Second Day of Classes!!

I'm ready to post a new update since I've gone to pretty much all of my classes (with the exception of one that I'm dropping/adding another). I'm really excited for this semester! I'm trying to eat healthier and definitely getting a lot of exercise living so far from the main quad, but I think it's a good thing!

Just a brief post (I know I haven't updated in a week), but I'll tell you about how my classes are and try to update every two days from here on!!

I went to my Art History class (History of Impressionism), which was really awesome because we went over the syllabus briefly then went straight into the material, and Prof. Antliff talked a lot about French history, artists, and he used a French accent, which made everything seem much more authentic. After class, my friends and I all met up and we went to the Sophomore BBQ on the quad and then the Forever Duke alumni party, where we got more free food (including ice cream bars!!) and a 2013 t-shirt!! At night, I just read a little bit and then headed over to another dorm to hang out with the guys since we live in separate dorms this year. Then I headed back and called it a night and got ready for the next day of classes.

First, I grabbed breakfast from Alpine Bagels with four other friends. I got the Good Morning Camper, which is sausage (or bacon or ham, I think), egg, and cheese, all in a bagel (you pick the kind!!) I ended up only eating half of it, so I'm saving the rest for tomorrow morning! I went to my ethics class after, which was great and got me really excited for the year. We talked about questions about morals in religious life, child development, and in our daily lives in general. It was great having a talk about ethics relative to regular day life rather than ethics as a subset of philosophy. After ethics, I went back to my room and figured out my schedule with rowing then got ready for Stats 103. I found a couple of friends in the class, so that was nice, and the professor seemed really friendly and willing to help, and he introduced a new side of statistics, one that deals with real-life problems as opposed to the standard mathematical issues dealt with in calculus. Then I went to French 111, a seminar about Chinese Identity in Paris. After not taking French for a semester, I was afraid I would be rusty, so it was kind of strange going into an environment where people had spoken French for at least five years and spoke fluently, but it was fun. I definitely love taking a language, especially when classes are small and foster in-depth and personal conversations.

Duke classes were definitely something I didn't realize I missed over the summer. Sure, there's a ton of homework and reading--your typical workload--but I missed being in that intellectual environment and having really interesting discussions with everyone, even in other languages! I missed hearing from professors and learning new things (or maybe reviewing things), and listening to other students' insight, perspectives I had never really thought about or seen before. I'm glad classes are back, even if it means I have three chapters of Art History to read by tomorrow and a bunch more homework for Thursday. Off into the land of Manet.. au revoir!