For those of you who have never cut or peeled a butternut squash....it's harder than it looks.
I sit here waiting for my newest kitchen creation to simmer away--butternut squash soup. My flatmate in Norway, Jera, used to make some kind of soup with sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, apples...a whole bunch of stuff! I've really wanted to try to make something similar so tonight is one of my experiments.
I was happy to see my hugging blog (or posting it on facebook perhaps) prompted 30+ page views on Friday. Today I wanted to do a quick recap and give my impressions of my first week of classes.
Well, by Friday I was exhauuusted. I'm hoping it was just the first week (mind you only a 4 day week) and that it will get easier (though I probably will always be tired). Theory will probably be the first class to really kick my butt. My theory professor is actually quite fabulous and invited us to her apartment for a reading group today and it was very helpful. It's just dense material and takes a very, very long time to read. I should be used to that reading all that philosophy mumbo jumbo, right? Well..let's just say I need to make some improvements on the comprehension side of things. Anyway, right now we're making our way through Marx, who I am fond of actually, so it's going okay. We will see how well I am doing in stats tomorrow when we have our lab session and actually use the software. I don't think the class should be too difficult because I understand the concepts for the most part and it's really about getting the computer to do what you want it to. Tuesdays, which are my busy days), I have what we call prosem squeezed in between stats and theory. It's basically a mix between a how-to for professional sociologists and a Q&A therapy session. We also have to attend department workshops where we get to listen to someone else's research.
My last real class is a cross-disciplinary human rights class. It's on Friday afternoon right during my nap time, but I think it will be my favorite and most productive class. Because it's cross disciplinary we have a few people from the public policy school and one in the history department. There's only 6 or 7 of us, so it turns into insightful discussion where everyone can participate. Finally, I am participating in a journal editing seminar for credit, though it won't require as much time as an average class. The editor of the journal, Sociology of Education, is at the U and he gets a group of us together once a week to discuss his decision on a manuscript that's been submitted to the journal. I'm looking forward to learning more about what goes into submitting a manuscript for publication, what reviewers look for, etc.. By the way, there's also something called "The Society Pages" that is run at the University. It's a website that's aimed getting sociology to the public. There are a number of blogs on different topics, as well as something cool called "There's research on that!" where the writer discusses a topic that has been in the news recently and brings attention to studies that have been done on the subject. (For example, a section on the events in Ferguson includes links to research on policing black boys and the militarization of police. Check it out! http://thesocietypages.org/
Tomorrow I get to lead my first discussion section for the Intro to Sociology class I am TAing for. I'm pretty excited for it, but I know I'm going to be really nervous tomorrow morning. This week we're mainly just doing introductions and having a small discussion. I hope I'm not being overly optimistic about participation. I think back to my Elmira classes and sometimes for the professors it was like pulling teeth! I have two sections, one Monday and one Wednesday (at 8am!!!) so I'll get a chance to reevaluate after Monday's session.
Let me give you a quick picture of what it's like in the department and how things are situated. The first years all share an office on the 10th floor. The office is a pretty good size but there are 11 of us in there. Mind you, not everyone is there at the same time. On busy days maybe 6 or 7 would be in there together. It's not too difficult to focus if everyone is working, but often small conversations crop up and then it becomes near impossible. Usually people are in and out depending on what they have going on in the day. Sarah is hardly ever there because she has a research assistantship in the Population Center in a different building. Sociology takes up floors 9-11 and has some stuff on other floors. On 7, for example, there's the Teaching Resource Center. I take it there aren't usually many people in there so I've gone and read in there when I needed to focus. It also has a couch which is nice. Supposedly there's another study room on the 6th floor. The main office is on the 9th floor which is where my department mailbox is and the copy room. The lunch room is on the 10th floor right across from our office (both good and bad). We have a lot of our classes on the 11th floor in 1114. That's where all of the receptions tend to be held. It's gets a little old after a while, but there are only small, seminar sized classrooms in the social science tower. By the way, we do have a great view from that classroom on the 11th floor!
The U has a good system of tunnels and walkways which I am still figuring out. If I haven't said it before, one thing I've learned is to not go inside buildings unless you know where you're going or you're not in a hurry because you can get really turned around. The tunnel system is nice though and has signs so it's pretty easy to use. There is a tunnel from my building to the library and to the buildings that I TA in so really I never have to go outside if I don't want to. Hopefully I'll have it all figured out before I need to! To put it in perspective how small Elmira was and how big UMN is, at Elmira I could walk from one end of campus to the other in maybe 6 minutes. At the U it takes almost that long to walk across the bridge in between campuses.
Wow, this is getting long and my eyes are getting tired. One more thing. Last night I went to my first Major League Baseball game. Yes, I got to see a Twins game! It was a lot of fun and a perfect night for it. I ate some fried cheese curds (seems to be in replacement of mozzerella sticks here) and was happy. It was a pretty close game until right up to the last inning. The Twins didn't win but I did get to see a few home runs!
I hear a polar vortex is coming our way! Wish me luck!
