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As many of you can see, I've been a pretty terrible blogger lately! What can I say...Life.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

My FINAL Classes as an Undergraduate!

Many of you have asked about my classes thus far, knowing that I am in my last semester and will soon graduate with my bachelors. (At last!) So, I thought I would make a post of it and let you guys know what I have been up to the last two weeks.

I have a rather simple schedule. On Mondays, I have Advanced Creative Writing and Shakespeare. On Tuesday, I have World Literature. On Wednesday, I have Advanced Creative Writing again and Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. And, on Thursdays, I have World Literature again. All in all (like I have mentioned before) it’s a lot of reading and a lot of writing, but I have enjoyed just about every minute of it. I don’t even mind the 3 ½ hour breaks I have on Mondays and Wednesdays in between my classes. That time is where I get a lot of my reading done in the small (sometimes quiet) library. (NOTE: Today I picked a study table right next to the pencil sharpener. BIG MISTAKE! You'd think people would have discover PENS by now!)

Anyway, I wrote up a quick questionnaire for myself to help share my semester so far.

Class descriptions:
·         Advanced Creative Writing- The class is basically a forum for students (and other older members of the community who are taking it as a no-credit class) who are particularly serious about their own writings and the writings of others. The assignments are very open. The professor usually assigns a topic or gives a prompt for anyone who wants it, but if we prefer to work on our own project we can do that instead (as long as we have confirmed it with the professor beforehand.) Mondays are usually considered a draft day. We discuss our reading from the book “Deepening Fiction” by Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren (usually something on character development, writer’s block, giving and receiving feedback, etc). Then, volunteers read the manuscripts they have brought in and we critique them as a class. Anyone who did not get the chance to be critiqued has copies made of their work and it is passed out among a few of the other students to be reviewed on Wednesday.
·         Shakespeare- What can I really say about a Shakespeare class? It’s pretty straight forward. We watch a movie of the play, read the play on our own, write journals about our reading once a week, and then we discuss it in class. A few essays are sprinkled in here and there. Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy Shakespeare, the class is just normal.
·         World Literature- I have done almost every literature class on the planet. (Not really, but it feels like it.) I have taken Early American Lit, Early British Lit, Medieval Lit, Contemporary British Lit, Environmental Lit, Author Study on Edgar Allen Poe, Literary Theory, and more. World Lit is run just like any other lit class, but world lit is a completely different realm. The politics in the stories are different, the writing styles vary, and a lot of the stories are translations. It’s a little strange, but I am getting used to it. It’s nice exploring different authors. At the end of the semester we will be reading “100 Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
·         Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature- This is by far my favorite class so far (and I have only been to it twice)! The professor is so into the content (having edited the anthology we are using) but also because he is just the biggest geek about it all. (In the best way, of course.) We are currently reading Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” which is so much better than I thought it would be. We also watch lots of movies. (THE ORIGINALS! NEVER THE REMAKES!) My professor seems like quite the purest. And our discussions are always very lively.

Best part: Conversations in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit. So many people are willing to talk. We bring up subjects like the end of the world, sea monsters from Atlantis, mad scientists that make robots to replace rebel leaders, contemporary genre fiction, silent films, etc. Just really interesting stuff, especially for someone that reads this kind of content anyway, and also loves to write it at the same time.

Worst part: The very first night, I lost my keys!!! I thought I had locked them in my car, but they weren’t there. It was after 9:00 PM, most of the class rooms were dark, all the offices were closed, only the library was open, but thankfully there was a security guard on call and he had actually received my keys from some kind soul that turned them in 3 hours before I even realized they were gone!!! I was so scared that I would have to call my parents who were undoubtedly already in bed and a 30-40 minute drive away! It could have been an utter disaster!!!

Favorite professor thus far? My Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit. Prof. He’s just such a freak about genre movies, shows, and books. He’s met so many different people (such as Andre the Giant, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King!) He’s also hilarious and speaks very openly about “terrible remakes” and “the most awful, overrated, unoriginal movies with gangly blue people (ahem! Avatar.)”

