LATIN:
Alright, now that I'm through my first week, let's talk classes. First, we have Hum 110. Humanities 110 is a class that every freshman at Reed has to take. The first week we were on Gilgamesh, and now we've moved on to Genesis (like from the Bible). It's kind of funny seeing so many people walking around carrying or even reading the Bible. We had three lectures about Gilgamesh, the first about the Hero's Journey, then about Friendship, then about Environmentalism. We have a paper due in two weeks about the book, but I don't want to think about that yet...
Next I have Latin. It's by far my favorite class. It's been a ton of fun, and Latin is something I've been wanting to learn for a while. Sure, declension charts are a pain to memorize, but who cares because I'm learning a dead language that is likely going to be useless in my adult life!! No but genuinely, I love it so much. It's so fun, I feel like I'm doing a good job, and my professor is very nice and good.
 |
| During my Calligraphy class I practiced my Latin vocab |
Holy Sh*t: Material Religions. Okay, this one is a little more mixed. It's a 300 level course, so I'm a little out of my depth. I don't understand a word of the readings, and just spent all night reading about Reed traditions to procrastinate my homework... Although not understanding readings seems to be, in and of itself, a Reed tradition: "This is Reed. Accessibility is for the weak" says The New (Olde) Reed Almanac. But it's alright, I will get used to it! Otherwise I love the class, the professor is wonderful and I feel like I can hold my own in class discussions -- despite being the only freshman in the room.
Lastly, we have a class that isn't a class: Calligraphy. I love calligraphy. I am so obsessed. Calligraphy is another thing I've been wanting to pursue, and it has a very rich history at Reed! I also think I'm pretty good at it, to be honest. Last week, after my calligraphy class, a girl offered me a slice of cheesecake in exchange for a poem for her friend. So I ran upstairs and got out my calligraphy stuff, and did my darnedest! I think it turned out pretty OK, so I traded it for the cake. Yum!
LUNCH:
Food at Reed has been pretty good! I often have a light breakfast of either oatmeal or a pastry, then a heavier lunch and dinner. Some highlights on the menu so far have been the Mac n Cheese, Chicken Alfredo, and this Tiramisu Cake thing. They also have my favorite smoothie: the Columbia Gorge Organic Wild Blackberry.
 |
A breakfast of apple juice, a banana, and a cinnamon roll before going to study in the library. |
 |
| Mac n Cheese with chicken and broccoli and Tiramisu cake |
LAUNDRY:
My dorm is pretty nice too. I like that the shower and toilets are both single stall, or like in their own rooms? And everything else is pretty nice to. The building I'm in is newer, built in 2019, which is definitely why the kitchen, bathrooms, and common spaces are so nice. In my opinion however, the slightly older freshman dorms have better rooms. They are much more cozy/homey. But who cares. My only real complaint is that the walls are too smooth, so everything I tape up just falls down :(. I think I need to use tack, not tape. The laundry is good tho! There are tons of machines, and it doesn't even take that long. Despite having less clothes than I did at home, I feel like I need to do laundry so frequently. Oh, well.
Thanks for reading!
