My Professor is a Genius (and my peers are cool too)

Well I made it to the end of my first week of classes. Not only did I survive, but I dare say I thrived. The first day of classes included a walking tour of campus during which I met four lovely ladies (hey guys) who I am happy to consider some new friends. It has been extremely exciting to see how in a masters program, not only are my professors actual geniuses (more on this later) but my peers are people that I can bounce ideas off of and learn a great deal from. 

One class in particular has surprised me in this regard. My planning theory class is a philosophy-heavy course, which I am quite unaccustomed to and I can already tell will be one of the more intense courses I will take. My the time the first lecture even started we were expected to have read 80 pages of Marx, which should have set the tone for the course, but I will still taken aback by the level of intensity in the first lecture alone. I mentioned earlier that my professor is a genius, and let me tell you why I think this. First of all let me just say I am equal parts intimidated and in awe of this woman. Picture this, a small, dark haired Italian woman, probably in her late 50s. She wears glasses that magnify her eyes to twice their size, so that when she looks at you, you have the feeling that she can see every insecurity you have ever had. She carries a sort of intensity that makes the room fall silent when she enters. When she walks, she does it with a stiff, quick gate, hands behind her back, and with her chin tucked close to her chest giving an odd sort of militaristic impression. Despite her small stature, she is commanding in every sense, even her name is foreboding, Dr. Basta, which is italian for "enough" (or stop).

As if this is not enough, the woman has genius energy. In our second lecture, she had us break into ten groups for 20 minutes to come up with any criticisms or questions we had on any of Marx's conjectures. After 20 minutes, we shared what we came up with, she wrote them down, and then, one by one, answered them just from the knowledge stored in her magnificent brain, making references and connections that you'd be lucky to come up with after hours of research. 

So that gives you a taste of what the teaching staff is like over here. In the two hours that we spent in that lecture I learned more than I have in a long time. I also mentioned however, that my peers are also on another level than I have previously enjoyed. Before this lecture even started, I was discussing the readings with Constantina, and I was explaining I didn't understand how our reading on complex phenomena related to planning. She explained how in a democratic society we cannot possibly predict every pattern or opinions that exists and so we should stop trying to recognize patterns and planning for these perceived consistencies. Before talking with her, I never would have been able to make that connection, but after our discussion, I was way more prepared to take on these complex topics because I could debate with someone who is a bit more on my level (as opposed to Dr. Enough) and make a bit more sense of topics that seem a bit abstract on first glance. 

Anyways, enough fangirling over that class. Over the next month or so I will be working on a group project with Constantina, Claire, Jessica, and Mojde, so expect to see these names appear again in the blog!