Hello again. Another week is coming to an end (finally) and I thought I should update before I drop off the map for the weekend. I have two papers due on Monday and a test on Wednesday, so I'll be flying under the radar for a few days.
First off, I thought I'd write something about an interesting discussion we had in my English class today. I know an interesting class discussion sounds like an oxymoron, but it does happen every once in a while. Our current topic in this class (World Literary Masterpieces) is Jean Renoir's 1937 film The Grand Illusion. While I'm not entirely sure how this qualifies as a literary masterpiece, it is a truly amazing film by one of the most important filmmakers in history. If you've never heard of Renoir (son of the famous artist), his film Les Règles du Jeu is often listed as the second-greatest film of all-time, after Citizen Kane. I have never had the pleasure of seeing it all the way through, so I can't say for sure. So, today we were discussing The Grand Illusion and, as is often the case when discussing a movie in a literature course, we had one of the more energized discussions I have experienced thus far at UM. Everybody seemed to have a very specific opinion of what is going on in the film, and all of these opinions were strikingly different. Of course, I have my own opinion and generally think everyone else was laughably wrong. But that's just the way I am. I do think that a lot of people in the class missed the irony inherent in the film entirely.
You know, I find it extremely distressing every time I watch a movie dealing with the absurdity of war these days. Considering our current dilemma in this country, it's a little bit frustrating to watch a movie indicting a meaningless war (World War I). Have we learned nothing?
While I'm on a slightly political subject, let's move on before I get too worked up, and talk about my actual topic for this post. Earlier this month, UM hosted the first-ever Spanish-language Democratic Presidential debate. Sponsored by Univision, the debate was conducted in Spanish (except of course for the candidates' responses) and addressed issues important to the Hispanic community. All of the major Democratic candidates other than Joe Biden took part in the debate.
On the morning of the debate, I got a phone call. As a member of the UM Young Democrats, I had signed up to volunteer with the events surrounding the debate. As I am a staunch Barack Obama supporter, I volunteered for his pre-debate rally. In reality, what this consisted of was standing on the side of US1 from 2:30 to 6:30 waving signs and cheering at passing cars. Great weather, too: at the beginning it rained for about an hour, and then was unbearably hot for the rest of the day. The funniest part of the day for me was that about four different police officers stopped me while I was walking from my apartment to the rally to check my UM ID. Also, apparently there are only two songs used in the Obama campaign. Four hours of two songs on repeat almost turned me into Jack Torrance. To be frank, two hours of the rally was really fun. Unfortunately, there were still two hours to go. Finally, after four hours, the moment we were all waiting for came. Senator Obama stopped by on his way to the debate. He shook everyone's hand, took a couple of pictures and said a few words, and then he was off. I must say, the man is even more commanding and charismatic in person than he is on TV. I wish I thought he could win. It won't stop me from supporting him, though.
Afterward, I led the Obama supporters back to the University Center for the debate watch party. As in all of the debates to this point, the frontrunners (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) were so scared of losing supporters that they said nothing of substance, and generally Kucinich, Gravel, Richardson and Dodd mopped the floor with them. Will this affect the race at all? No. Considering that I am sure no one was watching the debate, no one noticed. Those of us who did watch the debate are mostly interested enough that we have already picked a candidate. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but the whole elective system is sick in my opinion, and I don't know how it could be fixed.
See? It is possible to express political opinions and still stay on a topic relevant to prospective transfers. In the end, I really do feel blessed to be at a school where an event as important and historic (at least in theory) as this could take place. Sure, Columbia had Ahmadinejad, and I would love to have been there. But at least at UM we didn't jeer and insult our guests. Until next time...
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Table Scraps--Or Selecting Classes During Orientation
OK, let's continue the story of my first weeks at UM. Hopefully soon I'll have ya'll caught up so I can actually talk about things currently happening in my life. At least those things that relate to being a transfer at UM. I wouldn't want you to know all my secrets.
Another problem about choosing UM as late in the process as I did is that it makes registering for classes significantly more of a chore than it should be. You see, most UM students, or at least seemingly everyone other than myself, has a schedule by the time they get here. OK, that's not true, I think I met five other transfers who didn't. Still, it's uncommon. The problem here is that the majority of classes were already full when I registered. Hence the title of this post. When you're not left with a whole lot of options, you can't really be choosy about your schedule. You have to take what you can get, when you can get it. I was, however, actually quite fortunate in getting a pretty decent schedule. I really had two goals in finding classes. First, having been out of school for a year and a half, I did not want to load myself down with many difficult classes. Second, having spent the beginning of my college career at a school with no core curriculum, I wanted to fulfill as many gen-ed requirements as possible. I think I accomplished both things surprisingly well. So, for a quick overview of my schedule:
Theater 101 (MWF 9:05-9:55)--This is kind of a general history of theater type course. I'll admit, having a lecture course at 9:05 in the morning can be difficult. Thus far I haven't fallen asleep in class, but I wouldn't count it out for the rest of the semester. Fortunately, the topic is pretty interesting.
