Sunday, February 3, 2008

Spring Semester Starts
Japan: Studying abroad seems intimidating at first, but if you push yourself to get there I think you'll really enjoy it. :] It wouldn't hurt to look into the possibility, and check out the scholarships as well.

THE DEED HAS BEEN DONE. I finished filling out my study abroad application, wrote the 2 personal statements, got the 2 letters of recommendation, and got the language proficiency report from my Japanese professor, put it all together and turned it in to the Study Abroad Office on campus. Phew. Not as bad as I expected it would be overall, but it still took some time, and now I don't have to worry about anything until later this month when I find out whether I got accepted and to where. Wish me luck!

Spring Semester of my Junior year started last Monday, and the workload is in full session (I'm currently procrastinating). I'm back to taking just four classes, but these are basically at the peak of my college career:

-Psychology of Aggression and Antisocial Behavior - honestly, just seemed like an interesting class, and I needed upper level credits for my Psych major. The teacher is kind of unorganized when it comes to assignments, but he has a lot of experience going for him and makes the class pretty fun. We focus on psychopathology as it relates to aggressive behavior, so it'll probably expand on certain aspects of my Abnormal Psychology class that I took 2 years ago. The course consists of readings and 6 exams, pretty straightforward.

-Introduction to Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy - this is exactly where I need to be right now, since it covers my interests in graduate school and a career. It's cool because these first couple classes have been discussing graduate programs and the kinds of things schools look for in applicants. There may be some students who are just there to learn about psychotherapy and find this introduction irrelevant/boring, but I'm learning a lot about things that I'd otherwise have to do outside research on anyway. I've worked with the professor on minor research assignments, and he's cool. Textbook readings, article readings, 4 exams.

-Modern Philosophy - I tried to get into this class last year but it was full, and I tried to get into a different class this year (Metaphysics) but THAT was full, so here I am. lol Not that I'm complaining, since this is a required class and I've already taken Ancient Philosophy, so this is the next logical step. It's obviously a huge part of Western Philosophy in general, covering from Descartes up to Kant ("if we're lucky" >:O), and I know this information will come in handy for making sense of basically everything that came after it. The professor seems good so far, I think. Textbook reading, 2 exams, 1 optional paper (O.o).

-Intermediate Japanese I - the final Japanese class that my university offers, and the last one before I head off to Japan; damn right I'm going to take advantage of this one. We've had three courses before it to weed out those who weren't very serious or couldn't keep up with the massive and difficult workload, and now it's time to see who's really dedicated to the language.... we have 8 people in the class. There's tons of work, too, and it's only going to be harder than what came before. BRING IT ON! Hopefully the due dates will be relaxed, though. <.< Kanji quizzes, extensive book assignments from 3 texts, outside practice, 1+ page papers, and 4 exams. x_x

I think the best thing about this semester is that apart from Japanese, I don't have any mandatory papers at all! ^_^ I am planning on devoting less time to studying and more to socialization, which I can hopefully afford doing with these classes. haha :p

There's just one more thing I wanted to cover before I head off for another week or so. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure who reads this blog anymore, so I must avoid posting too much information for the time being. Valentine's Day is coming up, and just in time, too - I plan to have my interests "finalized" before then, and can celebrate the holiday this year without uncertainty or regret. The upcoming weeks are going to be rough, though. But I feel like I've boxed myself into a corner, because either way I'm going to wonder what the other path would have held. Plus, I'm an expert at making the wrong decision, so I may end up with something that doesn't work AND regretting what could have been. Bleh.

Syk3-OUT!
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