How you can REALLY tell I'm back in school

The last three titles of my posts were:

1. Back to School!
2. I love camp!
3. What I did on my summer vacation

If you know me at all, this is basically all I talked for at least the first month of school from about from the time I was 7, til, oh NOW.

Back to school!

Having had a full week of class, I think it's fair to say that I am now officially a grad student, albeit a part-time one.

I think what's funniest, to me, about this expereince, is that in some ways it seems just like the High School, bears very little resemblance to Smith, and yet it's completely unique to everything else I've done before. It's most like high school, or some semblance of high school, because the academics are nothing like what I'd gotten used to at Smith. I'm taking two classes, one prereq, and another more advanced course. I had the upper-level course before the lower level one, which was as good a way to get my feet wet as any, I suppose. Of course, when we were handed the syllabus, I was a bit suprised by the amount of readings that it had in it; there was a list several pages long. Now, keep in mind that at Smith, each of those articles on that list would have been required, and each would have been 30 pages long. I sat patiently, waiting for this to be ridiculous workload explained to me, all the while wondering if my coworkers' estimation that library school would not be a problem for me was a lie. However, when the professor got around to explaining that segment of the syllabus, I was even more shocked. We are only required to read one of these articles a week, whichever interests us most, and do a one page write up. Oh, and no article is more than 3 pages long. The first thing that came to my head was 'Em, you're not in Northampton any more'. But, thanks to my time in Northampton, I could probably do this in my sleep (or do this while I'm supposed to be sleeping a la this entry that I started at 6:30 this morning because I ran out of gym clothes to wear because I went every day this week and I need to pack for going to New Ro this weekend and I'll go this weekend once I'm there AND I have to be at work at 9, not 10 this morning). Anyway, my only issue is that I don't really know how to go about finding the articles yet, and since my library doesn't really deal in paper (we have like 50 books, but they're hidden in a corner and most people don't even know they're there), and the library at SILS on 14th street is smaller than my library, and I hate going to libraries ever since I was asked at age 5 to never go back to the Eastchester Public Library, I am hoping that my excellent google skills will get me where I need to go. We'll see. I'm just hoping that I can do most of the readings while I'm in my apartment, rather than in the library on 14th street. Between this obsessive gym kick I've been on and school, I seem to be gearing up to spend about 13 hours a day out of the house when I have class, and I'd really like to keep that down to a minimum, because man, is it tiring.

ANYWAY, that's how it's completely unlike Smith, but the thing that most reminded me of being in the High School was the VERY detailed discussion of what does and doesn't constitute plaigarism. This was, without a doubt, overkill. I mean, I understand that not everyone in the program comes from schools like Smith, which I think is fantastic, but this really took it to a new level. Not only does every syllabus have to have a description of what plaigarism is, it also requires an in-depth discussion of the topic. At the risk of sounding like a snob, I really feel like if you're a grad student, you should really fucking know better. But, my professor for the core course showed us some examples of people really taking the whole thing to a new level. Which I just think is fucking idiotic, but whatever. Anyway, the professors, at least, really seem to know what they're talking about, and I am looking foward to the classes, and getting my learn on again.

My fellow students seem to run the gamut. Some are about my age (in my intro class, there's another Smithie AND a girl from New Ro - what are the odds?) and seem cool, there are some, shall we say, stereotypical librarians, and some who you just have to wonder what they are doing there in the first place. But I suppose a library could be a good refuge for a guy who just got back from spending a year in Korea being paid to play video games in order to advance the games of rich nerds here who are too lazy to do it themselves. But that's besides the point.

So, I know this probably wasn't the most interesting thing to read, but I just wanted to jot down my first impressions, while they were still fresh, and who knows, maybe I'll revisit them in a couple of years when you all can call me Master Schubert and see how far I've come. Since Pratt didn't do any of those stupid orientation exercises where you have to write down your hopes and dreams for the future (oh, I cannot explain how happy I am about THAT), I suppose that this will have to stand in.

Now, to rent Party Girl, it seems like it's a pre-req for library school attendance, and I seemed to have missed it.