One Day More

I have one day left in the first week. However, seeing as both classes tomorrow are recitations and have little to no material to go over, today feels more like Friday than Thursday. The second dynamics lecture today got into path-following coordinate systems and all that jazz. So far I have been able to follow along without much difficulty.

I still have yet to hear back from the professors I've emailed regarding, you know, access to the electronic materials. I purchased the reader for Introduction to Literary Studies, but I haven't the foggiest what I have to read from it for Tuesday. The same goes for Regelungstechnik. One of these days I need to sort out when and where the professors hold their office hours. Sadly, that information may very well be on the websites I need access to...

On a more positive note, the class I had feared most may turn out to be the most fun. Novellendichtung (Writing of Novellas) frightened me for a number of reasons. For one, it is bound to have lots of reading assignments of questionable difficulty for me. For another, I did not know how much novella writing of our own we would have to do. While I like creative writing, I am certainly nowhere near college level, at the very least not in German. Finally, how well could I follow and contribute to discussions? If I have no idea what the teacher says, I can hardly respond. However, once the teacher showed up (something delayed her by a good 15 minutes), my doubts started to dissolve. She spoke engagingly but clearly enough that I could follow her without effort. She explained that the class would have one major written assignment that we could work on from the third week up until the end. Usually I dislike having one large assignment over many smaller ones. Eggs and baskets and all that. However, one assignment means I will have the opportunity to ask for feedback and revise before the final submission. Silly linguistic mistakes will be easier to catch. As for my ability to contribute and to keep up with the reading, the girl sitting next to me allayed my fears on those fronts. She mentioned that she had found Aristotle's "Poetik" difficult to read. This was the first work in the Intro to Lit Studies Reader. I had taken a look at it earlier, and was definitely no walk in the park. However, I could get meaning from it. If she had found it tricky too, maybe there's hope for me yet.