10 days in

Classes have been in session (for me) for the last 10 days, and things are still going good! Ok, here's my schedule:

Tuesdays from 1:10-3:25 Deviance with Gary, 9 students. Since classes started on a Wednesday, we've only had one class with him. We talked about witch hunts - his project for the last 15 years, which came out in book form recently, I know because I had to buy the (expensive) book for this class. Seems like it'll be good. We have to answer an assigned question in essay form once every three weeks and present our answer in class. And then there's a term paper at the end. So, it doesn't sound like it'll be too bad. The worst part about the class so far as that the book we're reading actually makes witch hunts sounds boring. I think we should spice things up by watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Wednesdays from 1:10-3:25 Classical Theory with George, 15 students. George is great, and he's also my faculty mentor for this year, which is very cool. He's from Germany, and even though he's lived here since he was 17, he has a massively thick accent, especially when he's saying "Durkheim." (who is a really big sociology guy from 19th century France, wrote about suicide, and came up with a bunch of basic sociological theory that we still use today.) Fun class, and George's big thing is that grad students don't socialize as much as they used to, so we have weekly social hour over at the pub on campus on Friday afternoons. Fantastic idea, so you can see why I like having him as my mentor.

Thursdays from 2:10-4:25 Statistics with Tony, 18 students. Tony is freaking hilarious and very cool, but not the best stats teacher ever. It's a good thing Chad practically majored in statistics. We've been to two classes, and all we've talked about is how to use the stats program. Nothing about mean, median, mode, variation, regression, etc. All of the typical intro stats things. I kind of feel like he doesn't know how to go ALL the way back to the basics. Could be tricky. Luckily, the software we're using reminds me very much of C++, so that's kind of fun. Sucks for the other kids in the class, though, because he's not great at explaining the software either. Really fun prof, though.

Fridays from 1-2, Statistics lab, also with Tony. This is where we sit in the computer lab, mess around with the stats software, maybe do some homework, and ask Tony questions.

Fridays from 3-4-ish, Social Hour with the theory kids and George. Already a favorite time of the week.

So, those are my classes. I usually have a good amount of reading for each one, so that keeps me busy. Chad and I both do a lot of our work up at school. He's staking out a space in the law library, and I have a cubicle type desk in an office in the sociology department - very nice though, I like it. I share the office with two other 1st year girls, and there's a main common area for all of the offices where students often hang out, each lunch, or pretend to work.

Yeah, so, Chad and I usually catch the 7:36 am bus together, we go to the law school, where they have free juice and coffee, and then we split ways for the day. Chad's had opportunities for free lunch every day, so we generally don't see each other until dinner. By that point, after being in the office all day, I'm usually fed up with work, so I watch Scrubs and other hilarious programs while Chad goes back up to the law library until they kick him out at midnight. Then, he comes home, I'm asleep, and he stays up doing more work. And then we get up for the 7:36 again. I think you can tell who's more loaded down with work. That may change, though, since my classes are just now starting to pick up on the work load.

And in the meantime, we still have to write thank you notes. Arg. But overall, life in Nashville is good! It's rainy today, so yay for coffee and reading!