Did it!
Here we are, eight months down the line and I've completed five full papers at 20 credits a piece. A full first year would normally total about 120 credits, so I'm planning to do a paper over the summer vacation - either another writing paper if I get accepted, or a 200 level paper called Print, Culture and Communication. That will put me at full time studying level, which is not too bad considering I was working 0.7 of full time (about 30 hours per week on average. :-)
Second semester was fantastic. Three papers was a full load but the longer I do this, the more I think education should be saved for when you're older. Motivation is higher, life experience is broader and it is just so much more satisfying!
LING 101: Introduction to Language was interesting, with tons of fascinating tidbits here and there. I'm glad I did it, but mainly because it showed me that Linguistics as a major is not really for me! Linguists are pedantic to the nth degree. I can understand the fascination but you have to be really, really interested in grammatical structure and absolutely anal about explaining why and how verbs and nouns and adverbs do the things they do. I seriously don't care enough about that side of it. I loved learning about origins and changes over time and sexism and text speak and cultural context and all the sociolinguistic stuff, but am happy to stop there.
FILM 101: I cannot begin to say how much I loved this course. LOVED IT! Every thing about it was just joy! We watched a wide range of movies from blockbusters to the weirdest of surrealistic arthouse films. First assignment was a group one to create and present a storyboard using a range of techniques. It was cool working with two young Kiwi guys and an American exchange student the same age as my daughter - we did a great presentation and I got an A. Next assigmement was to analyze a short clip from one of the movies we watched and that was enormously satisfying. I watch movies in a whole new way now and the ability to break the scenes down in my head (light, angles, sound, themes etc) has only added to the pleasure. So, I got an A+ for that one. Have handed in my final paper, worth 45%, which was a 3000 word essay on "The viewer is a passive dupe easily manipulated by the films they watch. Discuss." Tough. Wish I'd been able to actually read and absorb all the books I skimmed trying to get my citations together. So, all in all an awesome course - and having a totally gorgous French professor lecturing did not hurt at all, LOL!
And last but not least, the Writing for Children workshop. This was just a WOW course, all the way through. Our facilitator was a multi-published author called Eirlys Hunter. The group of 12 comprised a range of ages. We had a granny in her 60s, some women in their 30-40s (including a yoga teacher, a lawyer and a film producer), a guy and a girl who both work in publishing, four Vic students including one German and one American exchange student--and me. Most of them are really good writers. We had a lot of fun once the group warmed up, wrote a lot of exercises, had an outing or two, worked very hard and finally, we all handed in a completed portfolio of about 9000 to 10,000 words which included either a play or text for a picture book, plus the synopsis and opening chapters for a children's novel. It was awesome!! The course is a Pass/Fail course so no grades will be given, but we'll get written reports on all our work and someone will win the Maurice Gee prize for Best Portfolio!
It's been an amazing and wonderful semester! More to follow!
