Mamí, sobreviví mi primer día de clases *smiles like a little girl*

[hermionesviolin]

Pienso que casi toda de las mujeres en mi clase están encantadas de Federico García Lorca. Es bueno. Era exposada a sus obras en la escuela secundaria y leí una biografía de él en la parte de atrás de la clase cuando estabamos estudiando cosas que supe. Tuve miedo de la clase, porque es un 366 y no he usado mi español en dos años (cuando tuve una clase de la literatura española mi primer semestre en Smith), pero no ahora. La profesora no está... una persona que me intimida. Leyemos el prólogo de El Maleficio de la Mariposa en clase, y no comprendí la mayoría de la obra, pero no tengo miedo. La mayoría del trabajo por la clase va a estar leído a casa, donde puede tener mucho tiempo y un diccionario. Necesito revisar las terminaciónes de los verbos [¡me gusta mucho mi libro 501 Spanish Verbs de la escuela secundaria!] porque me olvidé alguna de mis seis años de español. Pero todavía tener una buena intuición por mucha. Desafortunadamente, a veces algunas palabras me escapa.

<< El hombre se olvida de su creador, y el animal y la planata estan muy cerca de su luz. >>
-algún de lo que el viejo silfo le dijo al poeta en el prólogo de El Maleficio de la Mariposa por Federico García Lorca.

Después de dejando la clase, estuve todavia pensando en español. Recuerdos de español 3.... Quiero tener una persona con quien puede practicar mi español -- conversación etc. Ria? Vamos a performar unas de las dramas de Lorca en clase. Es una buena idea. Ahora casi quiero hacer la clase del realismo mágico (“Page to Stage”) en un otro semestre. Me gusta mucho el realismo mágico, pero literatura y performa del teatro (no actuo) en español? Pero si va a performar en este clase, puede performar en una otra clase, no? La clase es (con la misma profesora y es) ofrada este semestre y mi semestre final de Smith. ¿Como se dice “we shall see” en español? También es solamente 240. [Looking at the course catalog now, “Prerequisite for 300-level courses is SPN 250 or 251 or 260 or 261 or permission of the instructor.” I placed into a Spanish literature class, 230, and i think i was just on the cusp of being eligible for that actually, though Smith’s Spanish placement exam was hardly extensive, and now i’m in 366 not having done Spanish in the 2 years since then. My professor is the chair of the department, though, so as long as she doesn’t kick me out next class i’m set.]

Thinking about those classes i remembered the approximately seminar level classes i plan to take next semester (having waited for them since my first year when they were last offered and i was ineligible) and it’s sinking in more that i am a junior and that next year i am going to be a senior.

Mi otra clase hoy, The Harlem Renaissance... *shrug* Early in my time at Smith people told me Kevin Quashie was a professor i had to take a class with before i graduated. I don’t remember being blown away any of the times i listened to him talk, and today’s class didn’t change that, but it’s only the first class and first classes are usually nothing special. He seems like a fairly cool guy. I like people better when they’re other than heterosexual, but gay men sometimes just have such bad taste. Yoga and TRL should never go together, for example. Okay, biting tongue right now, because there is no real purpose to a digression in which i pretty much bash everything that’s popular. 3 English Department Liaisons in a cross-listed course, all sitting next to each other; yes it’s the little things that amuse me.

I’m such a whore for my department. Maria ended up taking ENG 199 instead of GLT 291, and instead of ODing on Betsey Harries, she took it with Michael Thurston. This prompted a chorus from our lunch table -- i had totally forgotten that Ria and Sophie had him as well, even though we sat next to each other last semester so of course i should have remembered. (Thanks to Ria for reminding me of what it was that prompted MT dancing in our class last semester.) Anyway, the class is TR at 9am, and i don’t have TR morning classes. So tempting to go and, ya know, just hang out, listen to him and all. Maria said i totally should. Susan-my-Little-Sister-last-year and possibly starcatsinging-to-whom-i-have-never-actually-been-properly-introduced to are also taking it. I already promised her i’d at least go on Tuesday.

Okay, so i hug Maria about a half a dozen times a day and i tease her about it, because she often comes to my room just for a hug. Anyway, as i was working on this entry, Maria came by with a bunch of her friends and got a hug from me. One of her friends must have made some comment about that, because as they were leaving i heard her say “Elizabeth gives the best hugs in the world” and repeat it insistently. I think i blushed.

I’m trying to make myself get to know all the first-years in my house, because now that classes are starting everyone’s gonna be solidifying their clumps if not cliques, and i want to not only have all the names down (i think i have about half right now) but have something of a feel for their distinctive personalities. I am learning that even people i don’t like have aspects of themselves that i do like.

Eventually i will stop complaining about the campus center (well, probably anyway). However, this upsets me.

At Smith, only the Student Government Association and the radio station have dedicated space. Dozens of other groups will share a copy machine, poster-making machine and computers in a large open workroom. "This allows them to enhance their leadership skills," said [Dawn] Mays-Floyd [who was hired from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to be the director of Smith's new center].
-from the September 1 Daily Hampshire Gazette

I was perfectly fine with Davis and the SGA building and the Green Street post office/bookstore, but one of the big sells of the new campus center for me was that all student orgs would have actual space (instead of, for example, having a number of orgs sign out slots in the attic of Davis). I don’t care about lounge space (and all this open space in the new c.c. which is used for nothing but open space has already started to annoy me and others) as i have house living rooms and all. I have something of an idea of how much it sucks to not have an office of one’s own (Ms. Splaine, Ms. Fisher) and really it’s more important to me for campus orgs to have a place to call their own than for there to be yet another place for cliques to gather. MHC’s director of facilities said, "A campus center should have a 'scope-out' factor, the ability to walk in and see if friends are there or if there is someone you want to avoid." Funny how one of the big points of Smith’s new campus center was to be somewhere where students and faculty could interact casually (did anyone believe that would happen in any large degree?) but the man from MHC seems to understand quite well that people (and exacerbating it, we’re talking female college students here) form their own little groups and usually like to keep them that way.

Oh, and if the new LiveJournal layout has you creeped out, go here to change it. (Read more about the change here. Gotta love having things like news on ones friendslist.)

Must remember to tell Marnie that Firefly is going to be a movie and the Amazon presales for the series DVD (due out in December) sold out in 24 hours.