First Week of Classes

So, this week has been filled with introductions, new classes, and adaptation.  I actually could have created an even more vague first sentence, but this one is pretty satisfactory when it comes to not explaining the intent of this post at all.

If that first paragraph didn't make that much sense, it's mostly because my brain is fried from my first week of classes.  I won't really go into the whole, "Wow, things are so different making the transition from working grunt to full-time masters student" spiel, since we all kind of get it, at this point.  It is interesting, though, to be participating in a program where I have absolutely no theoretical background in the field.  Though a linguistics undergraduate degree is not required for this masters program, it's still a little bit intimidating to be diving head first into an entirely new type of learning, thinking, and analysis.  It's pretty cool, though!

For one, I get to make funny sounds (eventually) in my Phonetics class to analyze classifications of the sounds of language.  I get to make "language trees" in Syntax to dissect sentences and realize that "correct grammar" is a looser term than previously believed.  I get to push my comfort levels in Language Acquisition by looking at the different approaches that previous linguists have taken toward making sense of language categories.  (That last one I've been struggling with a bit--not necessarily because it doesn't make sense, but keeping track of all of the different views.)  So, while it's stressful to think about and take in all at once at an alarmingly accelerated pace (one year?!?), at least most of the material will retain my interest.

We're waiting on our financial aid to kick in, so there probably won't be many day trips in October.  Swansea still looks like a possibility, so fingers crossed for that.  We'll be having a couple of visitors within the coming month, which includes my lovely friend Jane!  Whoo hoo!  I'm sure we'll get into all sorts of shenanigans when she's here in Leeds.

Well, that's it from me today.  I'll probably do a photo-heavy post soon, instead of slightly panicked posts about graduate school.