8 posts tagged “maryland”
Great class tonight, a lot of engaging discussions. Many of the students in this sociology course I'm in arrive early and leave a few minutes after the scheduled class ending time. So you can tell it's an interesting class. Our instructor is from Kenya, and he's been educated in London and Paris, so he has an endless wealth of knowledge and a more global perspective to share with us. I'm glad of that. I truly think that every college professor should not only have a requirement to be degreed, but they should also have had to spend a significant amount of time outside of the country. We need more instructors like this that cause us to think and really explore the world around us rather than doling out the conservative drivel of textbooks that tell us what to think.
Earlier, in the University of Maryland student cafe inside the main library, I wrote this rant centered around an assignment that I perceived was due today. Then, I later found out from a classmate that my assignment was not due until NEXT Monday --- whoops.
"So much for getting my first short assignment done for my class. I was sure that I had plenty of time today. However, I guess I have now learned both a better version of patience and to plan ahead more than I did.
The assignment was simple -- to use our textbook and two other introductory sociology textbooks, take the definition of sociology from each and then write a short bit about what school of sociology we think the author of the book hails from, according to how each definition was worded. However, we couldn't use any sources online, which is the avenue I would have chosen had I had the choice. I thought I'd just use the entire day Monday, since I was already off, to accomplish this. A whole day? Plenty of time, right? I'd sleep in and just hop on over to the University of Maryland's library since the one in Greenbelt, Maryland, where I live was closed.
I didn't count on a lot of things, like how long it would take me to get around on campus -- finding parking and figuring out the lay of the land. I couldn't make a copy of the book without a copy card. Well, in order to get the copy card, I had to buy one, which was $1 (minus the amount you then need to load onto the card in order to make copies and perform print jobs). However, as seems to be my lot in life, I was armed with credit cards only, and the machine would not accept them. I headed back over to the Stamp Student Union, from whence I had just come, to locate an ATM and withdraw money. Back and forth and around and around it seems I went to navigate so much just to accomplish a small few tasks.
Then, it turns out, in a university of this size and stature, there was only one -- count it ONE -- introductory sociology text in the entire library. The librarian told me they didn't generally carry textbooks.
So that was great news. I knew they didn't carry them in the Borders or Barnes and Noble types of bookstores any more than this library did, because I'd already combed through the stores throughout the week. So where does one find a sociology textbook then without buying one?
I'm going to arrive early and discuss this with my instructor today, but this is a really frustrating beginning to my studies.
Also, I was disheartened to discover that University of Maryland University College students are not offered access to the UMD wireless network, to which there are over 200 points on campus. We use the facilities and attend classes here, but we cannot access the wireless when we need to get on the Internet and do some research in the library. I find this very disconcerting. Even when I offered to pay for an account, I was told that the option is not even available.
One thing I believe about student life -- is that nothing is set up to be inexpensive or easy. It's as if college is not just about taking classes and showing your smarts but navigating many annoying, inconvenient levels of bureaucracy, paperwork and the lack of common sense, as if in a video game, to see who can remain patient and keep her wits about her.
I am already tired and my class begins at 7 p.m. and lasts another three hours. I hope to discover I wasn't the only one who had pains locating enough textbooks for our assignment. I guess we will see.
On the up side, I have my bearings better. I now have a clue as to where the Stamp Student Union is in relation to the McKeldin Library. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to glimpse the campus during daylight hours, and when I drove around at night before, I succeeded in nothing more than getting lost.
So at least I won't feel like such a lost soul. I'm now debating whether I might benefit better from just taking courses online from now on, to save myself the hassle of beating feet all over campus just to accomplish the things I need to do, to avoid the freezing cold commutes to Marie Mount Hall where my classes are held. But I'm afraid I'd let myself off the hook too much were I to just have my classroom contained within the framework of my laptop, which I could choose to open at will or not. Plus, the time-consuming walks from place to place have got to add to my daily exercise quota, right? That's got to be good.
Long evenings, costs, frustrations -- I guess without these things college just wouldn't be college, would it now? Besides, there are many other people who have undergone this process and lived to tell about it. I'm sure I can too, and that I will come out wiser and with gobs more patience than I ever dreamed of acquiring."
So, as you can see, I was very excited to find out I had another week on the assignment. I guess if I'd kept up with my syllabus and actually referred to it, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache today.
I called AAA and thanked my lucky stars I finally signed up for it for the first time in my life two weeks ago. There must have been a reason.
They are going to come out and assess it, but they say if they cannot pull it from off of the snow without damaging their vehicle or mine, they can refuse to do it. Then I don't know what my options are if no one will tow it. I'm guessing I will have to call around and see who does snow removal? Not sure. Even in Wyoming this never happened to me.
Anyway, enjoy the pic as I wallow in this freak incident of a morning : ) Jen
In the wee hours this morning, as small flakes of the white crap began to fall and hurriedly try to outpace my avoidance of it... as I was screeching my way around corners to get to work in my car (okay, maybe that's overly dramatizing it, but my fervor to get to the Greenbelt Metro station at breakneck speed was very near teetering on the verge of being a tad insane)... I was listening to The Writer's Almanac on NPR (via WAMU), narrated by Garrison Keillor.
