End of Part 2

I'm struggling to overview this week in a few words, so here's what happened: On Sunday, I barely made it to church. I am really bad with directions to unfamiliar places, and missed a turn somewhere. By the time I got back on track, I had to deal with Iowa's strange one-way streets. I got in about 3 minutes prior to the start of the service, and ended up sitting in the back.

I've been a little frustrated with my Theory course. Many of the people in the class have more than the cursory knowledge that I remember from Lit Crit in undergrad, and they also like to use jargonish terms that really don't have much to do with the topics at hand. Milton is also a challenge, mostly because I'm unfamiliar with British history. Fortunately, the religious references are pretty straightforward. Native Lit is by far my favorite course. Our class generates great discussion, the readings are brilliant, and the prof has said that we have the potential to be her best class ever. Yay, positive reinforcement!

Outside of classes, I've started swing dancing and fencing lessons. Both are going to be a lot of fun. I'm particularly excited about swing dancing--it reminds me of the Dance, Etc. days with Erin and Jen. It would be fun to have a salsa class. I bet the university offers it in some capacity, but I have yet to see it advertised.

I live on the upper level of a two-story apartment series. The rooms are situated into a boxy C-shape, so there are four apartments on either side of a six-apartment line. There's a covered pathway that connects all the doors and leads to several sets of stairs, and a small sandbox and swingset in the middle of the "field." Sometime around 6:15 pm, the light hits the tree and apartments outside at an angle that makes everything glow golden.

There's a family of house sparrows living in the outside corner of my apartment. Their nest is wedged in, and inside, they chatter away to one another. Last week, a few days after I'd moved in, one of the baby birds was somehow pushed out of the nest and fell to the sidewalk. It didn't survive. All the birds have been less talkative since then.

We have another non-human resident: a little squirrel that I saw running up and down the pathway. At each door, he would stop, look upward and to the sides, and scramble quickly up and down the doors. Yes, he climbed up vertically. I think he was trying to see if the windows were open or whether the doorknobs would turn.

On the human side, a group of us seems to be bonding. I contend that we're the most social members of the cohort. Three of us are younguns--our group's median age is 23.5, but there's a 5-year gap between the oldest and youngest of us.

The oldest is "Gramps" (or "parrain," if you're Katelyn). He always seems to end up in the middle of verbal spats and inconsequential teasing, which he definitely enjoys. He's also convinced we think he's a creeper, which is not surprising. What's he doing with a bunch of naïve young things, anyway?

Kim is the first person I really talked to at UI. We met during our graduate orientation, and we immediately got along. She's Korean, and slightly older than I. She is really funny! Our group/clique? is compiling a quote book, and about half of the quotes are things she said.

Katelyn is from the South, which means that she 1) has a fantastic accent, 2) often says words I don't understand, and 3) has a bit of a different perspective on various things. She and Gramps are the two fighters of the group. It's fun to watch.

Fazmo is also from Southern California! I was super excited to discover this fact. He went to undergrad at the same school my parents attended for grad school. Talk about coincidences! We had another party-thing last night at his place, and he made guacamole and quesadillas.

Kelly is the last of the group. He lives in my apartment complex, which is really helpful because it means we can carpool and sometimes get on the same bus. Of everyone in the group, I think his perspectives are most similar to mine, but that's just a early observation.

We missed Gramps this weekend, since he decided to be aware of his heritage and fly off to Oklahoma for a convention. Fortunately, we don't have classes on Labor Day (the first free Labor Day I've had in 4 years!), so we're thinking of having another shindig on Sunday. I'll probably bring CatchPhrase again. I changed the batteries today, since they were really weak when we played last night.

This post has gone all over the place, without very good transitioning. Now I suppose I'll continue the trend of disjointedness and end it abruptly.