Semester Preview

Now that I have made it through the first week of classes, I have a better idea of what to expect from this semester. And its going to be a tough one. To summarize some of the more interesting notes:

• I am taking 5 classes, 18 units (okay, not really that interesting).
• Over the course of the semester, I will have classes in five new buildings. It is the perfect demonstration of how things are changing as I am now moving into my major's territory.
• This is the first semester with no novels assigned, which is shocking. But instead of reading from any of my text books for the first week of class, I read About a Boy. It is quite good and very insightful.
• This is the first year with take home exams for me: three of them in two classes.
• Also, I have the most exams (including finals and take homes, which might not count) so far. Or at least it feels like it. Overall, I have ten over the course of the year. But generally there is some space between them, except for one day right in the middle of the semester when I have two midterms.
• Three of my classes are senior level classes, not that the numbers mean much. But the fact that there are a lot of graduate students in two of my classes has me a little intimidated.

But I also think its going to be a lot of fun. With the exception of my Sociology class (SOCI305: Sociology of Childhood), which I am still not sure about, all my classes seem to be promising. Next up I need a job...

Danger

In the last week alone, there have been three reports of guns being pulled on students at USC. It isn't a comforting feeling to know that crime has sky rocketed in the neighborhood. And worse, is to feel like there isn't an honest effort to really stop the crime in the area. Even more frightening is the idea that a cop was killed at the grocery store just three blocks away. Not the most welcoming news to hear upon returning to live here for another year...

Everything is Illuminated

For all those people who have been encouraging me to read the book, you might be interested to see the trailer for the movie that they are making: Everything is Illuminated Trailer on Apple.com. I am ashamed to say I still haven't read the book, but I might just have to read it on the drive back...