Meg

I’ve been a bit quiet for a while so I am making up for it with two posts today! First post is all about the main reason I am actually out here munching brisket and wandering down sidewalks and not sitting at home supping proper tea – Classes! I’ve had a month worth of classes now (I really want to call them lectures but that word does not seem appropriate as we aren’t lectured – they are really a blend of lectures and seminars. Participation is a large part of a class) and I am not sure if it is because I handpicked my classes but I am enjoying them so much! I’m not even overly flustered at being in class by 8am two mornings a week (yet… I can see that changing as time goes on). I must admit that since I had my bed ‘delofted’ it is so much easier getting out of bed for class. I couldn’t face the descent that early in the morning.I know you’re eager to know my timetable so I’ll walk you through it.

Monday morning at 8 o’clock I can be found bleary eyed in a class room in the bowels of the English and Philosophy Building. This is where I have my Topics in Postcolonial Studies class. For some reason I have not yet discovered, the classes have titles that don’t really make much sense to the content of the course. The subtitles make so much more sense. Topics in Postcolonial Studies is much more understandable as Writers on Food. We have read the entire History of Food in Felipe Fenandez-Armesto’s ‘Near a Thousand Tables.’ Surprisingly reading the entire history of food isn’t as arduous a read as you might think. I haven’t left that class without my stomach growling.

At 9.15am, Writers on Food concludes and I then have the next 8 hours off. I use this time for one of two things – catching up on reading and writing or napping. I have rediscovered the pleasures and the necessities of afternoon naps. At 5.30pm, I have my longest class – the Art and Craft of Writing about Culture. It’s still light when I go in to this class and by 8.15pm when we leave it’s dark. We’ve only skimmed the surface of what this class entails but I think it will be really interesting and with any luck it will refine my writing skills until I am world class! – or at least until I can pass the class.

Tuesday I get to have a lie in as my first class doesn’t begin until 9.30am. Topics in Film and Literature is sort of self-explanatory but the subtitle helps narrow the gaze to Surveillance and Mediation. So far we’ve watched three black and white German films from the 1930s and we’ve read George Orwell’s 1984. Dracula is up next. I am enjoying this more than I thought I would. It’s given me an opportunity to read classics that I have wanted to read and never quite had the time or motivation to plough through. Immediately following this, I make my way down a floor and have my Topics in American Literature after 1900 class. Again it is another title which is pretty meaningless. Its subtitle is In Print/In Person which doesn’t make things that much clearer. We read recently published books from all genres and after discussing each book for two classes, the author comes in to talk to us. For a wannabe writer, it is an exceptionally interesting thing to listen to someone who has achieved what I might like to do someday.

On Wednesday morning I am once more bleary eyed in the bowels of the English Building for my Writers on Food class. Then there is time for napping or working, whichever desire is more overwhelming tends to win. Wednesday afternoons I am enrolled in a class called the Passport Project. This is our weekly meeting when we discuss which events we have been to in the week. We are required to attend at least 12 different extra-curricular events from 6 different categories throughout the term and write a few paragraphs about our experience. So far I have attended a football game, a jazz performance in a coffee shop, an open mic night and a film screening of a ground breaking filming technique. It is a brilliant idea to get new students involved in the things going on in Iowa City.

Thursday brings another round of Surveillance films and In Print/In Person classes, and when Thursday afternoon rolls around I get to attend my favourite class. It is called Writers Commons: A Community of Writers. We only meet once a week and we each bring a piece of writing that we have been working on that week. We share it, critique it, review it and collaborate to improve our style and techniques. Of all my courses I feel this will be the most useful and insightful.

Friday mornings…who are we kidding, I don’t see Friday mornings. I have no lectures on a Friday so I arise at my leisure, choose which work I shall complete based on my plans for the weekend and usually get most of it done.

Simple as that.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2014 at 2:39 pm and is filed under General, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.