One quote that struck me as being very meaningful and very nearly summing up the very reason for life was by Galway Kinnell, an author whose name I'd never heard before today: "Maybe the best we can do is do what we love as best we can." I believe the writer Willa Cather once said something along those same lines.
Once I got through the fiasco of beating the clock, which is a usual occurrence for me, all was well in my micro-corner of the world. Our company is taking us to lunch at the nearby Asia Bistro and picking up the tab today, and I'm on my third book in the past few weeks, somehow miraculously being able to carve out more time for reading. I'm now a chapter into "French Women Don't Get Fat," by Mireille Guiliano, what promises to be a trendy, European, no-nonsense approach to not just a diet but a way of life by appreciating and incorporating food as pleasure without shouldering the burden of constant guilt.
So far I find most interesting how she opines that French ladies don't feel they have to spend every waking moment obsessing over their diets and bringing them up in conversation. Instead, they talk more about their passions in life and love. I think Americans could take a lesson from the French, although most of us won't admit to it.
I'm proud to be an American, but, for me, it does not border on religious zealotry, something I think has become a problem in this country. It is one thing to be proud of your country and support it but another to try to say a life lost by that of another nationality is not as valuable just because it does not bleed "red, white and blue."
I believe our values in this country are seriously mixed up. I was appalled yesterday when I was switching channels and came across Country Music Television and heard the words of a song by Lynyrd Skynyrd called "Red White and Blue." An excerpt from the song goes: "That's where were [sic] at. If they don't like it, they can just get the HELL out!" I took the "they" the band speaks of to be either liberals, foreigners or both.
This is basically the attitude of many people I've experienced in rural areas like where I grew up. We live in this great country, so that we have the freedom to express our opinions, and that's great. But more of what we express seems to be hatred toward those who are different. There seems to be a disconcerting upsurge in it lately. Look at our recent celebrities feeling okay with hurling slurs at race and sexual orientation.
So I'm going to express my opinion here: People, we will not get anywhere by separating ourselves from the rest of the world, by not signing the Kyoto Treaty and by being the pompous, rude, self-centered, I-don't-need-to-learn-your-stupid-language type of American when we travel. This is a global world.
Terrorism is a real threat, and, yes, we do have to protect our country and do something about it, but there is a whole wide world out there, and I am constantly astonished by how many people function as if we are cast members of the Truman Show who have no awareness of anything outside of certain boundaries. Or, if we do, we have limited knowledge of it and just ignorantly assume it's all inferior.
I am a soldier. I love my country. I love my country and the ground of it beneath my feet. I love the people I know who defend it "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." But I cannot condone unwarranted hatred bred of ignorance nor function within the realm of such an insular manner of living.
Basically, I believe, above that, we in this world are all one people connected under one Universe, and we share some rudimentary things in common: All of us would like to continue breathing the same air under the same blue sky in the same (hopefully) continuing existence of an environment.
I am glad I learned the easy way that you cannot share your SmartTrip card, or for that matter, any farecard purchased for use on the Washington D.C. Metro system, with another person. I was with a friend the other night, headed to Dupont Circle, who didn't usually use the Metro. I figured we'd just use my card so as to save time and money. It seemed perfectly logical to me, only having been a two-month resident in the D.C. area, my first ever experience with living in a congested urban area using public transit on a regular basis. But my friend seemed to think otherwise, so just to allay our confusion, I checked with a Metro employee. The stern looking black lady looked at me as if I was on crack and immediately replied, "Everyone must have his or her own fare."
Silly me. I would honestly not have known, and someone probably would have started yelling at me when I attempted, or maybe the system wouldn't even have let my friend through anyway, saving me the embarrassment of that - not sure, but glad I don't have to find that out the hard way. I was just going to use my card to get through the turnstile and then hand it over to my friend and thought nothing of it.
It was a gray, drizzly day in D.C. that began with a mood to match.
This morning, even after sleeping for almost seven hours, I was so exhausted that I slept through my alarm, somehow waking up just in time to make a 15-minute go of pulling myself together enough to be presentable for work. I was in a panic and truly didn't expect to make it to work by 8, but I was ready and out the door in less than 20 minutes and to the metro in 10 more. It's amazing what you can accomplish when time is screaming in your ear, "You're going to be late!"
I asked a serene looking middle-aged black businessman what time it was and he asked me if I was okay. I must have looked pretty flushed and frazzled after beating feet from the metro parking area, through the turnstile and up the escalator. "Thanks," I replied, "I'll be fine." I swigged down one of those Odwalla berry smoothies as I waited.
About five minutes later, the metro Green Line train slid into view like a most welcome sight and I was on my way. I'd never boarded this late before, so I really didn't have any assuredness that I was going to get to work on time until I noted that it was only ten til the hour as I disembarked from my train at my final stop. I was never so thankful, even if I did have to abandon the thought of waiting in line for that daily morning latte fix and suffer the grumblings of my still empty stomach.
It had meant throwing a tube of toothpaste, toothbrush, cosmetics and such into my oversized Franklin Covey tote and running as if someone were hot on the heels of my black Esprit mid-calf boots, but I made it.
And I now l can eagerly go on to seek another new day in America's Capital.
