so class number four is: Language, Literature and culture. It's basically a linguistic's class but it will count towards my degree at home- which is helpful.

and class number five (i know- five classes) is Dimensions of the sacred: basically a class examining religious symbols, myths and cultural influences. I don't know if this will count for anything but it deals with literature of specific religions and also the social issues that are prompted by religions- or spiritualities. I think it'll make me a better person.

as for my project- my group -ecluding lovely aubrey- is dumb. and I don't mean that as just a figurative insult. they really don't get our project, it's intentions or the desired outcome. i don't know how to explain to them that trying to format a project (which is supposed to be very personal) in order to impress the teacher - or to give what they suppose the teacher wants. I can't handle that kind of pandering. It's annoying and contrary to the whole spirit of the assignment. which I know you all don't know much about. Anyway we're taking a text that "speaks to us" and reinterpreting it through a different medium. we chose a section from a book called The DARK ROOM, where a man (micha) finds out that his grandfather was in the SS in belarus and partook of the massacre's that occured there. He goes to bellarus some 50 years after world war II and meets a man named joseph- who was jewish but helped to assassinate (sp?) people in order to save himself. Anyway - joseph dies and micha comes back to belarus for the funeral. After the funeral elena (josephs wife) leads micha to the field where much of the murdering took place. the scene is very vivid and harsh and poignant. it's a beautiful summer day and yet micha is standing on what may as well be a hundred corpses. etc etc etc

so these girls keep wanting to do things that they think our teachers will like- they have put no thought into the text themselves- they insist on regurgitating (once again spelling?) what the teacher has said. it's frustrating. I wish i'd done the project alone or with a smaller group of people I knew better.

i'm done complaining for now. i had the strangest dream about being back in reno- it was a happy dream, but I was so very disconnected from it. I was in reno- but i felt far away from everything and everyone i was seeing. interesting. I'm gonna miss my best friend, my brothers and my nephew's birthday within the next four weeks. then my dad's soon thereafter. thats another thing. missing birthdays.

oy. hope everyone is doing well. until next rant