Back to School!

Actually, I was thinking of the movie Finding Nemo, when Nemo was excitedly saying, "First day of school! First day of school!"

I took this at the University of Iowa last Saturday when Livie, Andrew, and I headed to campus to buy this semester's text books. It's the Old Capitol building (where Iowa made its first Capitol). Now the Capitol is Des Moines.

Today, I head back to the University of Iowa for my third semester. I'm getting a graduate degree in English, and hopefully a graduate certificate in Native American Studies.

This semester, I'm focusing solely on Native American classes: "Native Peoples of North America," which has a "lecture" class on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and where I'm headed this afternoon), and a "discussion" class on Mondays (but since yesterday was Martin Luther King day, we're starting the semester today). These classes meet Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays for 50 minutes each. My other class is "Native American Women and Religious Change," which meets on Wednesdays for 2.5 hours.

I tried my best to get morning classes like my previous two semesters, so I could be in school when Liv is in school. But that didn't work out. All of my classes this semester are in the afternoon after Liv gets out of school. Since it's a bit of a commute to Iowa City (45 minutes one way, not including time to park and walk across campus to my classes' buildings), I will have to leave before she gets out. That means Andrew will have to adjust his work schedule so he's getting in early, allowing him to leave early for Liv.

I'm looking forward to the subjects I'm studying this semester. But since they're not English classes, I'm not sure exactly what to expect, and therefore, I'm kinda nervous. I'm good at the "read a lot of literature, then write a lot papers" aspect of English/Literature classes. So to take an anthropology class and a religion/women's studies class . . . well, we'll see. Since they're both Native American Studies classes, I'm very interested, so I'm sure I'll do well, nonetheless.

Anyway, for those of you "regulars," you may have noticed that I've been posting more regularly . . . okay, daily, since January 1st. I hadn't originally planned on a daily thing, since the "a post or two, every few days" route seemed to work for me. But by January 4th, when I realized I'd already accomplished a post a day, I figured I'd see how long I could keep it up. That is . . . until the start of the semester. It was a fun goal while it lasted.

So this first week, I may be able to do a few more "daily" posts back to back. But since I'm not taking English classes this semester, I'm not sure how the work load will be, so we'll see. I will definitely go back to a few posts a week, so I'll still be publishing posts. Just not daily. 

Now I'll sign off with a couple more photos from on (and around) campus. 

The view from the steps of Schaeffer Hall - snowy and sunny. The bookstore where Andrew got some of his books is across the street (hidden from view by those trees). There are a number of other book stores on and around campus, though.

This is near the Bluebird Diner, where we ate lunch on Saturday. I snapped this photo because I liked the look of this old tree against the blue sky.