Hypothesis: How good an apple tastes is inversely proportional to how good its name suggests it tastes. For example: Red Delicious. They have "delicious" in their name - how bad could they taste taste, right? WRONG. Red delicious apples are revolting. Then there's Fuji apples. I have no thoughts or feelings one way or the other on Fujisaki, Aomori Prefecture, and sure enough, they are pretty standard apples. Finally, Granny Smith apples. Granny Smith - really? That sounds like the name of the most boring woman on the planet. But taking a bite of a Granny Smith apple is like taking a bite out of heaven.
In other news, it's difficult to believe it has already been 4 years since junior year of high school. That year possessed some spectral grip over us; the killer year, when everyone took the most difficult classes simultaneously, braved those oh-so-important standardized exams, which would determine our future. In other words it was the exact opposite of now, which feels less important than ever. Maybe it's just that I've become accustomed to the rituals of college. I enroll in classes, put in minimal but satisfactory effort, they end. Recently it occurred to me that I lack any real incentive is supposed to be to get good grades, but I do it anyway out of habit.
And now to perpetuate the mundanity I will describe my classes, like I always do:
German 1: Elementary German
A few days in this class were sufficient to remind me how much I feed off of introductory language classes, and by that I mean I think I should take them forever and ever. They're a major self esteem boost. They force you to meet people, which I don't exactly do often. And expectations are so low that I honestly can't imagine how anyone could struggle with the material. After taking Spanish and French I can say this class feels even slower than usual, but that may be due to the flagrant incompetency of our TA, who never quite seems to understand what he's doing. I thought about keeping a log of exactly how he fails each day, but then I realized that would take more work than the class itself.
Scandinavian 50W: Introduction to Scandinavian Literature and Culture
I can't say I particularly enjoy what we've read so far - three Sagas of Icelanders and the Volusunga Saga, which are just about the least-compelling reads I have yet to experience. Fortunately we're quickly jumping towards the modern era, which means I may be able to read more than a few pages without nodding off. The professor is good, our TA is funny, and the class feels quite personal, which I suppose is how a writing class should feel. Whether it will actually improve my writing is yet to be determined. We did a bit of peer reviewing essays on Thursday and all I can say about is that I really should have not taken the humanities program at Northwood for granted, because most people's writing is just atrocious.
Geography 7: Intro to Geographic Information Systems
Honestly I have not put much thought into this class at all. Lecture has so far been completely self explanatory, which I suppose is a good thing. The professor spends half the time showing us cool websites like Photosynth. Lab has been basically a giant computer literacy test.
Math 134: Systems of Differential Equations
This class has emphasized graphical problem solving so far, which I appreciate. Hopefully I am developing some mathematical intuition, which I have really lacked since high school. I had actually been avoiding this particular professor, because she substituted for Rogawski one day back in 32B, and came off as incomprehensible. But in this class it didn't take long to realize I was completely wrong about her - she is completely straightforward, thorough, clear professors I have had to date. She has yet to truly confuse me - which every teacher I've had since pre-calculus has managed to do on a regular basis.
