Semester 2, Day 2

Like I promised, here I am again on Day 2 of my official second semester of being in college. Today, I had two classes not only back to back but also in the same lecture hall. The good thing was that I was able to use my laptop for the entire 2 1/2 hours, because for the second class, I moved to a spot near an outlet.

My first class of the day is Geology. Technically it's an overview of geology known around campus as "Third Rock". (It makes sense, what with us being the third rock from the sun...) It's taught by a guy who is probably in his mid forties, and seems like a really cool, down to earth guy. He's witty, didn't set a book for the class (hooray - less required reading!) and looks like a scruffy, southern Keanu Reeves. (Abby is also taking the class, but with a different professor, and says that she thinks that if Bill Nye and Mr. Rogers got together and had a kid, that is what her professor looks like.) Geology seems like it'll be a really interesting subject, and coupled with my Solar System class (which is essentially the geology of all the other planets) it'll be a fun one. Another plus is, because there is no required book, the tests will all come from the lectures. I take fantastic notes... this will be a good semester!

My second class of the day is American History (from Pre-Columbus to the Civil War). I've heard that the professor is really boring, but I hope that I can hold out. The advantage that I see to taking this class is that I enjoy the subject matter. (Plus, I've taken American History about six billion times since elementary school. Okay, probably only 3 or 4 times at the most. The system they use in Texas to teach History is really easy to figure out - World History, US History, Texas History... Lather, rinse, repeat. Again, and again, and again.) Bottom line is I really like history. I think that if I had not been interested in writing and editing, I would have probably been a history major. The professor has all of these fancy and technical ways of taking roll and creating all sorts of small grades by giving out (nearly) daily quizzes. The more frequent ones will be 1 question and the pop quizzes will be 5-10 questions. The result is good, I suppose. It makes people attend class and it gets me all sorts of smaller grades in there so that if I were to not do so well on a test, it would not matter as much. I don't expect much of this class, but we shall see how it goes.

After classes ended, I went home and began reading the first chapter of my Astronomy and History textbooks. I've decided that I need to get in the habit of reading whatever is required for the class... I've never really done it (and if I did, I wasn't very thorough) but I can't do well in college much longer by only going to class and taking notes, it just won't be possible. So kick me if I start to slip. (Well, I think I should probably tell Abby that too... telling it to people who read my blogs won't do much. You could send me stern emails with pictures of your feet kicking me, but really kicking? Not possible over an internet connection.) I've finished the Astronomy chapter, but am halfway done with History. I took a break to do my French homework.

Oh, speaking of my French homework. If it's possible, my homework just gave me a gigantic ego-boost. There is a section in my chapter that lists seven dates and then what happened on those dates, but they're all scrambled. They include stuff like "France conquers England", "Eiffel Tower finished" and "Chalemagne crowned emperor of the Occident". Of the seven dates, I got five right without looking up the answers! (I mixed up the crowning of Napoleon and the storming of Bastille. Whoops!) So the result of this is that I am a very happy girl!

Something I learned today (in my Astronomy book) was that Galileo (You know, that guy with the telescope, Jupiter's moons, and phases of Venus? Yeah, him!), who was locked up under house arrest for the last eight years by the Catholic Church due to his controversial discoveries, was only exonerated in 1992. Isn't that bizzare?

Well, I have more reading to do! (Conquerors, plagues, and New Worlds, oh my!)