I need a class like this.

Every person I have encountered since I was accepted into college: “What’s your major?”
Me: “I have nooooooo idea.”

Here’s my proposal for a class that all universities should offer.

It’s called “Intro to Undecided.”

This is how it works:

The professor is one of those people who knows a little about a lot
(or, preferably, a lot about a lot). The first day of class, you pretty
much get a brief overview of all majors offered at the school–one or
two sentences about each major.

Each day after that is an in-depth look at one major, as follows.

Day 1: Intro to Intro to Undecided
Day 2: Intro to Intro to Sociology (take a quarter of Sociology and compress it into 50 minutes)
Day 3: Intro to Intro to Macroeconomics
Day 4: Intro to Intro to Art History
Day 5: Intro to Intro to Biological Engineering
Day 6: Intro to Intro to Slavic Languages and Literatures
etc, etc, etc

Daily homework: record your thoughts on the day’s lecture, and rate its interest to you numerically.
Midterm: basic “big picture” multiple-choice questions about each subject.
Final exam: an essay test. Write a paragraph about each topic,
summarizing its key facts and ideas, and describing your feelings
towards the potential major.

By the end of the quarter, the students will not only have a better
idea of what they’d like to study, but they will have gained some basic
knowledge of all areas of study. This will help them at parties, in
their careers, and if they ever appear on Jeopardy!.

I live in the Communications Residential College, where every single
person is either majoring in Journalism, Radio/TV/Film, or Theater. I’m
sick of being undecided.

Really. I need to take this class.

Woo hoo, classes!

A brief summary of my schedule for this quarter:

Freshman Seminar: The Art of the Memoir
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 10:00-10:50
There’s only 15 of us in the class (14 girls and 1 boy, haha). We read
and write memoirs. There will be a big focus on Holocaust memoirs in a
few weeks. Should be interesting, especially after Poland.

Hebrew II
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 11:00-11:50
I really like Hebrew. We have to write with vowels, though. I haven’t done that since 2nd grade.

Harmony
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 2:00-2:50
This is going to be really cool. This counts as my one “formal
studies” (math, etc.) class I need. I’ve always been interested in
music but I’ve never taken a theory class, so this should be good. I
have to learn how to read tenor, alto, and bass clefs, though, which
I’m sooo not used to (I love treble clef!).

Intro to Sociology
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 3:00-3:50
I think this will be really interesting, too. The prof is really famous, and the subject is pretty cool.

Biggest class: Soc (650ish people)
Smallest class: Hebrew (6 people)

Lia’s dorm room!

I’m pretty much in love with my dorm room. I’ve hung up posters and
pictures of my favorite movies, bands, shows, and people. Take a look:

And, the other side:

But, to get the real effect, you have to be here in person. Come visit me!

Challenge: can you either a) see what the posters are, or b) spot yourself or people you know in any of my pictures?

College!

It’s been quite a week.

Sorry if I haven’t been around to talk for very long these past few days, but it has truly been quite a week.

First week of college–”New Student Week” at Northwestern. There’s so
much to say, but usually when I write long entries nobody reads them.
I’ll try to give you the CliffsNotes version of NSW, college, and
Northwestern.

College rocks. Woo hoo, fun.

The people here are all really nice.
They all have names. I just can’t remember any of them.
I’ve met a lot of people. I’ve met a few people a few times.
I have a bad memory.

Number of free meals I have received: approximately 5

Number of times I’ve seen a capella groups perform: 5
Number of a capella groups total: around 10
If each group sang three songs each time they performed, number of a capella songs I’ve heard: 57

Number of improv/comedy/hypnotist shows I’ve seen: 6
Most famous comedian I saw: Kathy Griffen

Number of dance parties I’ve attended: 3
Number of dance parties at the beach: 1
Number of dance parties at the Field Museum: 1
Number of dance parties in 1-Brown (the best suite ever!): 1

Number of times I’ve made the 15-minute walk from Tech to CRC in the pouring rain: 1

Number of discussions I’ve had with people about accents from around the country: approximately 1 billion

I’ve had a lot of fun already. I’ll try to update as often as I can,
but who knows how busy I’ll be. Keep in touch–leave me messages when
I’m away or something.

Last-minute movies

Only about four days remain until I go to school (finally!).

The past couple of days have been full of scrambling–to get all the
things I need for my dorm, to organize my room at home, to say goodbye
to friends.

The biggest scramble, however, has been to see movies.

I’ve spent my summer watching and reviewing movies from my list (http://www.lehrercommunications.com/lia/movie_list.htm), and I’ve really enjoyed this little movie “class” I’ve given myself.

But as of now, there are still 104 movies on my list, and four days to
see them. At approximately two hours per movie, that is 208 hours.
There are only 96 hours in four days. You do the math. I won’t be able
to complete the list this summer.

I’ll have time to watch a few more, though. The question is–which ones?

Which movies from my list do
I need to see before I start school? These aren’t necessarily the best
movies on the list, but the movies that either 1) everybody in the
world has seen, so I won’t be able to function in society without
having seen it, 2) deal with college life and I should see them before
I get there (don’t worry, I’ve already seen Animal House), or 3) are just really exceptionally good movies.

Post your thoughts here, and if you can give your reasons, that would be excellent.

I will maintain this list throughout the year, too, but I just don’t
imagine myself watching as many movies while at school as I did this
summer.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who gave me reviews of movies for my website!

P.P.S. I chose the comforter with the colorful squares. Thanks for voting.

Food…TV

Every day, I learn of more and more people who watch the Food Network on a regular basis.

And it’s not the kind of people you’d expect. It’s understandable that
my mom watches the channel to get recipe ideas and food tips. I
understand how some of my friends’ moms could watch it. I could even
understand some of my friends occasionally watching it–maybe they’re
learning how to cook early.

I can sort of even understand how people would watch Iron Chef. When
my brother first turned that on a few years ago, I thought he was
crazy, but soon learned that it isn’t abnormal for teenagers to watch.

But he watches other shows, too! I can’t remember all of the cooks’ names, but he watches them.

I’m pretty sure that one of the kids I tutor watches the channel (he’s
the one who said that when he grows up, he wants to be “either a
professional basketball player or a comedian”).

I can’t remember who, but other people have definitely told me lately that they watch the channel as well.

Is this weird?

You won’t believe your ears…

Yes. I have finally gotten my ears pierced. Can you believe it? I sure can’t.

I had lived my whole life thinking, “Why would I get my ears pierced?
That’s so silly.” But then, suddenly, a few days ago, I had sort of an
epiphany, and figured that as long as I’m going through a pro-piercing
phase, I might as well do it.

In six weeks I’ll be able to get pretty earrings, and I’m sort of excited.