The World is Ahead

I realized when I woke up this morning that yesterday's post was mostly about what I have been doing and not so much about what I will be doing...

There has been a lot of talk of travel amongst my classmates, which seems exciting, I am definitely going to be traveling as much as I can. And therein lies the rub, as much as I can. I really have no concept of what my workload is going to be. I know people all seem keen to visit the same kind of places I do all over Europe. And I am also excited to get over to Bristol to see my good friend Fi soon.

This week starts classes, but only kind of, if I understand things correctly and all of my classmates suppositions are correct, then this week is a week of introductory lectures after which I will choose which of the optional classes I will attend. This semester my compulsory classes are: Cross-Cultural Variations in Psychological Findings and research Methods in Psychology. And then I believe I am going to be taking Occupational and organizational Psychology as my optional module, though obviously it will depend on how this first week goes. Next semester Methods for Cross-Cultural Research and the second round of Cross-Cultural Variations are required, and I believe I will be attending Applied Anthropology and International Health as my optional course. On top of all of that I have signed myself up for a language class. It is not part of my program, but there was no additional cost and I think it will be an excellent addition to my arsenal. So I am going to take Mandarin(a specific dialect of Chinese). I know it is supposed to be an up and coming language on the international political scene, besides which it is by far and away the most spoken language on the planet.

So besides class and travel I will mostly be studying and trying to get to know all of these new people better and hopefully meet some more. And one of these days I am going to get over to the Gym and get myself in the shape I am going to need to be in to the rest of this.

There is a song I am reminded of from the
"Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,"
Pippin sings it to the Steward of Gondor.
"Home is behind
The world ahead.
And there are many paths to tread.
Through shadow,
To the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight

Mist and shadow
Cloud and shade
All shall fade
All shall...fade."