And here goes Week #2

I don't have any fun pictures, but I thought I'd update anyway. And I'm waiting for my pizza pie to heat up in the toaster oven.

I made it through week 1! Now for week 2; and as Garfield so eloquently put it, I already have a "metric fuck-ton" of reading to do this week. I turned in my first graded essay, and I feel pretty good about it. Let's hope that good feeling gets validated with a good grade, because my confidence could use it.

I'm feeling happy here, like this is where I'm supposed to be. (Hopefully that feeling survives the winter. It's already raining like every other day. I'm starting to notice that I'm not in California anymore . . . )

Okay, here are some details about where I am and what this is all about:

It's bizarre being at a small, elite private school. The University of Chicago's unofficial slogan is: "Where fun comes to die." The professors didn't mention it when I came out to visit in April, but now that we're here, *everybody's* talking about it. They say it's true, there's a generally masochistic student culture here that enjoys running themselves into the ground for the sake of intellectual progress. And you can sense it in the atmosphere; I don't remember so many people surviving off of coffee and cigarettes at UCLA . . . A lot of the students have this uniform avant-garde, emo, tortured intellectual look/vibe going on. I've been making friends with the normal, non-pretentious people.

I'm determined to conquer the odds and leave UofC not only with a Masters but also being in generally good health.

I also learned yesterday that Hyde Park turned into total projects in the 50's, so the university basically bought the whole neighborhood, tore it down, and didn't let poor people come back. Those poor people though still live to the west across Washington Park and to the South past campus. Apparently some people are still pissed at UofC over this. (I apologize for coming across glib. I'm too tired to get dramatic and overly concerned.)

Anyway, I'm excited about being here for grad school. It's got a very focused vibe, everyone seems to be working on the same page, and I think that's a great environment for me at this point in my studies. There's a *big* emphasis on high quality writing and argument structure here, so they're already molding us for that. I need that kind of discipline, so I'm into it.

I have this thing called a precept group - it's a discussion section for fall quarter for our core course, then it's our thesis writing workshop in winter and spring. It's led by a precepter, who's a veryvery advanced Ph.D. student. My precepter is named Nate Wolff, and I really like him. There are 11 other people in my precept group, and I also really like them - there's one girl who's quite socially awkward and another guy that is maybe a little too 'emo'/alternative to be my b.f.f., but in general we all get along very well. Today I had a chat with one of my preceptees about how unpleasant long distance can feel with our significant others, and how fun it is staying up late, like, every night on the phone.

Oh, speaking of, I can make that my picture for this post:

Video chatting. Kind of awesome, kind of not.

This is Garfield and me video chatting on Friday night. Video chat is *waaaaay* better than just talking on the phone, but it's kind of torturous, feeling close but not. Anyway, Garfield and I are awesome and we're learning to rock the video chat. We had a pancake breakfast together this Saturday, which was really quite fun.

Juliano is making friends at the park. We found a place where people let their dogs off leash [illegally, of course]. I'm trying to teach Juliano to stop chasing squirrels at top speed, but otherwise he's stellar and sprints like a mad man all over the park, just for the sake of running.

My apartment is great. I'm happy I'm living with just Juliano.

Juliano's still super cute. Another one of my preceptees, Elana, has a dog, Jake, that's nicknamed Small Dog - and Juliano's Little Dog! I think this is a cosmic connection :) We're gonna have a dinner/play date soon. I think I get to bring Juliano to discussion section too - TBD, I'll keep you posted.

I'm swimming regularly already and done yoga a couple of times. Their indoor pool is *great* - I think it's a non-chlorine pool - and the Masters team is chill.

Those are the basics, I think! Oh, I registered for classes today, and this is what I've got:

1. The MAPH [MA Program in the Humanities - that's the program I'm in] core course - Intro to Critical Theory
2. Latin American Chronicles - it's looking at journalistic accounts of Latin America
3. Intro to Cultural Policy

UofC has a tradition for heavily 'shopping' for classes week 1, so next week I'll be shopping two or three more classes. Hopefully I won't have to change.