Today felt like a whirlwind. One thing after another was happening, which was for the most part good. I was signed up to have an Archaeology class, Ancient High Technology, today, along with my friends Marc and Niki. We waited outside the classroom for twenty minutes past when the class was supposed to start, to no avail. Out of the blue, a German student came up and started asking us questions (in German), especially asking me if I was studying Kunstgeschichte (Art History). After finally starting the conversation over in English, we found out from him that Archaeology classes typically do not start until the second week of the term. While this may have been typical for him, an anthropology student, even our program director had not been aware of this. A short note regarding this class: I had originally chosen this class based off of the title, as it had not come with a course description, so everything I knew about it was based on the title. It was not until I arrived in Germany that I discovered this class was being taught in German. We started questioning this student about this class and learned that we should be expecting more Bill Nye, the Science Guy, rather than Indiana Jones. Apparently this “Ancient High Technology” class was a lot more focused on the scientific aspects than on learning about ancient technology or discoveries thereof. This was what initially set off warning bells for me. This, coupled with the anticipation of taking a highly technical and vocabulary-specific class in German, gave me second thoughts. Not having class to actually attend this morning, we headed to the Mensa for an early lunch.
While having lunch, I was talking with one of the other girls in the program about the classes she had. She had just come from a class entitled “British Contemporary Fantasy Literature.” Now, in my defence, I have no idea how I missed seeing this class when perusing the course offerings this past summer, but it definitely had my interest now. The class itself was offered at the exact same time as the archaeology class, so it would not change my schedule around to a great extent if I were to switch.
After lunch, I went to talk to the program director about these classes and my expectations for them. Because I was not concerned with having these classes replace classes at my home university, she recommended that if I was interested in this British literature class, I should switch - a process that was as simple as talking with her, my advisor. So I decided to do so.
Being now enrolled in a class that had already met this morning, I endeavoured to find out how far, if at all, I was behind. In talking with another friend who was already in this class, I learned that this class was structured a bit differently from normal. The German semester goes from October to February, so for those of us who were not going to be in Germany past December, the teacher believed it necessary that we cover the material in another manner. Typically, the accompanying tutorial sessions for each class serve to explain and expound upon what is taught in class. In the case of this British literature class, the tutorial serves to cover that information that we will not be in Germany with which to be presented. Effectively, those of us in the IUSP program who are taking this class will be taking two literature classes at once, with only minor overlaps and entirely separate schedules. The tutorial session will, in some small part, serve its original purpose, as well. This might seem like a lot of information to comprehend, and for a few minutes, as I was looking at the two separate syllabi and schedules, I was slightly overwhelmed, but then all of the information started to make sense. The tutorial sessions meet on Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon. The actual class meets on Tuesday morning. This means that my Mondays are no longer completely open, but I can live with that. The tutorial and the class are held in English.
Perhaps a bit of excitement can be detected in my writing here. If so, this is because I am, in fact, quite excited for the books and material we will be covering. In addition to minor readings and the various topics studied, we will be reading the following: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. My first thought: That is a lot of reading. It is a lot of reading. I need to have The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe read by next Monday (not a difficult task, as it is not only short, but also an easy read) and a great deal of The Fellowship of the Ring read by the end of next week.
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