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No photos to add today, but I wanted to update you on my very first day of lectures as a postgraduate student. Today it became abundantly clear that I know next to nothing about anthropology (reminder: my course is Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology). That's not surprising considering that I have had exactly one anthropology class my freshman year at IUP and remember exactly three things:
1. The prof, Dr. Ziker, (who was a complete dork) tripped on a desk and fell flat on his face during class one day, jumped right back up, and continued to lecture like nothing had happened while the whole class sat in stunned silence. Finally someone interrupted and asked if he was OK to which he responded "just don't tell the dean."
2. When Betsy and I went to Dr. Ziker's office hours to ask a few questions before the midterm, he spoke directly to her the entire time even when I was the one asking the question.
3. Another student freaked out one day because he suddenly couldn't see any of the notes he had written in his notebook. Turns out he had put on his shades with pink tinted lenses which made him unable to see anything he had written with the red pen he was using to take notes.
Now for the shocker: while these memories still make me laugh out loud, none of them seem to be applicable to my course in any way! I may have to take a trip to the library and do a little background reading.
Anyway, today was quite a long day but went well. My course requires me to complete three compulsory modules, one optional module, and two compulsory reading modules. This term I will have Issues in Social Anthropology (reading module), Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology, Body and Person, and Enthnographic Research Methods (compulsory modules).
Next term I will complete History and Theory of Social Anthropology (reading module) and Anthropological and Psychological Perspectives on Learning (optional module) as well as continuing the second half of Body and Person and Ethnographic Research Methods. I will round out the year by completing a research project over the summer and writing a 15,000 word dissertation on that project due by the end of September 2007 (although I hope to be done by the beginning of September). Right now I am concentrating on not being overwhelmed by all of this--just trying to stay in the moment and be mindful! I feel fairly good about this schedule because my class load is pretty evenly distributed over the two terms with two lectures each day (Wednesday and Thursday). So we shall see how quickly I am able to get back into student mode. At least today I had my library orientation since I will definitely be spending quite a bit of time there. If only Dr. Ziker could see me now perhaps he wouldn't be so focused on Betsy!
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