In case you were wondering...
Hello ladies and gents. I figure that now that its October, I should probably let you all know (at least those who want to know) how everything is going here at good old University of California Santa Cruz.
This year I’m living in an on campus apartment again. The difference is that this year, there are only three people (myself and two others) in the apartment as opposed to last year with six people. I have a room to myself, which is nice, and we have a dining room; also, there’s only one bathroom. Other than that its pretty much the same as last years. I lied. There’s one other thing - this apartment has a backdoor that leads to our (quite amazing) patio. We’re planning on getting a BBQ for the warmer months. It should be pretty cool. I’m very much looking forward to it.
I feel much more settled in this year. Last year was still trying to find a balance between classes and friends and food and sleep. This year is much more focused and relaxed. Im spending quite a bit of time with my housemates, which is nice because I like them both very much, and I also get to hang out with my friends from last year a bit. No one I know is in any of my classes, which is making me branch out a bit more than I had to last year, which is good but I guess I’m still a bit shy about it. I’ve also been spending time with some of my high school friends who are new here. They just happen to live right next to each other so I get a two for one deal whenever I visit. Kind of. It’s working out, either way.
My classes this year are fairly… I don’t want to say boring, but they aren’t super fancy or anything. Generic I guess is a pretty good word. I’m taking two classes with Prof. Jones, who taught my Intro to Shakespeare class freshman year - Edmund Spenser and 1550-1650 English Drama. Both are being fairly exciting because I haven’t read any of the material before. Neither include any Shakespeare. In Spenser we’re looking at the sonnets (The Amoretti) as well as The Sheapherds Calendar and The Faery Queen. For Drama, we just finished The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd which is slightly more bloody than any Shakespeare and the booklist gets more and more regicide-inal and terror-tastic. Interesting play though, all about revenge and justice and silence. Personification of revenge is always fun : ) The third class is French 2 (I didn’t get into the history class I was crashing about Espionage, but what are you going to do?) which I really like. My teacher is a French man named Hervé Le Mansec from a small town in north-eastern France. I’m really enjoying the class, though it’s the first time since high school that I’ve had homework I actually have to turn in on a regular basis. For all my lit and history classes it’s just “read this much by this time” or “essay due at this point”.
But yes, classes are going well. I think the biggest problem I’ve had is remembering to take the chicken out of the freezer for dinner early enough. There have been several late dinners to say the least. (Any quick and easy and cheap dinner recipes are greatly appreciated, by the way!)
I guess that’s all for now. I’m going to continue working on my paper for Spenser (this was my break!) so there you have it. Talk to you all soon. More later and all the jazz.
xoxoxox
All my love
-K
snail mail can be directed to:
UCSC Cowell College #243
301 McLaughlin Drive
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Calls can be directed towards:
510-381-0162
ORRRRRRRR
831-502-0559