There Are Many Paths To Tread

It's been a long time since I've posted here, and I now found myself with free time. I have traveled to some new part of the country in thirteen of the last fourteen weekends, but this weekend I will stay in Dunedin because there is an unmissable Game 7 between the Ducks and the Kings on Saturday and a geography field trip on Sunday.

If you want to see all of the cool places I've been to, check out the other blog. I've been posting on that one every week because there's a lot to post about. But there is other, less exciting stuff I can talk about here.

I still have two weeks of class left, then exams. My family flies in on June 18th, and I'll do my best to show them around the country until we fly back to the states some number of days later.

Classes are going well here. My habit of writing papers in one sitting has gotten worse, and I'm not sure what my grades will look like because most of the grades are determined by the exams.

I've read some interesting books in Contemporary American Lit. Here are my thoughts on them.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Annoyingly postmodern. I don't recommend it to anyone who thinks a good book needs a good story.

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

A good book. Not exactly my cup of tea, but worth reading. Kinda bleak and depressing.

Sula by Toni Morrison

Excellent book. Great story, but out-of-this-world characters and writing. By far my favorite on the list, although A Visit From the Goon Squad might top it once I finish it.

Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

Very obnoxious writing style that was apparently supposed to parody American history textbooks. I guess it worked. The story is pretty good, though.

White Noise by Don DeLillo

A good book, but a frustrating one. Frustrating because everyone in the book is outrageously, unrealistically stupid. Good because I guess that's the point. Parts were very funny. I guess I liked it.

Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis

Terrible and unrealistically depressing. People just aren't that bad, are they?

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Too long, didn't read.

A Visit From the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan

I'm halfway through it (so no spoilers if you've read it), and it is excellent. Really well written, huge array of characters and complicated, interconnected plot between all the characters. Not sure how it's all gonna tie together, but right now I'm a big fan.

New Zealand history is fascinating. The course is taught by two lecturers, and the first one, who covered history up to around 1900 was a boring slide reader. The other guy is an old dude who is unashamed of his patriotism and his bias, and his lectures are superb. Very different from history at Middlebury, where everyone is too politically correct to admit that some historical character may have actually done some really good things.

Geography isn't as interesting as it is at Middlebury. Maybe that's because I'm taking a 100-level course, or maybe it's because the Geog profs at Midd are the best.

How cool is this?

I want to print it out and hang it on my dorm room wall next semester.

I also want the Ducks to win their next game. That is an understatement. It is the most important game they have played in since May 14, 2009. Their most important game in five years.

There must be more things to talk about. Well, there's people, but I always feel weird talking about people here, putting things about them out onto the internet. So I don't need to talk about people. Suffice to say that they are good.

How about summer? I just looked it up: I fly into LAX on June 29th. Where are you guys spending your summers? I know Rachael will be in Virginia and Nicole will be in Europe. I kinda assume Jason will be in Berkeley. (And Kevin? I know he's not part of the blog, but he still matters, at least a little bit.) Rich, will you be in Portland?