Settling

I feel a bit like a cat these days--circling around a small area, trying to decide exactly where to sit. I've been in Boston for two weeks now. My apartment is close to being set up, though I keep discovering odds and ends that are missing (like a can opener... I want to eat beans, but I have no can opener...). Orientation took up most of my first week here and provided a whirlwind tour of the Div School and an opportunity to meet a bunch of people whose names I've already forgotten. Last weekend I flew out to SF for the wedding of my friends Sigalle and Amir--more on that later--and returned to Cambridge Monday, missing the first day of classes. Seems somewhat of an auspicious start to grad school, but I don't think I really missed much.

Harvard has all sorts of quirky ways of doing things that, being Harvard, it can get away with. This includes "shopping" for classes whereby one attends every course he/she is conceivably interested in for a week; I think I went to about a dozen myself. It's a good way to get an intro to the course material, beyond what the syllabus provides, but it's also a hectic period in which classes are jammed full of students.

My schedule is nearly sorted out, with the exception of Arabic, which is terrible. It's offered as a full year course and I am smack in between Elementary and Intermediate. I've been attending Intermediate all week and getting my butt kicked. I'm going to stick with it for a bit, but I'll likely drop it and petition to join the Elementary class in the Spring. It sucks, but I don't know what else to do. Anyway, I'm taking some other really great classes: The War for Muslim Minds; Feminism and Gender in Systematic Theology; Religion and Politics in Current "Fundamentalist" Movements; and Issues in Feminism and Islam. Cool, huh? I'm especially excited about the Fundamentalisms class, as were a great deal many other people--about 80 people showed up the first day and enrollment was limited to 25, so I'm thrilled to have gotten in.

In other news, these are the first High Holidays in which I've been away from home in many years and I'm really feeling the distance. Services here were good, but I missed being with family. Anyway, more to come and best wishes to you all for a sweet and happy new year.