Intro to Religion (MWF 11:15-12:05)--Once again, kind of a general overview of religious studies. This is an interesting course as four different professors teach different portions of the semester. So far the lectures have been very interesting. I have my fingers crossed for the rest of the semester.
Intro to Astronomy(Tu-Th 9:30-10:45) Okay, now this is the real killer on my schedule. I am not a science person at all. I needed two Natural Science courses, and this is the first. For someone with little to no interest in science, an all-lecture intro-astronomy course for 75 minutes first thing in the morning is...well, deadly. Fortunately, as far as science goes, astronomy is more interesting than some. So far I have been able to stay awake, barely.
World Literary Masterpieces (MWF 1:25-2:15) Now into the part of my schedule I enjoy, my English classes. So far in this course we've read Graffigny's Letters to a Peruvian Woman, Balzac, Pushkin, Gogol and Lu Hsun. While these have not been some of my favorite literary works of my lit-studying career, the discussions have been very interesting.
Literature of the Americas (Tu-Th 2:00-3:15) This course kind of works in the opposite way. I have really enjoyed what I've read in this class (Octavia Butler's Kindred, Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, and Rosario Ferré's The Youngest Doll), but the discussion is not quite as stimulating.
I hope you all heed my advice and take care of your schedules as early as possible. If you can't, I hope you are as lucky as I have been. Until next time...
Another problem about choosing UM as late in the process as I did is that it makes registering for classes significantly more of a chore than it should be. You see, most UM students, or at least seemingly everyone other than myself, has a schedule by the time they get here. OK, that's not true, I think I met five other transfers who didn't. Still, it's uncommon. The problem here is that the majority of classes were already full when I registered. Hence the title of this post. When you're not left with a whole lot of options, you can't really be choosy about your schedule. You have to take what you can get, when you can get it. I was, however, actually quite fortunate in getting a pretty decent schedule. I really had two goals in finding classes. First, having been out of school for a year and a half, I did not want to load myself down with many difficult classes. Second, having spent the beginning of my college career at a school with no core curriculum, I wanted to fulfill as many gen-ed requirements as possible. I think I accomplished both things surprisingly well. So, for a quick overview of my schedule:
Theater 101 (MWF 9:05-9:55)--This is kind of a general history of theater type course. I'll admit, having a lecture course at 9:05 in the morning can be difficult. Thus far I haven't fallen asleep in class, but I wouldn't count it out for the rest of the semester. Fortunately, the topic is pretty interesting.
Intro to Religion (MWF 11:15-12:05)--Once again, kind of a general overview of religious studies. This is an interesting course as four different professors teach different portions of the semester. So far the lectures have been very interesting. I have my fingers crossed for the rest of the semester.
Intro to Astronomy(Tu-Th 9:30-10:45) Okay, now this is the real killer on my schedule. I am not a science person at all. I needed two Natural Science courses, and this is the first. For someone with little to no interest in science, an all-lecture intro-astronomy course for 75 minutes first thing in the morning is...well, deadly. Fortunately, as far as science goes, astronomy is more interesting than some. So far I have been able to stay awake, barely.
World Literary Masterpieces (MWF 1:25-2:15) Now into the part of my schedule I enjoy, my English classes. So far in this course we've read Graffigny's Letters to a Peruvian Woman, Balzac, Pushkin, Gogol and Lu Hsun. While these have not been some of my favorite literary works of my lit-studying career, the discussions have been very interesting.
Literature of the Americas (Tu-Th 2:00-3:15) This course kind of works in the opposite way. I have really enjoyed what I've read in this class (Octavia Butler's Kindred, Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, and Rosario Ferré's The Youngest Doll), but the discussion is not quite as stimulating.
I hope you all heed my advice and take care of your schedules as early as possible. If you can't, I hope you are as lucky as I have been. Until next time...
Friday, September 21, 2007
How I Almost Lost My Mind (Or How I Got Here Part 2)
Do you want to hear a great way to drive yourself over the deep end? Do you want to be completely stressed and freaked out by the college experience long before your first test or even your first class? Do you want to go a good week without getting more than four hours of sleep? Well, then I have got the best advice you could possibly ask for.
