A new semester

So the first week of classes of my last semester is over. As is the first weekend (pretty much). It is Monday, MLK jr. day, and we actually don't have classes for the first time since I've been at Denison! We usually have our three day weekend the week after the actual holiday, which is a bit silly. Anyways, this will mostly just be a brief retrospect of my initial impressions of my classes.

Vertebrate Zoology is ok so far. Nothing too exciting, and I think that it will be a fairly easy class. Our review paper (which is our major paper for the semester) only has to be 5-6 pages. The hardest part will be keeping it to 6, because we'll get POINTS OFF for going over. AHHH!!! I ALWAYS end up going over. Labs should be fun once we get our group project going. Meg, Liz, and I are doing a small mammal survey. Liz and I scouted out some locations in the Bio Reserve, and we'd like to do a "disturbed" location as well, most likely on campus or possibly at Dr. Frolking's.

Plant Systematics feels a bit strange at the moment. I guess I'm just not used to Dr. Hauk's teaching style. Class is laid back, but in a strange way. Maybe it's because it's just after lunch. Or possibly because it's in the same room as Animal Behavior and I sit at the stupid little "island" of tables in the middle of class. And it's moving a bit slow. I certainly don't know much about plants, but I DO know about phylogenies and I don't think we needed to spend so much time on them. The textbook is just so detailed, and the difference between that and the very watered down lectures (so far) is a little jarring. I think it will start to get fun when we learn more details about how to identify plant families and such.

Mapping only meets two days a week, and that is definitely a good thing. Our main "textbook" is basically an instruction manual for ArcGIS. It's dull. And our first little intro lab was also pretty dull. I think that the class will be boring, but at the end when I realize how much I can do with ArcGIS I'll be happy I took it. Besides, it's a good skill to possess.

Painting is going to be my most time consuming class, I think, but in a relaxing way. It'll be a little challenging to find large enough blocks of time to work (at least 2 hours at a time is probably needed). Today I only worked for an hour, but I also finished the painting that I was working on (a box still-life, painted in grey scale). In some ways I'm glad that I "waited" until senior year to take Painting. It's a nice change of pace. So is Mapping, actually, as it's pretty much a computer class and much more practical than other classes I've had. Having those two classes is nice, since last semester I had research and three science classes (physics, biochem, and wetland eco). I'd gotten into such a science routine, it's good to break free of that comfort zone a little bit.