Aside from the fact that my two-way commute turned out to be longer than both of my classes combined, I would say my first week at Hunter was a resounding success (prophetically speaking, anyway).
First, some background of the past month: right after the band camp debacle, something snapped in my brain and reminded me why I used to love psychology. So I spent the remainder of August reading every book I had on the topic. Since most of them are text books, I got through two (a survey book for an intro course and Cozby's Methods in Behavioral Research, if you must know). In addition to that I spent a rather large amount of time trolling PsycINFO and JSTOR for any research articles I felt I could grasp (not many, but enough).
Furthermore, I'm in the process of starting up a new agency-level band while maintaining my gigs with the 3 Staten Island-based bands with which I'm currently involved (Roundhouse Kick, The Bad Mouth Betties, and Weird Science). This means I needed to find time to learn tons of new material, maintain my chops, put together set lists, perform, teach, and deal with bar owners. Even still, as Homer (Simpson) would say, "I still managed to fit in 8 hours of TV a day."
Following from these snippets of my mental and musical activities recently, English literature was quite possibly the furthest thing from my mind as I got off the bus a full ten city blocks from Hunter and began the trek.
Monday's class was "The Comic Alternative", featuring Professor Persky (hope I spelled that right). It was really, truly interesting how he chose to run his class, and quite different from anything I've ever experienced. He does not want to give any exams, and would prefer to NOT have us write a paper. He wants to base our entire grade on class participation alone, which is perfect for someone who loves the sound of their own voice (i.e. me). Of course, if no one participates, he is going to give multiple exams and include a paper in order to see where we stand on the topics raised.
More importantly, though, is that he seems to be interested in finding comedy elements in non-traditional comedies, including (but not limited to) "The Iliad", "The Odyssey", and the New Testament. Yes, friends, Professor Persky considers the New Testament to contain elements of classical comedy...I like him already. He's also rather noticeably brilliant, able to recall passages of Aristotle (in Greek) without notes. And speaking of Aristotle, I'm going to run into him and good ol' Plato again this semester. Somewhere, Dr. Danisi is smiling (forgive the inside joke).
Today's class was far more traditional...three short papers, one medium, one long blah blah Milton blah Paradise Lost blah blah sonnets blah England. Or so it might have been, had not Professor Greenberg been more excited to teach this course than anyone I've ever seen anywhere for any reason (keeping in mind I've been to both Disneyland AND Disney World). Her enthusiasm literally shocked me, because a good 90% of people I've met in graduate school (professors and students) are some combination of jaded, miserable, and holier-than-thou. She actually made me WANT to read Paradise Lost (now seems as good a time as any to say that I never made it past Book IV this summer), just to see if maybe I can share in a bit of that happiness. We engaged in a bit of discussion on Sonnet XIX, which she considers a "mini- Paradise Lost", a judgment I share thanks to her rather convincing explanation. Overall, a second class that interests me greatly.
So Hunter in week one is 2/2. Both professors actually have me interested in their material, and, above all, THEY ARE INTERESTED IN OUR INTEREST. There's still a long way to go, but hey, we're off to a good start.
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