One Big Happy Family

Somehow I got the illusion that this semester might actually end up being easier than last, simply because I'm not working anymore.

I was wrong.

I'm not exactly sure how I made it through the week. I'm not sure how I managed to complete all of my assignments. But I did. I took four (yes that is 4) biology tests. Wrote the equivalent of an essay. Downloaded a bunch of theories and terms for philosophy. Read a whole bunch. Listened to a bunch of lectures for humanities.

It's just 3 classes, but the problem is, they are classes that normally take 16 weeks, but since the online calendar is different, you squeeze them into 8 weeks. It is not fun. I start school at 8am sharp with a humanities lecture, and then don't end until 5pm, taking only one hour break total, and then studying for an additional hour after supper some time. I suppose it is "welcome to the real world of college where you take more than 12 credits." But I seriously am wondering how people get through college without losing a year of life due to stress. It's unreal. Hannah and Andrew, I don't know how you are taking a bazillion credits.

I am so glad this week is over though. I'm hoping it proves that I'll be able to make it through the rest of the semester. Part of the surprise of this week was that we hit the ground running in each of my classes. There was no "this week we are just going to get a feel for everything, and we won't start reading any books until next week." Nope. We jumped right in and had all those tests like I told you about, and not one, but two discussion boards. With a strict teacher who says that since this is a philosophy course, we can't use Scripture as evidence for any of our ideas. Which, yes, I suppose he is right in doing that because when you are debating philosophically with anyone not a Christian, they are obviously not going to let you appeal to the Bible. But it is a pain. Because Scripture can prove points so easily....and in every past course I've been in, pretty much the more Scripture you used, the more points you got! Ha ha, so I'll just have to get used to something different.

So far, aside from the tests, biology is interesting if not complicated. So far the things it is talking about I am familiar with from high school biology and chemistry, but I've noticed that in high school it would devote a whole chapter to an idea that college biology devotes a paragraph (or a sentence) to. The other interesting thing is that my biology book was written by an evolutionary atheist. Which in presentations I watch, the professor clears all that up, but it is interesting nonetheless. The great thing about biology is my teacher. She rocks. She is sooo encouraging, and says all the time that even though this is a really hard class, and people fail all the time, even if we fail she will still love us (haha she actually said that). And that God will still love us if we fail, and that is it not about your grade, it is about what you learn, and how hard you are trying. I will not let myself fail though. I will make sure I get a B. (of course getting an A would be wonderful, but I will be very satisfied with a B. I suppose if I got a C I might not even cry).

Then there is humanities. I actually really enjoy that class. It is the history of the western civilization, and how art has influenced it. So right now we are studying the Egyptians and how they influenced the Greeks. And it pretty much starts at the dawn of history, and explains where everyone came from. Like did you know that they Greeks, Slaves, Germans, Hittites, Romans, Celts, and Persians all came from one big happy family in the middle of Europe? So Iranians are actually more European than anything else. And when the Greeks called those Germans they were fighting "barbarians" they were really calling themselves barbarians since they were related. And maybe you already knew that.

But, did you also know that the reason the Egyptians painted all two dimensional and weird-like was because they were painting the way the mind sees, not the way the eye sees. So when you are going to draw a plain fish on a piece of paper, do you draw it from the top, or front? No, you draw it like you were seeing it in an aquarium. Which is why the Egyptians, if they were painting fish in a pond, would paint it so that the fish would "technically" be floating on top of the water dead. But really they were just painting it they way you think of a fish. If you get what I mean.

Yeah, so humanities is interesting.

I'm done now.