Good Morning! Today is Thursday and I am very happy that the 3-day weekend is near! I have a lot of fun things planned, but I also hope that I can take this long weekend and put it to good use by getting ahead on some of my work. I love my major and I love my schedule this semester, but MAN, I have a lot of books to read. They all either are really great or have the potential to be great. And with that I will tell you all about my classes and my semester thus far.
My schedule is great; I mean I really cannot complain. My M-days are wonderful. I have Powered Flight and Film Studies. THAT IS IT! I am finished every day by 12:30-1:00! Here's a breakdown of these classes and what I am actually doing in them.
AM-420 (Powered Flight): This "class" (not sure if you can even call it that because in my opinion it is way more than a class and it is so much fun or it will be so much fun as soon as I get to fly) is all about learning how to fly a military aircraft. I have it M1-3, so I wake up at 5 a.m. to put on my wonderful flight suit, aka pjs, catch the bus, and come to the airfield. Once my class gets here, we have a briefing at 6:30 a.m. This briefing consists of the current weather, NOTAMS (Go Dad!), stand-up and emergency procedures, and general knowledge. Every day one of the AM-420 students stands up in front of the class and instructor pilots (IPs) and completes an emergency procedure. So, I pretty much have to stand up and go step-by-step through a procedure as if I were flying the airplane (on a solo flight) and something happened. Hopefully I do well and get "Thank You, you can take a seat" and not "Sit Down!" The first response means I've done well; the second response means it probably did not go well at all. Once that is completed, we have our individual briefings with our IPs and then head out to the airplane to begin our adventure. The only problem thus far is it is lesson 5 and I haven't flown yet. The first 4 lessons everyone was grounded because of wind. If you know anything about Colorado and USAFA right now, we have been blasted with wind. I'll save that story for another day, though. The other reason why I haven't been able to fly is because I am waiting on my aeronautical orders (AO). This is just a medical form from the flight surgeon saying that I can fly. Needless to say, the flight surgeon and flight medicine here are lazy and my appointment is this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Hopefully, I will be cleared for takeoff and can set to the skies over Colorado on Tuesday!
The Cirrus T-53A that I will be learning to fly!
The view on the first morning of AM-420! 5 a.m. wake-up will be well worth it!
Fine Arts 375, Film Studies: This class is just what the title says. We study films! My teacher, Dr. Vargish, is one of the coolest instructors in the English Department. He taught me for my William Faulkner class and is just like your really cool and awesome grandpa! Anyway, he chose the theme for the class to be Travesty. So, we will be studying films that have something to do with travesty. We will also try to answer the question of "Is travesty a genre?" The films that we are watching are
Belle de Jour, Blood Simple, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Snatch, Inglorious Basterds, In Bruges, and
Seven Psychopaths. My book for this class, while expensive, is really cool. I am very excited about this class even though these films might not be films that I would pick up right away.
My T-days are a bit fuller, but not that bad. I have 4 classes. I begin at 9:30 a.m. and am finished by 2:30 p.m. Again, I feel like I can't really complain. I have British Literature II, Contemporary Literature, Creative Writing, and Music in History. Here's a little bit about these classes.
English 344, British Literature II: This class covers British Literature from the end of the 18th century to present day. Yes, that's right; that's about 230 years worth of literature! I am looking forward to "The Importance of Being Ernest" by Oscar Wilde probably because I love the film with Reese Witherspoon in it. This class has kind of gotten off to a bumpy start, though. My instructor loves poetry and all we've done for the first 5 lessons is talk ALL about poetry. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate poetry, but we haven't really followed the syllabus and I can never actually plan ahead for the class. I am hoping that the class gets better in a few lessons.
English 385, Contemporary Literature: I love this class! The books are all memoirs, which are a favorite of mine, and the teacher is great. He told us that he doesn't really care about grades (I mean, I still care about my grade), but that he really wants us to read and write because we want to and because we enjoy it! OH MY GOODNESS! There is actually a teacher out there that thinks that?!? I love to read and I love to read the majority of the things that I am assigned, but it is great to know that there are some teachers that still keep these things in mind. We started this class with "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls and it is great. Some of the story is very sad, but overall it is a fabulous book! The next memoir on our list is "All Over But the Shoutin'" by Rick Braggs. This will take us to the deep South (Yay!). I am starting that book this evening!
English 375, Creative Writing: This class is taught by the same instructor that teaches Contemporary Literature. Again, he wants us to write because we want to write. I am a bit nervous about this class because I have never really written a story before and I've heard that he has and will rip stories to pieces when we have to read them in class. He is very encouraging and motivating in this class, but also warns us against writing a bad story. Some of my ideas for my first story include a love story between two people named Kimberley and Stephen and a story about a first time cat owner. We'll see how these come out.
Fine Arts 358, Music in History: Ah, music! We begin this class in the Baroque period with Vivaldi and Bach and move forward to the present. We are mainly looking at how the music was created, how the music was affected by history and culture, and how to identify this music. This is another class that I love! The music is all very good and some of it I have heard before. For example, I had heard Vivaldi's Spring Movement 1, but didn't know that was the piece's name at the time. We also listened to the organ piece that is most common in horror films. I am sure you'd know it if you heard it. This class will be fun and an adventure through time!
Finally, I have an independent study class. This class is just me and an instructor of my choice. I created the syllabus and assignments for the course and it was finalized by the English Department. My class is on Jane Austen. I am not sure what the title would be, but I am focusing on all her novels and the impact that they have had on several generations. Plus, I decided to incorporate all of the film adaptations. Because there has been such an impact of her novels on all generations, there are several film adaptations. I am looking at continuity from the books and how directors interpreted her work to put them on the silver screen. I chose to go in chronological order, so I am currently on "Sense and Sensibility." I am part of the way through the book and will be watching the film this weekend to discuss in class next week. My class only meets once a week, so it is really all on me to make sure that I do the work that I'm supposed to do. It is very exciting and in the end I think it will be very rewarding.
Okay, I think I've written enough. This is my life thus far. For my last semester of undergraduate school, it is not too bad. For today, though, I am just waiting for takeoff.
Until next time!
Lindsey :)
Here's to working hard this last semester and getting to pilot training!
