Classes

During the week here, there is little time for travel or exploration around the city of Cambridge, since we are all fully engaged with our classes. I believe a famous philosopher was said, "College would be great if it weren't for classes." I'm kidding, kidding of course. The classes I'm taking at Cambridge, 20th century poetry (Eliot, Hardy, Yeats) and Ulysses are both incredibly manageable and interesting. The courses here meet twice a week (mine on Monday & Wed. and Tues & Thurs.) for 2 two hour sessions. Each of my courses is taught by a Cambridge professor, so that means fun British accents and people who know a lot more about British/European history.

The 20th Century poetry course is taught by an 80 year old man named Glen, with a thick british accent. I usually see him walking to class with his green suit and backpack tossed over his shoulder, calmly making his way through the courtyard. We read several poems as homework then basically discuss them as a class, with one major paper at the end. Glen, at 80 years old---is incredibly "with it" and very knowledgeable, whether it comes to terminology or relating a poem to James Cameron's great 1997 hit, Titanic. The class is delightful, and the 2 hours seems to fly by....

The other course I have is Ulysses, which is in itself a difficult text. It is over nine-hundred pages long, and written in a stream of consciousness way, with no filtering system. For example, a page reads, "Want to be sure of his spelling. Proof fever. Martin Cunningham forgot to give us his spellingbee conundrum this morning. It is amusing to view the unpar one ar alleled embarra two ars is it? double ess ment of a harassed pedlar while gauging au the symmetry with a y of a peeled pear under a cemetery wall. Silly, isn’t it? Cemetery put in of course on account of the symmetry." It seems strange at first, but the teacher (Rod M.) is helping us unpack such a dense text and focus on themes of British Imperialism, Irish Nationalism, and the Roman Catholic Church. In this class, I also have one major paper due at the end, which I will be steadily working on for the duration of my time here.

The coursework and class times are both conducive for the trips that are planned on the weekends. For example, this Thursday evening, we are going to Stratford upon Avon to see MacBeth, and all day Friday we will be at Dover Beach and the Cliffs of Dover--written about in the famous poem "Dover Beach," by Matthew Arnold. It should be a busy, action-packed weekend so I am trying to read ahead and finish up all my work!! Until next time....cheers!