UMass Welcome week....

....more like Umess... boy, what a week! First of all, UMass managed to change my name somewhere along the administration process, so I am now officially Caroline.... after 25 years of telling people to cut the e.... -.- The real panic attack began last week friday, when I checked in with the English department to ask for some changes with my classes and learned that I wasn't actually registert for any class *what?!* Yeah, turns out, when Lurlene writes "pre-reg" on the registration forms, that doesn't actually mean pre-registered - it means that you have to provide some kind of extra information (usually a transcript or course descriptions of some sort) so that the department can place you. Didn't know that!

Here's a tipp for all future exchange students: contact your department and register for classes via the department to make sure you're actually registered!

So, yeah, I wasn't registered for any classes... Luckily, the woman in the English department's admission office, Lisa Greggo, is a godsent :) She helped me with all my classes and managed not to get annoyed by my slightly panicky attitude :) Naturally, as far as classes concerned, I can only speak for the English and the American Studies department...

I registered for an English400 class - oh boy! The class consists of no less than seven (and yes that's SEVEN) book, five movies (none of which are watched in class), four response papers, three essays and a final take home essay. And that's ONE class! Welcome to college.... BUT, on the bright side, the professor is insanely charming and he obviously loves these books, which makes reading them so much more fun :) And, man, that man can talk! Never thought I'd meet someone who can talk almost twice as fast as I usually talk... Kinda scary... ;)

My other classes are writing classes, an introduction to creative writing (which really is very creative - I love it already!) and a "professional writing" class, which is pretty much an entirely different thing :) The professor has been a journalist for most of his life, which is pretty cool to begin with. He takes his time with formulating assignments though, which is slightly exhausting, but I'm sure I can cope :) Those two classes aren't as reading-intense, but then again they are writing classes, so I'm gonna have to write A LOT this semester :) (not that that is usually a problem for me...)

And then I needed a fourth class. After shifting my classes around and getting rejected for classes that I had actually wanted to take (no advanced poetry workshop -.-) I searched through the list again and found "Independent studies" with the American Studies department. Now, normally, only American Studies majors can take this class (and I normally am, but I'm registered with the English department at UMass) BUT I talked to the head of the department and presented my research topic (yep, a western of course!) and she suggested one of her colleagues, who does not only love Liberty Valance but has actually studied under Leo Marx! How cool is that? So I wrote him, kept my fingers crossed, believed in my lucky charm and... he'll be my supervisor for my research! *yay* I can start working on my BA thesis while I'm here! AND get three credits for that! I am SO happy right now! So, once again, a seemingly horrible scenario turned out to be JUST what I needed! Go figure ;)