On The First Day of Classes...

College is a very new experience for most (if not all) first years at UVM. The first night on campus and the last night before classes start were, for me at least, tense. I stayed up too late and got up way too early. I went to my first class at 2 pm (rough, I know. I really had a hard time keeping my head off the desk), and I didn't know what to expect.

Here's what I expected from my first day of French class: Go to class. Be too early (I am freakishly paranoid about being late). Listen to a lot of boring talk about the syllabus. Leave. Perform a small amount of homework.

Here's what happened: Went to class. Was way too early for class (35 minutes early!). Tried to listen to a lot of talk about the syllabus and the class (but the professor spoke English only once. To make a point.). Left the class. Wrote a 150 word essay, read 7 pages in a book in French and performed a long survey about my views on writing and an exercise on how to translate the word "way" in its many diverse meanings as well as tricky English idioms into French.

As if that weren't enough, French was quickly followed by English. The professor seems a bit odd upstairs, but the class ought to be alright. We are all participating in writing blogs, as a long-running project. We are hoping to explore what the word "Literature" actually applies to. Professor Parent promises that we won't come to any real answer. At first that might seem to make the class into a giant waste of time/money, but sometimes the most important questions don't have absolute answers, right?

You might be curious (but are probably not) about the professor. Yeah, he really is odd. He's odd like the number 7. Here's a picture:

Yeah, I do know what you're thinking. I thought it too. It's true.