Welcome back, welcome back. I promised at the end of my last post that I would finish the story of the odyssey that culminated in my winding up at UM, and every now and then I like to keep my word. I learned one very important thing this past August. If you want to experience all of the fun I described in that first paragraph and more, choose a college a week before orientation starts. Try it, it's fun. It'll drive your parents crazy, surprise the hell out of everyone around you and make your life intolerably difficult for a week or so.
OK, so if you haven't detected the sarcasm thus far, let me spell it out for you. Whatever you do, even if you take no other advice from this blog whatsoever, remember this. Please, make your college decision long ahead of time. Believe me, it's in your best interest. Whether or not you know this yet, there are a LOT of things that need to be done before you move to Miami or wherever else you choose, and a week really isn't enough time to do them all.
As I detailed in post numero uno, I pretty much put everything in my college application process off until the very last minute. So, in the end, I made my decision to come to UM on August 9th. Transfer orientation started on August 17th. Now, you might think, eight days is all sorts of time. OK, well factor in a day before orientation (at least) to set up your living space. That leaves seven days. Now, just for the sake of argument, we'll use my case and add two days to drive to Miami. That leaves five days. Now, two of those days are Saturday and Sunday, and it's virtually impossible to do anything involving business on those two days. So let's just say we'll spend those two days packing. That leaves three days to find somewhere to live, get your car serviced (we wouldn't want to have it break down on the way, would we?), get your medical forms signed by your doctor, and...well I really don't remember what else; I've tried to block those days out. Just take my word for it. It's not...enough...time. Well, obviously, I'm here, so it's enough time. But it's not enough time to get things done, sleep, and keep your sanity. Oh, and did I mention that August 9th is my birthday? What a fun way to spend a birthday.
Alright. Deep breath. Let's assume that, as I did, you survived this ordeal and made it down here to Coral Gables. Wow, thank God that's over. Now we can relax, right? Of course not! There's more stuff to do once you get here than there was before you left. Odds are your apartment's unfurnished. If you drove a Volvo sedan to college, as I did, that means you have to buy all of the furniture here. And put it together. If you've never had the opportunity to put together cheaply made Target furniture for a day or two, you haven't lived. Nothing's cut right, holes don't line up, parts are missing, and the instructions are printed so poorly that you can't read them. And, of course, you're going on very little sleep, which always makes these types of things easier. Grocery trips, other shopping trips, unpacking, and whatever else you think needs to be done before school starts will, I repeat, will take at least twice as long as you expect. Once again, give yourself more time than you think you need. If you take this advice, you'll thank me for it later.
But overall, don't worry too much. I've painted a pretty grim picture here, I'll admit, but even if you fall into the worst-case-scenario here and end up with as little time as I had, you still have a chance of survival. I mean, I got through it. My apartment is pretty decently set up, my mother and I didn't have any significant fights while she was here, and I didn't develop crippling alcoholism in the process. I already had that. You know, runs in the family, what can I do? And the best part about it is that after all of this trouble, school seems easy by comparison. I have to two English papers due on the same Monday? Well, I'd take four on the same day before I relived that week in August.
Brevity, once again, is not my strength. I'm afraid this is going to be a pattern. I'll sign off for now. I'm going to see Eastern Promises tonight, and that should be fun. If it's anywhere near as good as A History of Violence it's a definite must-see. I'll let ya'll know when I write next week. Peace.
Welcome back, welcome back. I promised at the end of my last post that I would finish the story of the odyssey that culminated in my winding up at UM, and every now and then I like to keep my word. I learned one very important thing this past August. If you want to experience all of the fun I described in that first paragraph and more, choose a college a week before orientation starts. Try it, it's fun. It'll drive your parents crazy, surprise the hell out of everyone around you and make your life intolerably difficult for a week or so.
OK, so if you haven't detected the sarcasm thus far, let me spell it out for you. Whatever you do, even if you take no other advice from this blog whatsoever, remember this. Please, make your college decision long ahead of time. Believe me, it's in your best interest. Whether or not you know this yet, there are a LOT of things that need to be done before you move to Miami or wherever else you choose, and a week really isn't enough time to do them all.
