What I learned from winter term
March 14, 2009, 6:10 pm
French
I learned that good books in foreign languages are incredibly frustrating. We were struggling through Simenon's Le Chien jaune, and every time I got into the plot, I'd encounter a thick passage stuffed with complete nonsense. I kept having to stop reading and consult a dictionary.
Last term was Sartre's Les Jeux sont faits, which I didn't care for enough to look up all the words. It's an interesting idea, I guess, but eternal consciousness is really quite a terrifying prospect. Not to mention the thought of billions of dead people watching your every move.
Geography
I learned where Germany is. Yes, I'm serious. I'd always assumed I knew, but I was studying for the European map quiz - Finland is here, France is there, Croatia is where, etc - and when I got to Germany, there was a long, wretched pause. It might have been that smaller one down there (Austria) or possibly that bigger one over there (Poland) or perhaps it was hiding somewhere else entirely.
Epic geographical failure is something the (more or less) stereotypical American and I have in common. This scares me, which is why I took the class.
Health
I'm tempted to leave this one blank, just to make a point, but I did learn one interesting factoid: if you drink fruit juice, you will die an early death.
(The idea is that you don't feel satiated unless you chew, so by "drinking your calories", you become morbidly obese and have a cardiac arrest. Bit of a stretch, in my opinion, but who am I to argue?)
Math
I learned that I like differential equations. I haven't enjoyed a math class this much in years. Calculus was okay (would've been better if the Finnish prof had taught more of it :) and linear algebra was not exactly my cup of tea, but differential equations are cool and fun. Provided the engineers keep their messy Real World Applications to themselves.
Writing
I learned to spell "skwerl" as "squirrel". Then I forgot it again. I'm also working on forgetting to put punctuation inside quotes; it's a really bad habit for anyone who does any kind of scripting or programming… which happens to be my job. I'm sorry to pick and choose which rules to follow, but quoting punctuation is just bizarre.
Anyway, while researching the UK's red and grey skwerlz, I learned that black skwerlz are now threatening both other species. It's really getting to be a war zone over there.
And I learned that roadrunners are awesome (this video is epic), so I'm nominating them as Reason #1 for why people voluntarily inhabit the southern USA. Do let me know if you can offer any other explanation.
