I guess I'm happy (?) that school is pretty hard. For the most part I find my classes stimulating, with the notable, if expected exception of Statistics. In general I would like to find challenge in my readings and classes, but at the same time, I haven't had my ass kicked by acadaemia in a while. It's refreshing, maybe, I think. Oddly enough the most difficult class is one that I had no notion of before showing up for the first class. Turns out that Structure of Cities and Regions is a heavily theoretical class on why the world is shaped as it is, spanning the spectrum from Childe's thesis on stone aged agricultural revolutions to Neo-Marxist thought on the capitalization of urban space. And this is only month one!! Anyway, the reading load is approximately 2500 pages this semester, plus 3 exams and 3 projects. Lovely! Maybe I'll publish some of my work and you can read the kind of crap that they expect over-educated youth to produce these days.

Incidentally, there are 3 Iowans in one of my classes and at least 4 that I know of in the program. Aditionally, of the 15 people I know by name in my program, 2 others are named Aaron (or Aron) and 3 are named Paul. That simplifies my life a bit.