the first event where anyone from the uni can come, hang out, eat different cheeses and discuss them. He kept talking, and I was waiting for him to reveal the connection that would soon bring the cheese discussion around to Jesus. I was pumped, b/c that would have to be a pretty impressive and creative link to the big J.C. Cheeses of Nazareth by Five Iron Frenzy crossed my mind and I'm thinking, hey, cool. After quite awhile of talking to this guy (yeah, I'm a bit slow), I realize that it isn't Campus Crusade for Christ at all. It's Campus Crusade 4 Cheese! The guy behind the table didn't ask me if I was interested in the Jesus club. He asked me if I was interested in the cheese club. (The room was pretty loud, and I would have understood his not wantingto scream the word Jesus.) All I could see on the sign was Campus Crusade for Ch. I had assumed the -rist. I signed up anyway (who doesn't want to hang out and eat cheese?!), but I never found the booth for the real Crusade.

And scene. Hasta Luego!