New Year, New Term, New Classes

Yes that's right the time has come for a completely new set of classes. Farewell incredibly stressful Colonial Literature and so long Black American Writers. One thing that is utterly brilliant about the American system is the two semester layouts. Last semester I took four classes with four separate professors and alongside various essays throughout the term finished the last week with exams (sorry 'Finals'). That was the end of those classes. This semester I have thus started four entirely new courses with four entirely new professors and with the prospect of even more essays and exams - oh joy. However, it did mean that while my fellow Warwick students were writing daily updates on the 20 pages worth of essays they had to write I could enjoy the holidays (sorry vacation) work free. I had a vague idea of what books might be on the syllabus but there was no requirement to read them and so my holiday was in fact an actual holiday - go figure!

I could not think of any feasible reason why this is no longer the norm in England. It is ridiculous. While at UConn I have suffered 16 brutal weeks of solid work (with a week off for Thanksgiving). At the end I enjoyed a blissful break  during which I could completely switch my brain off and frazzle it with girly chick flicks and appalling trashy novels which I should never admit to reading (Jodi Picoult you are secretly my idol!). In England you 'endure' 10 weeks (with a reading week of course*) of mind numbing lectures, brain killing nights out and then are burdened with work while your liver is recovering at home. I think people may have issues with paying 9 grand for that!**


Anyway's I will try and refrain from having another rant. My new courses this semester are fairly dull and predictable I'm afraid. I'm doing a Shakespeare class, a Victorian Lit class, a Women in Lit class and, to be a little bit different, a Shakespeare and film class. How boring, may be your first reaction, I'm sticking with the standard stuff, but I've never actually had the chance to study many of the classics and my Shakespeare knowledge is very limited! So this semester I fear I'm going to be overwhelmed by Shakespeare and am going to be turned into a hopeless Romantic by Austen and the Brontë's... just in time for Valentine's Day.. wink wink nudge nudge!


*A random week that most arts and humanities students are given off in the middle of the term to catch up on reading. Or, in other words, to catch up on sleep.

** Last year University tuition fees in England were raised from roughly £3,000 (~ $4,700) a year to £9,000 a year (~ $14,000)! Not. Cool.