I signed up for a class!

[supercheesegirl]

I signed up for a class. It was difficult to pick just one, and it took a rather long phone call to Jorn at work, but I finally picked: The Inkas. Course description: The Inkas (Incas) controlled the largest state of pre-Columbian America, with territory stretching from Ecuador to central Chile. Where did the Inkas come from? How was their empire organized? And why did they succumb so easily to the Spaniards? The course focuses around these and other general questions of Inka cultural history.

I decided on this one out of the several I was interested in for a few reasons. First of all, it sounded way interesting. Of course. The kind of class I've always wanted to take for fun but never took because Fun and Classes weren't necessarily related.

My other two choices were Intro to Greek Art and Archaeology, and Architecture of Boston. The Greek one sounded really good on the surface, but from the course description it sounded like it was going to focus on commerce, politics, public buildings, and town planning. I mostly just want to look at the pretty and hear about how they dig up the pretty. What clinched it for me was the instructor: his title is "Director of Architecture and Urban Design, Central Artery Project, Commonwealth of Massachusetts". Clearly not someone whose job is to dig up the pretty. I'm sure his class would be interesting, but it's not something I'm all about.

Architecture of Boston was the other one I was really wavering about, and I didn't pick that for more complicated reasons. It *would* be interesting. It would get me out and about and exploring the city, and I would learn a lot about architecture, which I currently know poo about (or, rather, I know a little, but only as it relates specifically to Bulfinch designs or early Italianate designs in the US). But the syllabus is online, so I decided to take a look. First of all, there's only four tours scheduled for the class, and three of them are house tours. So, not that much actual city exploring involved. Also, one of the house tours is of Otis house and I could give it myself (come to think of it, maybe I will). The non-house tour is a tour of Back Bay which happens to fall on the exact weekend I was thinking about going to Denver to visit Amy and Josh. The first text on the required list is a book I have some experience with (Boston: A Topographical History), having read a few applicable chapters when I started at Otis. It was interesting, and the writing style was understandable, but I had problems because I couldn't visualize the landscape/neighborhood/buildings he was talking about. That would definitely be a problem here, because if we're not going to be going out and touring around the city, I still won't be able to visualize what I'm reading. I don't think I'll get out of this class what I'm hoping to get out of it, at least not at this point in my Boston-dwelling life. I think that what I'm going to do instead is do the Boston By Foot thing that lydian told me about, because it sounds like that training really gets you out and exploring the whole city, and it sounds very encouraging. Of course, that's not until April, but I can still do other exploring. Laura from work and I talked about taking each other to each other's favorite restaurants (Mr Crepe for me, Buddha's Delight in Chinatown for her), and that would be exploratory. And this weekend I think I'm going to try walking home from Otis house just to see how it would be. Plus I totally know how to get to Davis Square in the car. So there, I'm exploring. Also I'm way off topic. So, yay Inkas. I always wanted to learn more about the South American ones. Almost all my history classes in school have been North American, and any others were eurocentric. This will be exciting. I'm just psyched to be taking a class, really.

The only problem is that the class is on Wednesday nights. And the new season of Top Model is also on Wednesday nights this fall. I'll just have to tape it obsessively.

Comments

[theemdash]

Awesome that you get to take a class for Fun. The two classes I took for Fun (that weren't required by my major, because basically everything for my major was Fun ::is geek::) were History of Japan (a 4000 level class, mind you) and--this is really the title of the course--Magic, Ritual, and Belief: The Anthropology of Religion.

Magic, Ritual, and Belief was so freaking awesome. I loved that class. It was easy and Fun. I still have my books and notes from that one.

Enjoy your class, dear. I wish I had time (and money) to take more classes. Maybe if I'm actually hired I can go back to school.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I had good fun major classes too (like my 400 level W.B. Yeats seminar and my Grammar class [so good I took it a second time as a TA] ::is geek with you::), and most of the Fun things I also wanted to take were covered by my minor. Women in Ancient Greece comes to mind, a spectacularly fun class (are you listening, amedia?). But there were so many other classes in college that I wanted to take that I just didn't have room for! I never took, like, sociology, or a decent religion class. And about halfway through junior year I realized it would've been hellacool to minor in Greek, or even to take Greek, but it was way too late to get started on it at that point. Also--a major regret--my university offered a class called Philosophy of Star Trek (taught by the same spectacular Amedia, no less) and I never found a way to fit it into my schedule. No more, I say. To hell with requirements and crap. Now I take classes for Fun!

Senior year I signed up for a class called something like Magic Witchcraft and Somethingorother. I dropped it before the first class even met, though, because I already had a full schedule of required stuff and wanted to enjoy the end of my senior year a little bit. Good to know you got to take a similarly titled one and loved it--there are a few such courses here that I'm eyeing for next term. :)

[theemdash]

Hee hee... one of the geekiest classes I got to take was Sci-fi Literature. And it was excellent. The only problem was that it drew a lot of CS and science majors who didn't know a thing about literature so the first half of the class was us reading stories and answering questions like "Who is the protagonist?" After a while, the professor eased us into the harder stuff, so I just had to deal with that first part where I was banging my head and screaming, "WHY?!"

My final essay for that class discussed the place religion has in science fiction and I got to begin the essay with the following Star Wars quote: "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side." I think that may be my favorite college essay. ;)

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a *wonderful* class. Weirdest lit class I ever got to take was Multicultural Detective Fiction. Which was also very cool, but I would've liked sci fi a lot better. (Speaking of which, I'm reading Asimov for the first time right now!)

And hooray for starting an essay with a Star Wars quote! In my Jane Austen & film class (okay, that one was hellacool too) I managed to title all my papers with a line from a classic rock song, like "My Baby, She Wrote Me A Letter: Correspondence in Pride and Prejudice". My prof got a kick out of it.

My favorite college essay... Senior year I had to take this honors capstone course that was the biggest load-of-crap class I can even conceive of. Truly, truly useless. We were supposed to be thinking back on our honors classes and how they prepare us for the real world, blah blah blah. The final paper was supposed to be about how we plan to use our majors after graduation and how we see ourselves fitting into the profession, and we had to incorporate research. I wrote about how as a writer, I plan to take up alcoholism after graduation, how in fact I plan to start my alcoholism during senior week, and I did a bunch of research on all the great writers who had preceded me in being alcoholics. It was great. I got an A and my prof never said a word to me about it.