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Visiting Campus
Jul. 27th, 2012 11:36 pmA splendid day! I went down to visit my grad school again - I meant to wait until it got cooler, but I also wanted to visit Camelot one last time, and they're all moving out at the beginning of August, so it had to be now.
Aside from being unspeakably hot the trip was lovely. I drifted around campus before fetching up at the history department, which was mostly empty for the summer, although the department office was open; I went in and the fellow holding the fort said, "Miss...[name redacted]?"
"Yes!" I said, surprised but also pleased, because it's always nice when people know your name.
After which excursion I meant to check out the university library, but then the deluge struck. The trees thrashed against the windows, and beyond the trees the rain fell so thick that it curtained the campus, hailstones rattled on the panes...
I decided to stay inside and check out the rest of the departments in the buildings. You GUYS, they have ALL THE LANGUAGES. I don't mean just that they have French and Spanish and Italian and Chinese, although they certainly do; they also have Czech and Dutch and Macedonian and Pashto, Persian and Polish and Haitian Creole. It was as if the rain trapped me in a chocolate box! So many delicious, delicious languages to choose from!
Reality check: probably I won't be able to choose from any of them. In grad school you're supposed to focus, not run around shrieking, "I'm going to study Hungarian!"
But...on the other hand...they're paying for five years worth of courses, here, even though it's clearly possible to fulfill all the requirements and pass your qualifying exam in less than three. They just handed me two extra years worth of courses for free. I mean, sure, technically these courses have to be related to my degree...but clearly Dutch is absolutely essential to my understanding of American history. New Amsterdam! Say no more!
Justifying Macedonian might take a little more ingenuity. But what's the point of grad school if you don't like a CHALLENGE?
Aside from being unspeakably hot the trip was lovely. I drifted around campus before fetching up at the history department, which was mostly empty for the summer, although the department office was open; I went in and the fellow holding the fort said, "Miss...[name redacted]?"
"Yes!" I said, surprised but also pleased, because it's always nice when people know your name.
After which excursion I meant to check out the university library, but then the deluge struck. The trees thrashed against the windows, and beyond the trees the rain fell so thick that it curtained the campus, hailstones rattled on the panes...
I decided to stay inside and check out the rest of the departments in the buildings. You GUYS, they have ALL THE LANGUAGES. I don't mean just that they have French and Spanish and Italian and Chinese, although they certainly do; they also have Czech and Dutch and Macedonian and Pashto, Persian and Polish and Haitian Creole. It was as if the rain trapped me in a chocolate box! So many delicious, delicious languages to choose from!
Reality check: probably I won't be able to choose from any of them. In grad school you're supposed to focus, not run around shrieking, "I'm going to study Hungarian!"
But...on the other hand...they're paying for five years worth of courses, here, even though it's clearly possible to fulfill all the requirements and pass your qualifying exam in less than three. They just handed me two extra years worth of courses for free. I mean, sure, technically these courses have to be related to my degree...but clearly Dutch is absolutely essential to my understanding of American history. New Amsterdam! Say no more!
Justifying Macedonian might take a little more ingenuity. But what's the point of grad school if you don't like a CHALLENGE?