P.S. For those of you who are curious, my roommate and I still get along splendidly :)
I sit here waiting for my newest kitchen creation to simmer away--butternut squash soup. My flatmate in Norway, Jera, used to make some kind of soup with sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, apples...a whole bunch of stuff! I've really wanted to try to make something similar so tonight is one of my experiments.
I was happy to see my hugging blog (or posting it on facebook perhaps) prompted 30+ page views on Friday. Today I wanted to do a quick recap and give my impressions of my first week of classes.
Well, by Friday I was exhauuusted. I'm hoping it was just the first week (mind you only a 4 day week) and that it will get easier (though I probably will always be tired). Theory will probably be the first class to really kick my butt. My theory professor is actually quite fabulous and invited us to her apartment for a reading group today and it was very helpful. It's just dense material and takes a very, very long time to read. I should be used to that reading all that philosophy mumbo jumbo, right? Well..let's just say I need to make some improvements on the comprehension side of things. Anyway, right now we're making our way through Marx, who I am fond of actually, so it's going okay. We will see how well I am doing in stats tomorrow when we have our lab session and actually use the software. I don't think the class should be too difficult because I understand the concepts for the most part and it's really about getting the computer to do what you want it to. Tuesdays, which are my busy days), I have what we call prosem squeezed in between stats and theory. It's basically a mix between a how-to for professional sociologists and a Q&A therapy session. We also have to attend department workshops where we get to listen to someone else's research.
My last real class is a cross-disciplinary human rights class. It's on Friday afternoon right during my nap time, but I think it will be my favorite and most productive class. Because it's cross disciplinary we have a few people from the public policy school and one in the history department. There's only 6 or 7 of us, so it turns into insightful discussion where everyone can participate. Finally, I am participating in a journal editing seminar for credit, though it won't require as much time as an average class. The editor of the journal, Sociology of Education, is at the U and he gets a group of us together once a week to discuss his decision on a manuscript that's been submitted to the journal. I'm looking forward to learning more about what goes into submitting a manuscript for publication, what reviewers look for, etc.. By the way, there's also something called "The Society Pages" that is run at the University. It's a website that's aimed getting sociology to the public. There are a number of blogs on different topics, as well as something cool called "There's research on that!" where the writer discusses a topic that has been in the news recently and brings attention to studies that have been done on the subject. (For example, a section on the events in Ferguson includes links to research on policing black boys and the militarization of police. Check it out! http://thesocietypages.org/
Tomorrow I get to lead my first discussion section for the Intro to Sociology class I am TAing for. I'm pretty excited for it, but I know I'm going to be really nervous tomorrow morning. This week we're mainly just doing introductions and having a small discussion. I hope I'm not being overly optimistic about participation. I think back to my Elmira classes and sometimes for the professors it was like pulling teeth! I have two sections, one Monday and one Wednesday (at 8am!!!) so I'll get a chance to reevaluate after Monday's session.
Let me give you a quick picture of what it's like in the department and how things are situated. The first years all share an office on the 10th floor. The office is a pretty good size but there are 11 of us in there. Mind you, not everyone is there at the same time. On busy days maybe 6 or 7 would be in there together. It's not too difficult to focus if everyone is working, but often small conversations crop up and then it becomes near impossible. Usually people are in and out depending on what they have going on in the day. Sarah is hardly ever there because she has a research assistantship in the Population Center in a different building. Sociology takes up floors 9-11 and has some stuff on other floors. On 7, for example, there's the Teaching Resource Center. I take it there aren't usually many people in there so I've gone and read in there when I needed to focus. It also has a couch which is nice. Supposedly there's another study room on the 6th floor. The main office is on the 9th floor which is where my department mailbox is and the copy room. The lunch room is on the 10th floor right across from our office (both good and bad). We have a lot of our classes on the 11th floor in 1114. That's where all of the receptions tend to be held. It's gets a little old after a while, but there are only small, seminar sized classrooms in the social science tower. By the way, we do have a great view from that classroom on the 11th floor!
The U has a good system of tunnels and walkways which I am still figuring out. If I haven't said it before, one thing I've learned is to not go inside buildings unless you know where you're going or you're not in a hurry because you can get really turned around. The tunnel system is nice though and has signs so it's pretty easy to use. There is a tunnel from my building to the library and to the buildings that I TA in so really I never have to go outside if I don't want to. Hopefully I'll have it all figured out before I need to! To put it in perspective how small Elmira was and how big UMN is, at Elmira I could walk from one end of campus to the other in maybe 6 minutes. At the U it takes almost that long to walk across the bridge in between campuses.
Wow, this is getting long and my eyes are getting tired. One more thing. Last night I went to my first Major League Baseball game. Yes, I got to see a Twins game! It was a lot of fun and a perfect night for it. I ate some fried cheese curds (seems to be in replacement of mozzerella sticks here) and was happy. It was a pretty close game until right up to the last inning. The Twins didn't win but I did get to see a few home runs!
I hear a polar vortex is coming our way! Wish me luck!
P.S. For those of you who are curious, my roommate and I still get along splendidly :)
No comments:
Post a Comment