I survived the 1st week

After the first week I have a lot of feelings about my program. I have an incredible amount of reading. I am working on keeping up. Today it took me 3 hours to read one article - it was about 50 pages and boring. I don't feel like I have been intellectually challenged yet. I am sure that will come. The only challenge I have felt is keeping up with the volume of work. I think I started this program at a higher level than some of my fellow students. Feminist theory is not new to me at all. I am keeping an open mind, as the director of the GI mentioned that some of us who have come with a lot of prior knowledge may have things to "unlearn" about what a gender studies perspective means.

I have been looking at the PhD program for the GI, and I think I am very qualified. I am planning on applying. I tend to do ok with independent study as long as I make a schedule for myself and have deadlines.

I am making friends! I met this person from Italy at the LGBT event I went to last week. We went for lunch this week and it was fun. I think we might be friends. Also, I feel like I am beginning to mesh more with my fellow students. In my last class on Thursday, there is a very frustrating man - he calls himself a "men's rights activist." While I respect his right to opinions, he says really offensive things and makes generalizations about things he knows nothing about. Anyway, a lot of people in my class have bonded over feeling frustrated and alienated by this man. I have also bonded with people in general (not involving frustration about another student). After class on Tuesday, a bunch of us went out for a drink at a pub on campus. From this outing, I got to hear about how others have felt like making friends is hard as well. It is nice to commiserate with others about these feelings and to know you're not alone. I am excited to see where I end up with this year!

Tomorrow I am going to work on more reading for my classes. Ellie and I are going to go for brunch somewhere as well.