"I'm so sorry, why?"

School has once again begun and I find myself blogging in between classes. So far, so good I suppose except that one of my classes was canceled today, and of course, the dreaded ASL 2010.

I wish, oh I wish SO BADLY that ASL stood for anything other than American Sign Language.
It's not that it's especially hard to sign, though for someone as infinitely clumsy as me it is a challenge, it's that I can't stand the quiet and I hate group activities of any variety. I'm also very much an auditory learner, so yeah, it's not my thing. Still, it is significantly less work than any other language class so here I am.

The worst part though, is admitting that I'm taking it in front of other history majors. I ran into a guy from my Arabian Days class, and he asked if I was taking Arabic,

"Nope."
"Ah, Persian then!"
"Ah, no."
"What then, like French or something?"
"ASL actually."
"I'm sorry, why?"

No joke, that is what he said.

Well, on the plus side, I like my other classes a good deal. I only have one professor that I think is going to give me trouble, Sluglett. Yes, that is REALLY his name, Professor Peter Sluglett. He's an older British gentleman who seems to think his class is the most important thing you will ever do. However, it's on British and French Colonies in the Middle East so I can't resist.

I'm also taking Age of Imperialism from Professor Smelser, a man who upon saying his name someone within earshot always says, "Oh! Isn't he great?!" I'm happy because it gives me an excuse to finally read some novels from that time period, and to re-read Heart of Darkness.

My Roman Republic class is being taught by a man who reminds me of an enormous lawn gnome in khakis. The class is good though, even if I did embarass myself a bit with a sorta stupid question. The first reading, about the Etruscans, was WAAAAAAAAY over my head, but hey, that's what school is about, pretending to know stuff, right?

My Modern Africa class is going to be cool. Professor Cannon has a reputation for being hard to follow, so his class has about 15 people, my style of class. So, I had a wonderful time today, and I personally think Prof. Cannon is great, albeit disorganized. It's annoying that people like him get bad reputations because they want you to participate, they want to talk about the subject, not just have you sit around and take notes while he blathers on. Three younger students sat near me and they were confused about something he said so I said, "Then ask him about it." They were rather taken aback by the idea. Seriously, what do they think they are paying for?

Anyway, I've got an apple to eat before my next class. I hope you all are well and for those of you in school, we're going to get through this thing.