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...