Favorite reading so far? Frankenstein or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Basically, any of the longer works. I’ve already had to read so many short stories and they’re just kind of blah! To me.

Something new I learned: Shakespeare did not write all of his works on his own. In fact, he had many corroborators, such as his entire theatre company and the government. I’ll explain further if this makes no sense. Also, many people theorize that he may not have existed at all because he just disappears, drops out of the records, for years at a time!

New people I have met: Well, I must explain one thing first. The STRANGEST people on this entire PLANET go to NMC. (Perhaps that says something about me!? Gasp!) But, no, seriously, some strange a** people go to this college! I don’t know what it is, but they all decided to just meet up and surround me. I said it when I was a freshman and going there and I say it again as a fifth year senior. I’m getting the feeling that you guys can’t even understand this. It’s just so STRANGE!!! There are a lot of “those” people here and they annoy the crap out of me. There’s just something off, that’s all I am saying. (I need to write a separate post about this. Be looking for that within the next week or so.) I can’t explain it!!!

Thoughts in general: Avoid the people (mostly) and I think this semester will be pretty okay. I’m not too worried about it and I can’t wait to graduate! YEAH!

27 comments:

  1. Your favourite professor sounds amazing - When I heard that he met Stephen King I was really amazed! Out of all of them, Shakespeare would have to be my favourite -I have done some performances with my class. I hope your graduation is awesome.

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  2. -p.s I have another blog and I'm doing it with Moana. Just go to http://bloggerholicsanonymous.blogspot.com/ and become a follower.

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  3. ~Sigh~ If I had my time over, I'd do the exact same course as yours. It sounds nothing short of fabulous, interesting, enthralling and to have a professor that has actually MET Stephen King ... I think I might just faint! I truly wish you well this year, and do make the most of it, AubrieAnne, there only so many things we get a chance to do over (I know your heart and soul is in this!). You've probably mentioned it before somewhere here, but just wondering, what would you like to do when you leave? Any occupations in mind? I imagine the sky's the limit. Success to you, always.
    Moana

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  4. Loved getting the inside gos on your everyday life doing a fabulous course (I so loved uni, and studying psychology, but I so wish I could do your course). And hey - some of the very best people are a little strange ;)

    I did hear that about Shakespeare - it was a large feature of a fictional book I read actually - damn it - wish I could flipping recall the title - it was a best seller arounf three years ago and shakespeare was in the title I think? DAH!

    Your teacher sounds great too. My favourite lecturer wore sandles and socks and when asked a question regarding an essay his set, his reply was "Enjoy the confusion" - If he didn't look so odd, I could have loved that guy - Oh and he awarded me an A for my final year desitation, which helped ;)I hope you don't mind if I give a desperate and grasping plug to my blog hop tomorrow - for all you creative peeps out there! wordsinsync.blogspot. Shah. X

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  5. Your classes sound infinitely more interesting than mine when I took my degree. I did 16th Century English Lit (and French) along with Chaucer - that was very confusing as it was like learning a foreign language. I also did Shakespeare but no films were allowed.We had to read and analyse every single play he wrote and a shed load of poems. Than I did some 19th Century poetry. Finally I did Linguistics which was normal and I could almost understand it...oh to have done Science Fiction or anything that was readable without the aid of a large dictionary.
    I dropped by to say hello and thank you for your lovely comment you left me. I hope you have picked up an Awesome Blog award because you thoroughly deserve it...you probably deserve another for doing your Bachelors. Keep at it and stay away from pencil sharpeners!
    Carol

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  6. Thank you for posting this! Will you be pursuing a grad school program afterward?

    People are familiar with pens, but it is more important in college than ever before to be able to remove your mistakes. So while people may have been eager to quit using pencils after high school, they soon learn that it's still necessary. Since you were in a library, I theorize that they were marking in their textbooks and would, perhaps, like to erase their notations before returning them for money.