As I detailed in post numero uno, I pretty much put everything in my college application process off until the very last minute. So, in the end, I made my decision to come to UM on August 9th. Transfer orientation started on August 17th. Now, you might think, eight days is all sorts of time. OK, well factor in a day before orientation (at least) to set up your living space. That leaves seven days. Now, just for the sake of argument, we'll use my case and add two days to drive to Miami. That leaves five days. Now, two of those days are Saturday and Sunday, and it's virtually impossible to do anything involving business on those two days. So let's just say we'll spend those two days packing. That leaves three days to find somewhere to live, get your car serviced (we wouldn't want to have it break down on the way, would we?), get your medical forms signed by your doctor, and...well I really don't remember what else; I've tried to block those days out. Just take my word for it. It's not...enough...time. Well, obviously, I'm here, so it's enough time. But it's not enough time to get things done, sleep, and keep your sanity. Oh, and did I mention that August 9th is my birthday? What a fun way to spend a birthday.
Alright. Deep breath. Let's assume that, as I did, you survived this ordeal and made it down here to Coral Gables. Wow, thank God that's over. Now we can relax, right? Of course not! There's more stuff to do once you get here than there was before you left. Odds are your apartment's unfurnished. If you drove a Volvo sedan to college, as I did, that means you have to buy all of the furniture here. And put it together. If you've never had the opportunity to put together cheaply made Target furniture for a day or two, you haven't lived. Nothing's cut right, holes don't line up, parts are missing, and the instructions are printed so poorly that you can't read them. And, of course, you're going on very little sleep, which always makes these types of things easier. Grocery trips, other shopping trips, unpacking, and whatever else you think needs to be done before school starts will, I repeat, will take at least twice as long as you expect. Once again, give yourself more time than you think you need. If you take this advice, you'll thank me for it later.
But overall, don't worry too much. I've painted a pretty grim picture here, I'll admit, but even if you fall into the worst-case-scenario here and end up with as little time as I had, you still have a chance of survival. I mean, I got through it. My apartment is pretty decently set up, my mother and I didn't have any significant fights while she was here, and I didn't develop crippling alcoholism in the process. I already had that. You know, runs in the family, what can I do? And the best part about it is that after all of this trouble, school seems easy by comparison. I have to two English papers due on the same Monday? Well, I'd take four on the same day before I relived that week in August.
Brevity, once again, is not my strength. I'm afraid this is going to be a pattern. I'll sign off for now. I'm going to see Eastern Promises tonight, and that should be fun. If it's anywhere near as good as A History of Violence it's a definite must-see. I'll let ya'll know when I write next week. Peace.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
How I Got Here
Welcome, all, to the first installment of my blog. This is my first ever blog, so please bear with me. Seeing as the subject of this blog is my experience as a transfer student at UM, I thought I ought to start by giving you some idea of how I got here. So, yes, this is the dreaded "life story" post. I'll try not to make it too long or boring.
Well, actually, I don't think it's all that necessary to tell you my whole life story. I think I'll start with the beginning of my college career. That's more the beginning of life events relevant to the topic at hand. I graduated from a high school in Nashville (my hometown) called University School of Nashville in the spring of 2004. It is really impossible to overestimate just how excited I was about going to college. I had lived in Nashville for my entire life up to that point, and I was chomping at the bit to get far, far away. That fall I had applied early decision and been accepted to a small liberal arts school in Middletown, CT called Wesleyan University (no religious affiliation, contrary to the name). Wesleyan had been far and away my first choice, and when I was accepted I was ecstatic. It's funny how life goes; had I gone on to apply regular decision that year, UM was going to be one of my safety schools.
Suffice it to say, my time at Wesleyan was a disaster. I really don't want to get into it too specifically, but I had some "serious personal issues" that led to my not achieving the level of success I expected of myself. After three semesters, in December of 2005, I moved back home to Nashville. I made the key mistake of allowing my parents to convince me to enroll part-time at Vanderbilt. None of my problems had been remedied, and I had no more success than I did at Wesleyan. I dropped out after half a semester. What followed was about eighteen months of full-time work. The kind of work available to a college dropout, of course, is not exactly inspiring. I worked as a barrista at an independent coffee shop for a few months. I liked that alright until I was promoted to assistant manager. I was stressed out all the time and still not making any money. So I left and took a higher-paying, much-lower-stress job temping in the mailroom of a financial company. I was there for almost a year.
Those of you falling asleep, wake up; I'm just getting to the part that may actually interest most of you. In May of this year, something snapped. I was like Peter Finch in Network. I ran to the window and screamed that I was not going to take it anymore. Figuratively, of course. No more full-time menial jobs. I was going back to college.
