School Daze

Today is my third day of school-I can't believe I haven't been able to blog about it yet! Okay, I can believe-I have been so swamped. After having to sell the truck to catch up bills, I am now traveling public-transportation style which, let's be honest, is not terribly efficient. I leave home at 11am for my 2pm class on Mondays and Wednesdays, get out of class at 4pm, and don't get home until 6:30pm. On Thursdays the travel is even worse-I have to leave home at 7:30am in order to make my 10am class, which goes until 12:20. Then I have my last class from 4pm to 6:50 and I didn't get home until 9pm yesterday. Public transit is smelly, uncomfortable, unnecessarily time consuming, and expensive (I am spending $7/day just to get to and from school) but it definitely has one thing for it-it STILL beats the heck out of walking.

The good news is that my classes have been totally worth it. On Mondays and Wednesdays I have a Philosophy of Religion class and I have to say it is my very favorite so far. The class is done in open discussion style, so it's more a meeting-of-the-minds than a lecture of any kind. The professor does pick the topics of course, but the ones that he picks are very interesting. In my first class on Monday we talked about religion vs spirituality, dogma vs tradition vs “freestyle” religion, the nature and explanation of religious experiences, and the unifying theories between major religions. This class is the candy store of debate junkies. I am going again today and I am so excited to find out what we're going to be doing this class. I know that we are going to be getting one of our four assignments (we only have four papers for this class-no tests, quizzes, midterms, finals, or bookwork) and I am actually excited to find out what I get to write a paper on...I just worry that he won't read the whole thing! The standard for these papers is 700 words-I write more than that in most of my blog posts! (This one is already 358 words not including this sentence.)

Yesterday I started Political Science-American Government and History and Algebra I. My PS class was so great. It is a lot of work-I have to read one newspaper and watch one news cast every day, in addition to reading two chapters every week, doing bookwork every night, and doing a giant project due by midterm (collect, summarize, and analyze 11 media sources as they report a breaking news story). Still, I love Political Science (that's why I'm majoring in it) and my professor is great. He is so passionate about the subject and though others may consider him a little abrasive, I like the fire that he brings to his lectures and the ideas that he introduces. We get to talk about the Constitution next class which is kind of “my area” and I can't wait!

My Algebra class was really not bad at all. Actually, it's pretty much identical to the one I took in high school, only a little harder and it goes a little faster. I'm glad for the review (so that I don't get totally lost in the upper level classes), and I'm glad to have ANY math class that is going to be easy for me. I finished my first homework assignment last night in 5 minutes and I am going to turn it into his box early just because that makes me look snazzy. I need to make a good impression on the faculty now so that it will benefit me later when I take math classes in which I have no idea what I'm doing!

I really can't explain how much I am loving school. I do hate being away from Hubby (poor, poor Hubby who is just destroyed by having to work graveyard shift and then watch the kids all day) and from our little kidlets. I didn't even SEE Baby Bug yesterday as she was still asleep when I left and had gone to bed before I got home, and things like that really rip me apart. Still, I know that getting a well paying, stable career is what's best for us all in the long run, and I still have the weekends. In the end I am fully convinced that this experience will be worth all the trouble-even if I have to ride the smelly, expensive bus for six more years.