    So for that CW course, you simply bring in a work whenever you want? Sounds like the one I had at my community college. The class also included students who were much older. That setup is quite different from the ones here. Doyle had us sign up for specific dates. First, we each signed up for a short story submission, the a flash fiction submission, then we submitted something called a "risky story" to the professor for his personal viewing. "Risky" refers to something out of our comfort zone, hence, my writing Justify as a serious drama whereas I am more accustomed to writing more humorous tones.

    It's also been mentioned in my Shakespeare class that he had collaborators, but the theory that he never existed was not, apart from the idea that he was only interested in money and retired the instant he had accrued enough. An interesting notion, though. I just viewed the final scene from the 1999 adaptation of "Midsummer." The Pyramus play was entertaining.

    The only Lit courses I've really taken have been World Literature, so i suppose I am more attuned to that atmosphere. American Lit is a requirement, but I am dreading it, tbh.

    My Sci-Fi/Fantasy professor had also met numerous celebrities (including Ray Bradbury and Ursula LeGuin). I feel you on the mundanity of short stories. When your professor met Andre the Giant, was it on any occasion to do with The Princess Bride? Is Dracula on the curriculum for that class?

    I am sorry to hear about your incident over your keys! D: It's grand fortune that you were able to find them AND that someone had turned them in. Reminds me of two of my own anecdotes. One evening at my community college back home, I fell quite ill (too ill to drive home). My professor that evening escorted me to the student lounge and called my folks and left me in the car of the office attendants. She said that she had "never seen someone so sick."

    On another occasion, security came into a friend's class to tell him that his car had caught fire in the parking lot! That thing was a metallic time bomb.

    I am eager to hear of these "strange" individuals.

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  7. I meant to comment on Facing50's post. At CMU, a course on Chaucer qualifies as a foreign language credit. I'm also hoping to become a linguistics minor.

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  8. Your science fiction/fantasy class sounds really pretty neat! Can't wait to hear what all you say about that one. Oh, reminds of the good times :) of all the wacky classes I took in college. Hope you have a great last semester, and really glad I got the chance to hop on by!
    http://texagermanadian.blogspot.com/

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  9. dtwilight...Yeah! I thought it was pretty cool that he had met Stephen King too. He's just an absolutle fountain of information about books, movies, authors. It's really cool to just talk with him for a minute.

    What Shakespeare plays did you do with your class?

    I am coming to check out that new blog soon and I will certianly follow. I am looking forward to seeing what else you guys are doing.

    Moana...Yeah, that's what I thought. How cool would it be to meet someone like him and pick his brain for just a moment. I can already tell that this semester should go well.

    When this semester is up, I'm going to work on my resume and start sending out as many as I can. I hope to work in editing or publishing something along those lines. I don't really care as long as i am around writing and BOOKS!

    Shah...Thanks. It's nice to just write about what's going on in your own life sometimes, just get it out.

    HAHA! That's so funny that you should mention that your favorite teacher wore socks and sandles. My teacher just wears his socks. lol.

    Facing50...I never had to take Chaucer, luckily. But if I had taken it I could have gottem and BFA instead of just a BS, but I think that's fine.

    I can imagine taking Shakespeare without the movies, but I think it would make it so much harder. The movies really help me interpret the language. Plus, you know what they say, Shakespeare is meant to be seen, not read.

    Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I always appreciate your comments!

    Matt...IDK, I use pens all the time, even to mark in my text if I have to, but I don't make a mess of it. The only time I use pencils now are for exams with the scansion things.

    For the CW class we still have assignments with due dates. We don't just bring them in whenever, just if you are working on your own project, you turn a piece of it in instead of the assignment on the assignment date. Sometimes, I wish there was a little less freedon just so I would be forced to do a "risky" piece, but I can always make myself do it at one point.

