Let the classes begin!

I'm not sure, having just completed the first day of class, how regularly I'll be able to keep up this blog. I should at least be able to write once a week, but as for more than that, I'm not sure.

The reading assignments are rather heavy, UD-style, but I'm not particularly concerned about the academic side of things by itself. Rather, I'm rather worried that all the mandatory meetings in which people regal us with hours of marvelously boring information that any one of us to keep our ears open over the past few days would know by heart already. I write satirically, as I know there is an unfortunately high rate of people who don't listen at most universities. But such hours of fidgeting make the ability to bilocate particularly appealing.

With that bit of complaining out of the way, I must say without reservation that the three classes we began today promise to be a blast. We have nearly 15 books for English, some of which (collections of Greek plays, for instance) we will not be reading in their entirety. Nonetheless, our English program for the Rome semester should cover quite a lot of material indeed, ranging from Greek to Shakespearean drama and focusing on the genres of tragedy and comedy as lenses through which we can approach a literary study of reality. The Philosophy of Man class is also exciting, partly because it will probably address one of the subjects that has been on my mind recently, namely, the relationship of Plato's and Aristotle's epistemologies. An Art and Architecture course is also required for this semester, and one of the fun things about this class is that a great many of the meetings will be held on site in Rome or in various locations around Italy.

I'm really psyched about getting a deeper understanding of a coherent view of the nature of reality and the meaning of life from this semester. I mean, come on. . .the meaning of life! What could jolly well be cooler?