Class Update

Hello friends,

I figured I would update you on my classes thus far. Overall I am feeling good about them and enjoying them. I really love Modern Scottish History (MoSH) and Architectural History...but I'm not liking Celt Civ. very much.

MoSH is so enlightening. Which is interesting because Thursday we learned about the Enlightenment period that occurred in Scotland in the 18th Century. Dr. T. M. Devine lectured us, and he is the man who wrote the book we had to purchase for the class, "The Scottish Nation A Modern History". He is quite brilliant and it is an absolute pleasure to listen to him speak. I highly recommend his book if you are interested in history of any kind or Scotland. I kinda want to ask him to sign my copy after his last lecture but I don't want to look tacky and he usually storms out after each class.. probably because he knows there are students like me out there. =)  We have covered a large variety of subjects in the class but this is my favorite. Brilliant men and mindsets emerged from Scotland during this period and I just had no idea. Schools back home are so centered on American History that you never learn cool things like this. Wish there was more variety in our high schools instead of teaching the same old mundane stuff that puts America on a pedestal starting in the 4th grade. Anyways, another topic of great interest to me was the Highland Clearances. I have a paper due in a few weeks and I think I'll do it on one of these subjects. Definitely worth looking up, even if it's just on wikipedia.

Archit. Hist. is a great class, just a lot to keep up with. There 30 or so pages for each lecture so that's 90 pages a week to read. Needless to say, I'm behind a bit. We move from period to period very quickly. My favorite lecturer just presented for the last time last week, his name is Ian Campbell and has published some interesting work on the Renaissance and it's origins in Scotland. There is another very energetic lecturer we have that covered Mannerism and Baroque architecture. He gives a ton of information very quickly so it was hard for me to follow him at times, but still his content was intriguing. We have covered Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Gothic, Renaissance in Italy and UK, Pre-Columbian in the Americas, and today we covered the French Renaissance. I have a paper due on Wednesday where I have to describe 3 chateaux that were built during the 16th century French Renaissance. It's interesting stuff, but it's 50% of my grade so I'm a little bit of a nervous wreck about it. Just trying to keep calm and carry on with my work.
I have this giant textbook here as my guide. It really is a fantastic text book. Very easy to read, and well laid out. Friends/Family from back home if you are interested in a particular period of architecture and want some great info I'll lend you this big ole book. It's great.

Uhhh what can I say about Celt Civ... it's just been kinda boring.. and I don't really understand what the purpose of the lectures are besides to inform us that there is a debate about Celtic identity.. which I just can't get into. But today we had a new lecturer, the course organizer I told you about in the first class blog post. I think I said I was excited for her to come back. Well I was right! She talked on Pan-Celticism today and that was really interesting and relevant. Maybe because it was based in the 20th century, I don't know. But hopefully these last 4 weeks will be great. Can you believe that?! This is week 7 and there are only 11 teaching weeks. Then a week to study, and 2 weeks of exams. It'll be done before I know it.

Well I just registered for the Spring semester! Got into all the classes I wanted which made me really excited. I will have all business classes, looks like it'll be a good semester with a variety of courses. I can't wait to catch up with all of my family, friends, and professors. I'm hoping next semester will be one of the best ones yet.

We are off to Norway on Thursday so expect an update from me next week! Things will be really busy because I have an essay due on the 12th and 14th, then also on the 14th I have a presentation for my tutorial and a 750 word essay due with the presentation. So I'll be swamped for the next 2 weeks but will try to post a bit.

Happy Halloween! Get lots of candy and scare lots of people. Muwahahahaha.

Spooky dreams,
Alyssa