in which julie wants to major in zeus boning lots of chicks

Well I've been thoroughly engrossed in schoolwork for the past few weeks - and I must say, I'm (surprisingly) enjoying it (save for New Student Seminar, which is a stupidfest and waste of my life).

My English class is okay - nothing to write home about, actually. It's your basic freshman English: not everyone in there is a proficient writer. Actually, I'd wager that refers to most of the class, judging from some of the topics the professor is covering. Regardless, it's a nice little refresher course for me, having been out of the intellectual-writing-learning game for quite a few years.

But Classical Mythology.. hoo boy. Classical Mythology.

The course was initially labeled as simply "Mythology," so I expected that we would be studying a wide range of myths. I have to admit, I was slightly disappointed when I discovered the actual name of the class - I never was too interested in Greek or Roman mythology. I've always gravitated heavily towards the Celts and Norse mythology, perfectly to leave the Greeks and Romans where they lay. Silly me.

The first five minutes of the first class were nervewracking. I knew ahead of time who was teaching the course, having corresponded with him via email a month or so prior (he's teaching a Tolkien class this semester as well, which I could unfortunately not get into). And so, in walks a man who is clearly not our professor, made apparent by the fact that Dr. Gill is of self-proclaimed Scandinavian descent and the dude at the front of the class is black. And not very friendly. He spent the first five or six minutes setting up in silence without even a "hello" or a smile, futzing with the microphone on the lecture stand and clearing his nasal passages in a 4/4 tempo.

I could hear the rest of the class muttering to themselves ("Is this Mythology?" "Yeah, I think so." "Who is this guy?") and the girl next to me, who had been in Dr. Gill's class last semester, said "If he's teaching, I'm dropping this class." My heart sunk - I had a really great impression of Dr. Gill over email and this guy.. well, he was no charmer, that's for sure. So when he finally raised his head and asked "Is everyone here for Musical Theory?" I could feel the entire class let out a huge sigh and drop their shoulders in relief. "Nope." "No." "Sorry dude."

And right on cute, in walks Dr. Gill: "Well one of us has the wrong class, and I hope it isn't me. I'm already late."

It wasn't: thank the frickin' lord.

And so after that, we dove in headfirst. My head's been spinning with images of gods (and gods having sex. Lots of sex. Ridiculous, spine-shattering, impossible amounts of sex) since week 1. The lot of it utterly fascinating, and even though we haven't gotten too far into it yet (we've read a bit of Hesiod and now we're going to focus on some of the individual gods themselves), I'm extremely invested in it. I look forward to class like it's a free ice-cream buffet.. I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to a class.

According to Dr. Gill, his official job title is "Comparative Mythologist," a career that made my inner nerd squeal with glee. I've got an appointment with him Monday to discuss said career - I'm not sure what it entails exactly but it sounds like one of the best jobs in the world.

So now little English major Julie is considering doing some studies in Classics.. thankfully a friend of mine offered to tutor me in Latin over the summer, and no Mike, there's no way you're getting out of that now. If it sticks.. I'm in.