A description of Hogwarts, I mean the University of Chicago
The Campus
The buildings at the university are magical. There are perched gargoyles, ivy covered walls swaying in the wind, heavy wooden doors, windy stone staircases, and one of my classrooms has a fireplace. The buildings where my classes are held are arranged like the outline of a square so in the middle, the "main quadrangle," there are stone walkways, green grass, wooden benches, and beautifully arranged flowers.
One of my classes, Core, is held in a traditional lecture hall, as seen on t.v. A hundred or soon seats, the kind where the bottom part has to be put down and there is a small piece of wood that you can swing up from the side for something to write on, face three chalkboards and a podium. One side of the room has glass windows with a triangular pattern in metal, facing the quad. The rest of the room has wood paneling.
My Tropical Commodities class is held on the fourth floor and faces the midway, a long stretch of grass facing east to west. This is the room with the fireplace. It also has wood paneling and one painting of some prestigious looking, and I'm sure famous to the school, professor in his black graduation gown with blue stripes on the arm. The ceiling is white and embossed with different animals, knights with swords, suits of armor, and crowns. There are some tables and chairs in the middle but we sit around the perimeter in high school like desks only the table tops of theses are smaller.
My Spanish Literature class is smaller, it has a whiteboard and we sit in chairs with wheels around a few tables pushed together. There is a very large painting of I'm sure yet another famous professor or dean or headmaster. It's portrait of an older, white-haired man with glasses, wearing a suit and sitting cross legged.
Our precept meetings are held in a room with chalkboards at either end and tables we sit around like the ones in Spanish Lit.
The people
I haven't made very many friends that I hang out with, in each class though I recognize and exchange pleasantries with a few of the folks.
In my program I have hung out quite a bit with a fellow named Clay. He's actually quite a bit younger than me, having started the program immediately after undergrad. He is from Washington and is studying philosophy. His girlfriend, Francis, will be moving to Chicago to live with him in February, I believe. He's a tall, goofy guy with recently cut short blond hair. We've done things together like the Museum of Science and Industry, he was the one to invite me to study at Matt's place, he joined Maggie and I for one of the jazz performances, I joined him for a quartet concert, etc.
Matt is worth describing to you because he's kind of a funny character in the story of my life. He hails from England and is a nice guy but very negative about everything. We Americans do it all wrong in his eyes, it's criminal that we don't know what cricket is, he doesn't know what we think we're drinking when it comes to tea, and we don't spell color or honor correctly.
A few weeks ago I met an assistant professor who's here for just the quarter (so until the beginning of December) from the Netherlands. Anne is a tall, thin, blond woman. She's also 27 and also a runner! Not just a runner, someone who runs at the exact pace I run/aspire to run. We ran together last Sunday and it was so nice to have company! She has invited me to run a race in Nashville, Tennessee with her on November 11. This week we bought the bus tickets, booked the hotel and signed up for the race. She's doing the half but I'm going to the do the 5k. One, to save 50$ and two, to try and break 20 minutes again if I fail during the race the week before.
The buildings at the university are magical. There are perched gargoyles, ivy covered walls swaying in the wind, heavy wooden doors, windy stone staircases, and one of my classrooms has a fireplace. The buildings where my classes are held are arranged like the outline of a square so in the middle, the "main quadrangle," there are stone walkways, green grass, wooden benches, and beautifully arranged flowers.
One of my classes, Core, is held in a traditional lecture hall, as seen on t.v. A hundred or soon seats, the kind where the bottom part has to be put down and there is a small piece of wood that you can swing up from the side for something to write on, face three chalkboards and a podium. One side of the room has glass windows with a triangular pattern in metal, facing the quad. The rest of the room has wood paneling.
My Tropical Commodities class is held on the fourth floor and faces the midway, a long stretch of grass facing east to west. This is the room with the fireplace. It also has wood paneling and one painting of some prestigious looking, and I'm sure famous to the school, professor in his black graduation gown with blue stripes on the arm. The ceiling is white and embossed with different animals, knights with swords, suits of armor, and crowns. There are some tables and chairs in the middle but we sit around the perimeter in high school like desks only the table tops of theses are smaller.
My Spanish Literature class is smaller, it has a whiteboard and we sit in chairs with wheels around a few tables pushed together. There is a very large painting of I'm sure yet another famous professor or dean or headmaster. It's portrait of an older, white-haired man with glasses, wearing a suit and sitting cross legged.Our precept meetings are held in a room with chalkboards at either end and tables we sit around like the ones in Spanish Lit.
The people
I haven't made very many friends that I hang out with, in each class though I recognize and exchange pleasantries with a few of the folks.
In my program I have hung out quite a bit with a fellow named Clay. He's actually quite a bit younger than me, having started the program immediately after undergrad. He is from Washington and is studying philosophy. His girlfriend, Francis, will be moving to Chicago to live with him in February, I believe. He's a tall, goofy guy with recently cut short blond hair. We've done things together like the Museum of Science and Industry, he was the one to invite me to study at Matt's place, he joined Maggie and I for one of the jazz performances, I joined him for a quartet concert, etc.
Matt is worth describing to you because he's kind of a funny character in the story of my life. He hails from England and is a nice guy but very negative about everything. We Americans do it all wrong in his eyes, it's criminal that we don't know what cricket is, he doesn't know what we think we're drinking when it comes to tea, and we don't spell color or honor correctly.
A few weeks ago I met an assistant professor who's here for just the quarter (so until the beginning of December) from the Netherlands. Anne is a tall, thin, blond woman. She's also 27 and also a runner! Not just a runner, someone who runs at the exact pace I run/aspire to run. We ran together last Sunday and it was so nice to have company! She has invited me to run a race in Nashville, Tennessee with her on November 11. This week we bought the bus tickets, booked the hotel and signed up for the race. She's doing the half but I'm going to the do the 5k. One, to save 50$ and two, to try and break 20 minutes again if I fail during the race the week before.
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