absent.canadian

Chaucer

I start my Chaucer class at NCSU tomorrow, and I’m pumped!  This will be my first senior-level class and I’m expecting a lot of work … but I’m also expecting some great discussions and assignments.

Am I a nerd for looking forward to school so much?  It’s ironic … in my first stint in university back in 1993, I couldn’t wait to get out and start working.  Now that I work full-time, I can’t wait to be back in school.  And isn’t there some relevant old saying about green grass that applies to this? 

I’ve also had my first really negative buying experience with half.com.  I always buy my textbooks online, as I believe university bookstores are a ridiculous monopoly that exist only because of student apathy and laziness.  I ordered both textbooks on half.com back in the second week of December; one arrived within a few days, but the other book is still outstanding, and the seller is not responding to my inquiries.  I’m sure I’ll be able to get a refund, but it still leaves me sans textbook.  I’ll swing by Barnes and Noble tonight to see if I can get it through them; otherwise I’ll have it expedited through Amazon.com (and it’ll still be cheaper than buying it from the university ripoff department, AKA the bookstore).

… but a good one.

I just wrote my final exam for my “History of the English Language” class.  And let it be known that this was the hardest class I have ever taken; a cornucopia of ridiculously long (and cryptic) readings, assignments that took me into the darkest corners of linguistics, grammar and phonetics, and perhaps the most complicated binder of notes that I’ve ever taken (now comb-bound for posterity). I refilled my sturdy Pelikan 250 no less than five times for this class and burned through six legal pads …

… and I scored an A on my term paper.  And not just a wimpy “yes, you’re a good student and I want to get you out of my face” A, but a “holy crap, you put a lot of time and effort into this and you deserve to glow” A.

Of course, I won’t know my final course grade until next week … so I’m praying … and in the meantime I’ll be accepting congratulatory gifts (preferably expensive ones).

One more thing … before the professor came into the classroom, I wrote the following on the whiteboard:

“English Kicks Æ”.

Leave a comment if you get it.  Or if you don’t and want to get it.  Or if you don’t care.

Editor’s note (12/18/2008): I did, in fact, get an A in this course.  And the nature order of the universe remains peaceful for yet another semester.