Monday, August 31, 2009

Feeling 16 again

Yesterday I was looking for my history book "Out of Many" on the internet and found out that my 16 year old son is using the same book in his AP History class. I am sure that you can imagine the jokes that I heard from my husband and children yesterday. My only thought was "Great! I just saved myself $110.00"!!!

Classical Music

One of my classes is "Appreciation to Music". We are studying European Classical music. I thought it was all too fitting to add some of it on this blog because in history class we were talking about the Europeans and how much influence they have on the world. Some of the first classical music appeared in New York around 1777, right about the time to usher in the Revolutionary time period. I have no idea the history of the songs but found them interesting to listen to. Honestly, when I first heard we were studying classical I was ok with it. It can be relaxing but sometimes too relaxing. The only composer that I heard of was Mozart and Bach. What do you think of the music?

Friday, August 28, 2009

US History to 1877

Today was my second day of history class. We have been asked by our professor "Corky" Reinhard to create a blog where we will keep a daily journal. It makes me laugh when he calls upon me as a "desperate housewife". I do hope by the end of the semester he can remember my first name, but until then "desperate housewife" it is. It could be a lot worse. In class today we discussed the first reading assignment we were given. The book is called 'Ecological Imperialism" by Crosby. I have to be honest, the first time I opened the book I fell asleep by time I got to page 12. I have not finished it, but since we discussed different parts of the book in class I have a different perspective and will try to read the whole thing. The parts that I have read start with Pangaea and the way the land changes. It talks about Europeans and their need to explore new things bringing along with them different diseases that would destroy some of the areas that they invaded or discovered. I was impressed to read about all the different people in the world that were affected by the Europeans. Good and bad. I really need to read the book all over again.

I have a bit of anxiety about this class because Corky is asking that we write a 5-10 page essay for the mid-term. It's several weeks away but I have not written a paper for school in over 20 years. In fact, I don't even remember writing a 1 page paper let alone 5. I'm in trouble!