Tuesday 5 October 2010

3 weeks in...

And things are going surprisingly well!

I do panic about how things are going to turn out and this often manifests itsself in my head as all the worst possible things that could happen. So far, none of them have. I havn't been yelled at for not doing A-levels (they actually gave me a bursary for it...), I havn't been murdered by scary people in my halls, I havn't had all my stuff stolen and I havn't cried in class because I didn't understand a bloody thing that was going on. All in all, not a bad start at all.

There's 4 proper subjects I have classes/lectures in at the moment:
Greek: I am awful at languages. This I've known for some time, but Greek seems ok! The big scary alphabet isn't really that scary at all and once I learn my tenses, I'll be away... Ok, so it's not easy-peasy and there is homework like woah - but I can cope with it! The book we work from ("Athenaze") is fairly helpful (providing you're looking up the right word!) but it works on a sort of storyline. Which is almost unbearably boring and repetitive. It's become something of an in-joke with the rest of the class about how dull it is - Dicaeopolis (or "ό Δικαεοπολις") and his slave, Xanthias ("ό Ξανθιας" - I'm just pratting about now...)  seem to spend all their time in a field, making each other's lives difficult with the aid of a pair of stroppy oxen. It's hardly gripping... But at the same time, nobody's called me a complete idiot and I've managed to get through my homework without crying!

Introduction to the Greek World: Some actual history! The lecturer we have for this one is fantastic - he's got a great sense of humour and he's so animated and great to listen to. It's pretty much going through Greek History one era at a time looking at various sources - anything from bones to poetry. Obviously, because of time and stuff a lot of things only get skimmed over - I guess we can focus more in the next year.

Classics and Popular Culture: Far too much fun! The last lecture we had for this involved watching some bits of films, part of a Prince (as in The Artist Formerly Known As A Squiggle) concert, a Nick Cave video ad part of an episode of The Simpsons! There is a point to it - mostly picking out elements of Classics (for example, last lecture was centred around Homer - especially "The Odyssey".

Prehistory - First Humans To The First Farmers: My extra module... I've got no background in Archaeology, but it does seem interesting. The lectures seem a bit too fast-paced for me though. I don't know if it's because I had a cold last week or because I've never been to an Archaeology lecture or if it's just the way our lecturer does things. She does seem very enthusiastic (which I like) and energetic - but I think I might have preferred it if she slowed down a little! I'll see how things go at the next one! It's not utterly terrible - just a bit confusing!

Homework is to be expected - not getting too much (not too little either!) Greek tends to take up most of my time, but there's a fair bit of Herodotus I need to read for the end of the week!

Socially I'm not that busy, but that's probably a good thing! I'm not too tired! Went to the Classics Society last week and back up to Sheffield to see some friends at the weekend. This week I want to try to make it to the Sci Fi Society as well. Just bought tickets to see some bands I really love - I don't go out as much any more, but I'll be damned if I'm missing any of that lot! I'm watching a lot of videos as well - no live telly because I don't have a licence - but lots of other stuff. It's about all I've got the energy to do after lectures!

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