I heart the first week of school (while simultaneously realizing that "heart" is not a verb)

Fall is totally my favorite season. And I am sure that, if the population were polled, especially during back-to-school season, I would be in the minority. But I stand firm. The first week of school is, to me, fantastic. Everybody shows up to class wearing shiny new shoes and carrying a notebook full of clean white paper. Nobody hates their classes or teachers yet, nobody has any homework or tests or papers. The weather is nice and everybody practically skips around campus. It's just a good time.

This week I had 4 of my 6 classes this semester. They are as follows:

1) Child Psychology. This is not a class I am required to take, but I decided it should be and would be an interesting class to take. Because I'm taking so many classes I'm taking it Pass/Fail, so I hope it will just be a fun, interesting, low pressure class. Tori and Melanie give the professor good reviews.

2) Modern Latin American Civilization. This is my Spanish class for the semester. Danielle is in it, along with many other students who were in Toledo with us (including the dreaded Katia, who you will hear more about, I'm sure). My professor, despite having the most Irish name ever (Joanna O'Connell) has an excellent accent and seems very nice. The class is supposed to include elements like cooking and dancing, so that should be good.

3) American Literature II. I jumped from British over to American Lit because of class availability, and I don't ever plan on taking American Lit I because nothing excites me less that Puritan literature. My professor is a grad student with a background in creative writing (mostly poetry) and you can tell. Has that sort of dreamy, distracted quality that poets seem to have. But he's taught the class many times and I think it should be a good class.

4) Analysis of the English Language. The beef I have with this class is mainly that it is a Thursday night class that meets for 3 hours (thank goodness the O.C. doesn't start until November). The subject matter doesn't bother me at all--I like linguistics and I think I need to learn it (it's a required class for English education majors). I should be prepared for it, fresh from last semesters Spanish linguistics class and the class I took freshman year. From what I can tell, my instructor is French. She has a policy that if you miss even one class you automatically fail. This alarms me. However, Steve is in the class with me so at least I'll have a buddy.

I will provide an update on the classes I haven't been to yet, "Introduction to Social Justice" and "Exploring the Teaching Profession," after I attend them.

This weekend should be pretty laid back: I went home last night for a "Lost" marathon with the fam (we are unhealthily obsessed), then came back this morning and made plans with Melanie, Tori and Melanie's sister Stacy to go to Gophers After Dark in St. Paul tonight for a little non-alcoholic entertainment. I'm just waiting for them to come back. Megan, her boyfriend Chris and the famous Ramla (who might be my new Somali teacher!) just left for the Muslim Student Association's welcome dinner, so I'm sitting alone in my house, working on some laundry, and enjoying the smell of Fall coming in my window.