classes

yesterday i was in class from the early hours of the morning until sundown and reached my room exhausted at the end of the day, but only because of the stormy weather. (twice I had reached classes soaked to the skin as I hadn't realized it was going to rain and did not bring an umbrella with me in the morning.) i love my classes! let me sort of recap my day:

my first class was "global indigenous peoples" in which we discussed the basic methods and features of anthropology in order to get us ready to talk about this article: Body Rituals of the Nacirema, which is quite funny and worth a read. i really enjoyed the professor's discussion of walking through a mall in the phillipines (she is from senegal) and watching as things came to a standstill around her with everyone turning to look at her, a blatant foreigner. i guess when you do fieldwork, you need to accustom yourself to the idea of being the odd one out in your new surroundings. i certainly felt that way sometimes in kenya, but getting close to the people you are working with changes that feeling of being different really fast until sometimes you forget that you look a different way.

my second class was "consumer psychology" and i am so glad to have found this class at this school! for a society that consumes endless amounts of things, the western world spends little time criticizing this behaviour. advertisements try to make us fantasize urgent needs out of our wants, and psychologists have now conducted studies that prove there is a dark side to this american dream! i have a textbook that elaborates how materialism causes unhappiness and unhappiness causes materialism. and this returning thought arose again yesterday: there are enough resources on the planet to feed, clothe, shelter, and educate every single person. it's a great frustration to me that if this is a possibility, it is not at once a reality!

my third class of the day was "environmental and consumer health," a fantastic elaboration on consumer psychology with an ecological bent. i sat through this class close to tears, as the professor elaborated all of the horrible things we are doing to our planet, but i'm tempted to say this was a renewing and important experience to have had. with a fresh rage about the destruction of the earth and its resources, i can better apply myself to my own small changes and talking to others about theirs. some human beliefs that contribute to environmental problems are:
- that man is the most important species and should have dominion over nature
- that any harm we do, we can undo
- that our individual and collective impact on the environment will result in imperceptible changes
- that natural resources are free and inexhaustible
- that the environment has a nearly infinite capacity to assimilate toxic discharges and waste

also, here is an incredible comparison of our current priorities...every year,
$14 billion is spent on ocean cruises
$15 billion on perfumes
$18 billion on makeup
$17 billion on pet food
$11 billion on ice cream in Europe alone!

compare this to the cost to make some vital changes
$12 billion for reproductive health care
$19 billion to eliminate hunger and malnutrition
$5 billion for universal literacy
$10 billion to provide clean drinking water for all
$ 1.3 billion to immunize every child

staggering, isn't it? and if this hasn't moved you enough, think to the seventh generation, as some of the first people living in this country do, considering what ramifications your actions will have on your grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren.

my fourth class of the day was "nutrition" which is a nice formal way to pursue a longstanding interest of mine. it is a class filled with mostly physical education and health education majors, which is great because they are a bunch that is already quite knowledgeable about the subject.

finally at the end of the day i had my first ceramics class! it is super long (almost 5 hours) but time passes quickly and i think it will be quite therapeutic. i am taking this class in the evening, with a lively bunch of women and a down to earth professor named ron mello (a name that suits him well). last night we spent our class touring the studio and working on pinch pots. everything they do is high fire stoneware, and i am looking forward to learning how to mix glazes, reconstitute clay, and play around with my imagination to produce interesting things. we are encouraged to come in to do work at any hour of the day, which is lovely; i will have a retreat if anything else gets too crazy. it's really nice to be taking pottery; i feel like it gives me a connection to the earth, to history, to my own family a little bit more, and will offer me a chance to be artistic in a way that i normally am not.

today i have many odds and ends to do as i get ready to - believe it or not - go to ottawa early thursday morning. the killam foundation is having a killam/fulbright conference over this weekend and i'm going to be able to meet some of the other folks who are similarly settling into new colleges and universities here and in canada. i look forward to posting some photographs sometime next week!

p.s. i'm thrilled to have received so many comments on my posts! thank you so much; they make the writing a breeze.