Excuse me, is this where I teach?

It had come earlier than anyone had feared and it crashed down upon all of us like a lightning:

The first day of school! After weeks of fun we had to get serious... ("why so serious?")

After I had my first class, it was pretty clear that I had to drop one of my courses, because I would simply not be able to handle the workload of three courses. The only question remaining was: which class.

So I went through three classes that day (boy, what a day!)

My first was International Conflict, a class in the undergraduate level (for all those without a Bachelor degree). The discussion session revealed that it would be an incredible amount of work. Some of the issues seemed to be a repition of what I had done before. And the real killer: that class is scheduled Tuesday through Friday, every day! Not a good standing in the challenge of my courses. By the end of the day it was clear that this course had to go. See you in Spring International Conflict.

The other classes were not less work, but somehow "Ideologies of Space" and "Science Fiction, Colonialism and Racial Representation" (what a combo!) did trigger my interest more. Not to speak of the professors:

My Science Fiction guy basically consists of black and metal, sometimes combined. Especially noteworthy is his bracelet. He wears a bike chain (sic!) on his right wrist. Funny about that: sometimes he looks at it like it was a watch. Maybe he uses the different links to calculate the time on his own planet ;-).

Even more interesting and eccentric is my other professor. He is totally confused ("excuse me, is this where I teach?") and has a bad tendency of forgetting everything (how congenial!). His whole air and looks scream "Ballard" or "Captn Ahab", while his hair is rather related to Medusa in Greek Mythology.

I am looking forward to both classes and I have a feeling that they are going to challenge me in oh so many different ways.

After a long day of school, one has to get his mind off the serious issues of this world (like Science fiction and whale fiction), so it sometimes helps to watch the people who are still left on campus.

I have not yet found out, if they are rehearsing to take over the slow motion indsutry, if they are wannabe breakdancers who didn't make it in New York or if they are just practicing their capoeira moves ;-)