    The 1999 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream is the one we watched in class.

    TexaGermaNadian...I'm happy you could hop by too! Thanks for the great comment. I will certainly keep everyone updated. I think these classes will have some great stuff and I'll want to relay some of it. :)

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  10. toesthattwinkle...Thanks for stopping by and for following. I am really happy that you like my blog and I hope you can join in on the conversations!!! I'd love to hear more from you.

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  11. Will you be studying Dracula in Sci/Fan?

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  12. Matt...No, most of it is going to be short stories :( I don't know if one of the movies will be a Dracula movie though. We just got done watching some more silent films and then we watched the 1930's King Kong which was actually really good. There was a lot of screaming at the end though.

    Oh, you asked about graduate programs too. As of right now, I am not planning on graduate school. I'm going to go for a job first and then see, but if I don't end up with a job after 6-10 months then I will go and probably get a masters in literacy or publishing.

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  13. The first and my favourite act that I did was Hamlet! My favourite character was Ophelia - she was quite dramatic. The second I did was MacBeth which I found quite confusing for me to act. I didn't get the opportunity to do Romeo and Juliet, but I really wanted to! The dramatic scenes were excellent!

    -p.s thanks for following my new blog!

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  14. What sorts of jobs are you hoping for?

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  15. dtwilight...That's so cool. i'm so happy that you have been given those opportunities. Shakespeare's plays are unlike anything else. Also, I was happy to follow your new blog. I think it will be fun.

    Matt...Really anything that has to do with books! That's my dream to work with publishing books, wether I am a literary agent, in some form of editing, proofreading, or reviewing. If I can't have a position somewhere near that then any form of editing would be interesting to me whether it is copy editing, editing emails within a company, at a newspaper, magazine, etc.

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  16. Oh, to return to the excitement of those university classes. You captured the thrill and enrichment well.

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  17. Paul C...It has been pretty exciting. I think I am going to freak when it's all over with. I truely may not know what to do with myself. It's an entire chapter gone, but I am enjoying it while it is still here.

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  18. Thanks for joining Mailbox Monday- I'm a confirmed email susbcriber and GFC follower. Congrats on your last semester!!
    www.mamalovesherbargains.com

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  19. QueenB...No problem. It was fun! Also, thanks for following me here.

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  20. Following from Friday Blog Hop. Please visit me and follow back at http://debbiedoescoupons.com

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  21. I wish you bon chance. I would love to see you succeed.

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  22. Aubrie! I'm so glad to catch up on what's going on in your life :) You are one busy chicky! :) Love the new blog design as well. Mine will be different in a few weeks, I'm having someone dazzle it all up!

    xoxo
    Katie

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  23. Debbie...Thanks for following and welcome! Please come back soon and join in the conversation when you get a chance.

    Matt...Thank you. That's very kind of you.

    Katie...I like it busy, most of the time at least. I didn't know you were doing ablog redesign or "spiffying up of." I can't wait to see it!

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  24. Me again -- thought since I was reading some more of your blog I should at least comment rather the lurk around :-)

    Your classes sound interesting -- especially the sci fi/fantasy one. Congrats on it being your last semester! I had a lot of great literature courses over the years (as well as history since I was a double major). I did my masters thesis on Irish-American Women Writers in the 19th century :-)

    I hope you have a great semester!

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  25. Marie...Hello again! I minored in history so I got a lot of it too! I absolutely love both areas of study and am so happy that I found my way to them in college because they really were some of the last things on my mind when it came to choosing a major or minor.

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  26. You make me want to go back to college. I miss the days of nothing but reading, studying, and writing. And I thought back then all I wanted was a home and children. lol As I have been telling myself all week, "I will be content!"

    Have a wonderful day and thank you for linking up to A Day In Our Life Blog Hop. =)

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  27. Lynda...I know I will miss it when it is all over too! I part of me absolutely loves being in school, but I will make myself a student of life and never forget to keep learning. :)

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