School and Such

Well, it's been quite some time since I was last able to post anything of substance on this blog, but I'm glad to see that Jamie has really taken it upon herself to keep the site updated and interesting! My first few weeks in school have been a cloud of honest confusion with fleeting periods of happiness and contentment. To say that I enjoy being back at school would be quite the overstatement, as I find myself more and more drawn to the life outside of the campus boundaries: I yearn to camp with friends, drink beers in bars, explore the state of Wisconsin and read literature as opposed to the ponderous works of historians I don't even know. Yet, having said that, I do thoroughly enjoy the intellectual challenge that history affords me, even if I'm not so keen on the insular politics of academe; the classes that I've been taking this semester have been fascinating and challenging all at once. The student with whom I study with are a great mix of ages and expertise. Many are older than myself, and all of them are passionate about their specific topic of historical inquiry, which always leads to heated and enthralling conversations in the class room. The professors themselves are nurturing and VERY personable; I guess it might be time for me to throw out my old preconceived notion that the large university professor as a man or woman of cold countenance and condescending arrogance.

The social life in Milwaukee is great, and I've been finding it much harder to balance my studies with all the options I have upon the end of work or class. I can go to numerous restaurants, lay on the beach or walk to the art museum. I've enjoyed getting to know many of the students in my Trinity Fellowship, and all of them are wonderful, interesting and open-minded.

Work has also been great, as I've been slowly learning my role within the Adult Learning Center. My relationship with the students has gotten off to a great start, and each day I have more and more visitors. I help them write their resumes, talk about their problems, and even do some basic job searching for them. This job, in all honestly, is a major demotion from what I was doing last year in Erie, but I like the fact that my job now carries less stress and affords me more time to study and read--two activies I'll be doing a lot over the course of these next twenty months.

Due to the fact that I don't work on Friday, I've decided to pick a volunteer teaching job at a local nonprofit known as the "Urban Ecology Center." The center functions almost as a YMCA camp within the city limits and offers classes on biology, ecology, rock climbing, canoeing and botany to inner-city youths and schools. Just yesterday I helped lead a class on bees, which was great fun; I felt like I was back in Ohio working as an Environmental Educator again. The image of children running through a natural prairie, swinging bug nets and chasing Monarch Butterflies amidst the shadows of two skyscrapers was energizing for me. Next week I'll be wading with a group of 5th graders in the Milwaukee River as we look for Macroinvertebrates! Should be fun!

I guess that this all I must update you on. through the semester I hope to write a little bit more about my personal experiences and challenges here at Marquette, as I attempt to learn how to be student again.

Cau!