Winter semester.

It's that time again!
I think I've religiously linked to this video twice a year ever since I was a freshman, but I don't think I've ever embedded it.

There's a first time for everything. Watch it; I can't be the only '90s kid who grew up on Animaniacs.

First Impressions:

Arabic 202 (Intermediate Arabic, semester 2): I love Arabic because it instills legitimate fear inside my heart. I know I like something scary much when my heart starts pounding and I get this feeling where I want nothing more than to throw things repeatedly against walls. I know what to expect from this class and I'm psyched to do the work (which I know will be all-consuming). There's nothing I find more fulfilling than mastering Arabic grammar (and I am one hundred percent serious). Oh, and my MWF conversation-lab (we have grammar lectures TTh) teacher is an 18-year-old Jordanian kid! That's going to be fun.
Edit: I just found out I ended up "third or fourth" overall in last semester's class! I can deal with that.

Hebrew 132 (First-Year Biblical Hebrew, semester 2): I love my laid-back professor and I love my classmates. This is the reason I get up in the morning (literally; it's at 8 AM). Plus, being a serious Arabic student affords me the luxury of being a seriously lazy Hebrew student, so if I just make a little time to study vocab it's an easy four-credit A. Oh, and remember that final I blitz-studied all through the night for last semester? Despite not being able to stay awake (my test is full of those omg-I'm-sleeping-there-goes-my-pencil-again marks), today I found out that I set the all-section high. Yay!

History 239 (Ancient Near Eastern History from 330 BC-610 AD): I can't decide what to think about this class. The material looks interesting, and I know some of my classmates, but it's hard for me to get a good hold on the professor. He seems nice, but he also seems like he has the potential to be a pedantic jerk. The syllabus is spread out into little bites of constant work (three exams and a final, three 3500-word essays, three response papers, and random quizzes), and I don't know how I feel about that. It's basically TA-graded, as our TA let slip during class (which also bugs me. Reasonable or not, since I am a senior-level TA I feel like I should be viewed as a TA all the time, so I hate having other TAs, especially if they have power). I'm tentative. We'll see.

History 241 (Middle Eastern History since 1800): This'll be fantastic, and I'm so glad I decided to take it (even though it doesn't count for anything). It's taught by my favorite professor, the material looks seriously fascinating, and I have a lot of friends to sit by. Best of all, there's a very open research paper assignment--choose your own topic, make it original, do your own research, and don't worry about annoying sequential-draft deadlines or peer reviews or anything. Just turn it in at the end of the semester and make it good. Really good. Now that's an assignment I can go for.

International/Area Studies 201R (Intro to Tibetan): This class makes me happy! I never thought I'd learn Tibetan. It's a tiny language class that meets just once a week for two hours, and it's taught by an older Tibetan man who's going to try his best to make us conversational. It does look to be a conversation-based class rather than a reading-and-writing one, but I hope there's a little of that thrown in as well (I just couldn't be satisfied if I didn't get to learn grammar!). We did get a handout of the beautiful alphabet (check it out!), so that's promising. And he promised that if we just come to class and participate, every one of us will get "a flying A!" :-)

Also, for your viewing pleasure, here is a comment about me by a friend who tried to recruit me to help coach a mock trial team (I would, but I'm so busy...augh...). I laughed. He nailed it.