The Wonderful World of Anthropology

I'd have to say the best decision that I have made in a long time was to switch my major. It's refreshing to actually enjoy the class that you are in and be interested in what you are learning, not because you want to pass the class so you can move onto the next class that you are dreading, but because you genuinely care about what the professor is talking about.

Yesterday was the first day of all my new classes for this quarter. It's always an interesting day no matter what the classes are because it's guaranteed your professors are going to be amazing people in one way or another whether it's because of their life achievements or their wacky sense of style and demeanor. Let me walk you through my professors....

Class 1 9:00 am
teacher strolls in a few minutes late, looks like he just came from an archaeological dig somewhere judging by the flopping full brimmed hat, cargo pants, and long sleeved casual button up with sleeves rolled to the elbows allowing for more fluid strikes with the shovel. I realize that something is missing from his ensemble when he walks to the side of the classroom. Rather than some good hiking boots to go with the motif he is BAREFOOT! No lie! I find this strange until he addresses the fact that he does not prefer to wear shoes, then I somehow accept it and move on. Nice guy nonetheless. The class has 16 people in it!!! Mind you I am used to about 400.

Class 2 1:00 pm
Same teacher... I have never had the same teacher twice in a semester, apparently there is a shortage of anthro professors. Surprisingly he was wearing some flip-flops during this class for some reason. This class was actually my largest, I estimated about 70 students, could be less, and most likely will become less. For both classes he has the books available at the hippy, student run bookstore rather than the normal one. They are supposed to be cheaper, but I didn't really notice a difference. I did notice however, that they do sell vegan condoms at this store. enough said.

Class 3 2:00 pm
ran to the next class in 10 min. made it. This here was my absolute favorite class. Anthro of Aging. Really nice lady teaching the course. She got her Ph.D at Harvard in bio anthro and taught at UCSD starting in '88 for a couple years then taught for several years at the Medical School. I really enjoy her. She is enthusiastic about the subject and has a passion for learning even still. Taking a look at the syllabus, to my disgust, I saw there was a term project. Immediate panic set in, would we have to present it?!! I couldn't handle waiting for her to mention it. I mean a paper i could handle, but what did project mean? The funny thing is I can't wait to do it now! We have to interview someone who is 65 or older. It's going to be easy and fun and G. Miller is definitely going to be my choice of interviewie.

Class 4 5:00 pm
Paige can appreciate that he wrote the "Very Short Introduction" book that they have that awesoeme rack of little books of at Borders. If anyone hasn't checked them out, you should. You can learn about any subject from dinosaurs to certain religions to philosophy and psychology. They have soooo many subjects and I guess professors and things wrote them, which I never really thought about. Obviously my teachers is the Anthropology one. So anyway he is an englishman in his probably 60's with a thick accent and he is a visiting professor from George Washington University in DC. He also works at the Smithsonian. He said that since it was CA he expected infomality and dogs. so "if we had a dog, feel free to bring him along." Haha..I thought that was funny. I'm glad to see the reputation that CA has on the east coast.

Other than an ASSload of reading that I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with, I think it is going to be a really amazing quarter and i am looking forward to learning!