Like I said before, life is really funny sometimes. In the intervening three years, Miami's profile improved quite a bit, and obviously after my time at Wesleyan my credentials had taken a hit. My old safety school became easily the top school to which I applied. I got into Miami, as well as a few other schools. To be honest with you, at first I put Miami at the bottom of the pile, thinking there was no way I could afford it. Then, one day in July, I received the analysis of my transfer credits. One of the beautiful things about the U is that it accepts a lot more AP credits than a lot of schools. I quickly went from being halfway through my sophomore year to having less than two years worth of hours left to complete. All of a sudden, Miami was affordable.
I must say, from the moment I started to consider UM, the people in admissions were about as helpful as humanly possible. Believe me, no one's threatening me with a pink slip as I type this. I visited in August and absolutely fell in love with the school. After spending a year and a half in Connecticut, the weather alone was enough to sell me, but that wasn't all. The emphasis on diversity, the amazing opportunities in terms of visiting speakers and internships, and the quality of the classes all dazzled me. What finally sold me and made my decision was the excitement surrounding this campus. Visiting Miami was visiting a college on the rise, a college that had made a commitment to improving itself in every possible way. I wanted to be a part of that. The day I got back to Nashville I made my decision.
Hopefully my future posts won't be as massive as this one. However, I am an English major, and brevity is not exactly my strong suit. My next post will detail the difficulty (semi-impossibility?) of making the necessary arrangements when you make a decision less than a week before the school's start date. Adios.
Well, actually, I don't think it's all that necessary to tell you my whole life story. I think I'll start with the beginning of my college career. That's more the beginning of life events relevant to the topic at hand. I graduated from a high school in Nashville (my hometown) called University School of Nashville in the spring of 2004. It is really impossible to overestimate just how excited I was about going to college. I had lived in Nashville for my entire life up to that point, and I was chomping at the bit to get far, far away. That fall I had applied early decision and been accepted to a small liberal arts school in Middletown, CT called Wesleyan University (no religious affiliation, contrary to the name). Wesleyan had been far and away my first choice, and when I was accepted I was ecstatic. It's funny how life goes; had I gone on to apply regular decision that year, UM was going to be one of my safety schools.
Suffice it to say, my time at Wesleyan was a disaster. I really don't want to get into it too specifically, but I had some "serious personal issues" that led to my not achieving the level of success I expected of myself. After three semesters, in December of 2005, I moved back home to Nashville. I made the key mistake of allowing my parents to convince me to enroll part-time at Vanderbilt. None of my problems had been remedied, and I had no more success than I did at Wesleyan. I dropped out after half a semester. What followed was about eighteen months of full-time work. The kind of work available to a college dropout, of course, is not exactly inspiring. I worked as a barrista at an independent coffee shop for a few months. I liked that alright until I was promoted to assistant manager. I was stressed out all the time and still not making any money. So I left and took a higher-paying, much-lower-stress job temping in the mailroom of a financial company. I was there for almost a year.
Those of you falling asleep, wake up; I'm just getting to the part that may actually interest most of you. In May of this year, something snapped. I was like Peter Finch in Network. I ran to the window and screamed that I was not going to take it anymore. Figuratively, of course. No more full-time menial jobs. I was going back to college.
Like I said before, life is really funny sometimes. In the intervening three years, Miami's profile improved quite a bit, and obviously after my time at Wesleyan my credentials had taken a hit. My old safety school became easily the top school to which I applied. I got into Miami, as well as a few other schools. To be honest with you, at first I put Miami at the bottom of the pile, thinking there was no way I could afford it. Then, one day in July, I received the analysis of my transfer credits. One of the beautiful things about the U is that it accepts a lot more AP credits than a lot of schools. I quickly went from being halfway through my sophomore year to having less than two years worth of hours left to complete. All of a sudden, Miami was affordable.
I must say, from the moment I started to consider UM, the people in admissions were about as helpful as humanly possible. Believe me, no one's threatening me with a pink slip as I type this. I visited in August and absolutely fell in love with the school. After spending a year and a half in Connecticut, the weather alone was enough to sell me, but that wasn't all. The emphasis on diversity, the amazing opportunities in terms of visiting speakers and internships, and the quality of the classes all dazzled me. What finally sold me and made my decision was the excitement surrounding this campus. Visiting Miami was visiting a college on the rise, a college that had made a commitment to improving itself in every possible way. I wanted to be a part of that. The day I got back to Nashville I made my decision.
Hopefully my future posts won't be as massive as this one. However, I am an English major, and brevity is not exactly my strong suit. My next post will detail the difficulty (semi-impossibility?) of making the necessary arrangements when you make a decision less than a week before the school's start date. Adios.
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