classes begin, part I

Saturday morning was my first doctoral class ... felt a little like starting kindergarten all those many years ago. I was equally nervous, I'm sure.

I hadn't seen a sample syllabus or anything from this guy, Dr. E., until last Monday, when I picked up my coursepack of articles/book chapters. The syllabus was thoughtfully reproduced therein, so I was able (with many deep breaths) to begin visualizing the semester ahead.

When he arrived to class around 9:30 Saturday morning, he was absolutely what I expected when I pictured your stereotypical political science professor: his hair was dark, streaked with gray, hanging below his ears in length and sorta wavy and toussled; he was wearing a nice baby blue button down dress shirt with an almost-knotted light purple cotton tie; and had a massive stack of papers that he sorta shifted around for a while before getting started.

He was funny, intelligent, irreverant, and easygoing. SO my kinda guy.

The class is big -- maybe 35 or 40 students? -- which surprised me, but it IS a foundation class for three separate programs. About a third of the class (I found out later, 15 of us) is starting out in the political science doctoral program.

What amused me most was the after-class group wrangling that took place. We're to do a group presentation (groups of 3-4 people) at some point during the semester, and Dr. E seems content to make presentation assignments 2-3 weeks ahead of their time. In other words, next week we'll decide who's doing presentations for the following 2 or 3 weeks. Always just staying a BIT ahead of the syllabus.

Yet, after class broke, the room became a frenzy of networking. Everyone started forming these little groups -- I don't watch "Survivor," but it definitely made me think of reality TV alliances -- and deciding which topic they wanted to jockey for. I was recruited into a group with three others (none of whom, I later learned, are in my poli sci cohort), and made passing mention of my interest in public opinion. Before I knew it, one of the people in my group had written down our names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, taken it to Dr. E, and "reserved" the public opinion presentation for us ... Oct. 10.

Right.

It really was amusing, but in a very positive way.