I just noticed a significant typo from my last post: by ‘tonight’ I meant tomorrow. My only excuse is that last night I was studying for my English midsem, trying not to panic about its vagueness, and rapidly completing my NCAA bracket (Ohio State championship run? I think yes).
This week was midsem week. Last week wasn’t too hot either – two papers and a test last week, and then three happy, subjective, essay-based exams this week. If there’s anything you’ve been dying to know about Cicero, basic sociology terms, or Puritans, you’re too late – I already flushed that information. ;)
And now it’s rant time. See, my English professor told us what we needed to know for the midsem today, so I dutifully learned it. Then I showed up to class. The section about term identification? Replaced with a section comparing modern pieces we read to Puritan lit. It wasn’t quite what I had studied for, but I was too busy frantically writing to worry about it at the time. Which brings me to my next point – our class is an hour and twenty minutes long. We had six one-paragraph long responses to write, three three-paragraph comparative essays, and another essay which was to be as long as possible. This is not feasible in an hour and twenty minutes. My professor is absolutely brilliant, but clearly the concept of time is lost on him.
Midsems week was interesting. It was significantly more intense than anything I’d experienced at Denison – I would go so far as to say midsems here is comparable to DU’s finals week, but as always, it depends on the individual and the course load. I happened to have four tests and two papers, all within two weeks, but apparently this is the anomaly. That being said, it’s not entirely fair to compare institutions – having now attended two colleges, I do know that there are differences, but college is so much an individual experience that I can’t say what’s better or worse, but only what’s better for me. And despite the last two weeks of near-hell, I can still confidently say Grinnell is better for me. I love it here. The weather is finally nice, campus is beautiful, the people are amazing, academics are phenomenal, and opportunities are endless.
Also, the food. For the longest time, the vegan section was great. The food was edible and normal-colored, for one, and it didn’t generally involve large quantities of tofu. Now, it’s strange, too-spicy, and often inedible. However, despite this sad occurrence in the dining hall, there is a positive: my lactose intolerance seems to be lessening. As a good friend can attest, I had a slice of pizza (GLORIOUS), cheddar-cornbread (with butter – butter has never tasted better), and weird chip/bread things with cheese. I didn’t feel great at first, but I think that was mostly placebo effect. If I could eat cheese . . . suddenly the dining hall would be exciting again. :)
