...and beyond!

Nearing the end of Day 2 of Classes. Which means yesterday was Day 1. Let me begin with stating that I love the first day of classes, it's fun and exciting and makes me all together thrilled about getting into new things. Yesterday, I went to four classes, only two of which I was registered for, because one of the great things about being in college is having the ability to choose in what way I'd like to learn. I'll go through the day with my thoughts:

9am: Health & Society
I was excited for this class as soon as I saw its description back in January/February. It seemed intriguing because the society in which health was being discussed was decidedly different from my own in one large way: the National Health Service. The NHS is the UK's health service that is publicly funded. So this class has two major parts: discussing the sociological impacts of health and then discussing the role of the NHS. Sounds like exactly what I wanted. I'm excited. Though, I must admit, a bit skeptical of this sociological stuff. It's pretty easy to find that I'm writing the same thing in my notes with different words. But I'm trying to have an open mind. The reading was more interesting than the lecture, which seemed to just be a repetition of "health is comprised of ones physical, mental, and social well-being, it is not just the absence/presence of illness." Yeah, I got it the first time, thanks...what? There's a lot of factors that contribute to health? Oh, I didn't know....etc

12pm: Scottish Literature
I went in skeptical and came out pleased. The lecturer was great and really interesting, but, it turns out he was the lecturer for English Lit--not Scottish Lit. The classes meet together for the first two days of the week and separately for the last meeting. In just one lecture, though, he brought a lot of interesting thoughts to mind mostly through the discussion of the transition into a literate society from one almost entirely dependent on spoken word. As much as I enjoyed what he had to say, it made me nervous to think about how much reading I would have that I wouldn't necessarily enjoy (or would be a large effort to make myself enjoy) and could see myself falling behind.

4pm: Scottish Ethnology
Ethnology is the study of culture and its origins, it's similar to anthropology. I was pretty much bored within 5 minutes after entering the class. It wasn't even a proper lecture, but the professor was not very intriguing and spent a good amount of time talking about rules. I got a copy of the course syllabus and nothing was interesting to me. Boooo

5pm: Science & Society
Firstly, there is a class with this exact title being offered at Brandeis next semester. But, the professor had me hooked and interested and thinking all sorts of things that I like to think. So I'm doing it here. I'm interested in the fact that there is very little pressure for people to be math and science literate. And it's not necessarily the public's fault because the layout of early science classes (at least those I experienced) is not designed for the majority of people. It's monotonous information.

In case it wasn't clear enough, I chose Health & Society and Science & Society. Which makes me feel awfully silly, but they really aren't very similar. I'll be looking at two different topics for similar things. Lots of sociology, which I haven't taken before. We'll see how it goes...Still have two CS classes!