Lost in America... STILL!

My First Week of Winter Semester 2007...

Two words- HARD and INTERESTING.

Basic Music Conducting class:
Hard- I'm one of the two girls in the class who is not a music minor. I'm pretty sure that my past M.E.P. training will help me get through this class but I don't want to just get through, I want to do well... I hope that the teacher will give me sympathy points. Ha ha! As expected, I'll probably have to conduct maybe, 3 times in front of the class and let them critique me (urgh!) but I think after the terrifying solo vocal class last semester, I'll get through this one.

Interesting- My teacher totally canned the church hymnbook way of conducting and told us that was wrong. Apparently conducting's not suppose to have those little "curls" and "waves" but be angular and triangular. Weird huh? Well, for the sake of the grade I'm switching. So next time if you see me conduct weirdly in church, remember that it's the CORRECT way. (:p)

LDS Temples:
My professor kept smiling. Very friendly guy- as people streamed into class he went around talking to us and asking us where we were from. When I told him I was from Singapore, he said, "Why, welcome here then!" Uh, thanks! My only problem is that he kept repeating himself. For example, he posed this question, "Does anyone know what a ziggurat is?" to the class at least 3 times. Maybe he has some short-term memory- I don't know. Friendly guy though so I'm not going to be mean to him.

Doctrine and Convenant Part 1:
Hard- I foresee quite a but of memorising. Argh! But according to ratemyprofessor.com, he's a "HOT" teacher so I trust that he will be great. He's been a very nice professor so far.

Interesting- His fieldwork was on Marriage and Family life, and has taught the Marriage Preparation class. As you can see, he's pretty interested in the marriage aspect of BYU students. Anyway, he made us introduce ourselves, and on top of the usual hometown and major, he also asked us to state if we were single, dating or married. A bit the embarressing lor... He told us that he makes us do it because 6 couples met in his past classes and got married. Don't get his logic but ok... My first deliberately-trying-to-match-make professor.

20th Century China History:
Hard- OH YES. Dr Michael Murdock has a reputation for being terrific but hard. He's making us read 6 books and watch 6 movies and write deep analytical papers on all of them. Freaking time consuming can?! Also, this is an upper division class so there are more Juniors and Seniors that I have to compete with.

Interesting- Ex-students told me that by the 2nd lesson he would know every person's name. He is extremely sarcastic, and he has a moustache!!! I've nothing against people who grow them out, but it's so weird to have my 1st teacher who isn't clean shaven. I've never had a teacher who wasn't clean shaven, even in Singapore, so I think it's pretty hilarious in a weird way. The Dean was rumoured to dislike Dr Murdock and almost fired him, but the students wrote a petition to the Dean and protested. I don't know if they were successful or not.

World War 1 History:
Hard- I have 3 books to read, 3 essay tests AND a 10 page research paper. While I absolutely love history, I absolutely detests writing research papers, even if they are on history. At least he told us it can be on any topic related to WW1.

Interesting- My professor, Dr Albert Winkler, is my favourite history professor (so far. Maybe Dr Murdock will kick him off??? ;p) and just CUCKOO. I can't describe it- you have to attend his lecture yourself to understand what I mean. He is an EXCELLENT lecturer and easy grader (he got called to the Dean's office for giving out too many 'A's but he refused to budge). He once told my World Civilization class that insanity ran in his family. I don't believe that is why he's so cuckoo but it's possible.

Remember I still have my Cambridge professor Anthropology class.

Phew! This is going to be one heck of a semester.

posted by Funkee Ego @ 3:58 PM