BES Week 2

     Classes began this week. They seem simple enough, but I wonder how I will do without having periodic tests and some homework. I will have to remain on top of my game. I really like my Theatre and Religion professors. My theatre professor is a crotchety old man that had worked in the business for over 30 years. I love to hear his perceptions on a production. He gave us some guidelines to follow about evaluating a production. It all seems straight-forward enough. This is one class that I actually don't think I will mind having last 3 hours. My religion professor is younger but no less wiser. He is a bit more light-hearted and I feel as if he is a bit more genuine (?) in his approach. He wants to give us information and then see where we will run with it, even if we run the wrong way. In a way it feels like "discovery learning". He throws out information and a question to guide the class to what he wants us to discover and connect. He is very much a shepard (wow...irony right there...Jesus known as The Shepard, were in religion class...mind blown). Is this the way all English classrooms operate? Professor gives some info and lets the students' minds run wild and if they get off the wrong direction, he simply points and it continues? I actually prefer this kind of teaching to just being spoon-fed. What these professors have allowed me to do, is with a  basic knowledge block, let me discover answers and connections. I feel like I retain information better, longer this way. It's definitely new, but that isn't a bad thing.
     Mark and Jen took us to see The 39 Steps on Monday. It was a grand production. I found the humor dry and very fast and witty. However, I feel like I would have enjoyed it if I wasn't American. Let me explain. If I was British I, first of all, would not have had to fight through their accent to get all the words. And I also feel that it was written for British people. A lot of jokes were cultural, and if you did not know particular things about British culture, then it wasn't funny. I found the production delightful, but I think I would have found it more so if I had been British.
     Friday night was Burn's Night. Many of us in the program went to ULU to celebrate. I celebrated a little too hard think. And I spent way too much money! That's something I will have to watch for. It seems WAY to easy to spend and loose track here in London. Especially with drinking and pub culture being one guy buys a round, and then other people buy the round...people must be pretty honest then, because it would be all too easy to not pay someone back.