absolute beginners

Most friends, and people who’ve read this blog for a while, know that for years I’ve been a student of the Martial Arts. I started while attending RIT and have continued to this day, some twelve years later. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I would continue this study in Chicago.

I’ve found a few places to practice. In both cases, I’m starting in arts that I’ve never studied before. That’s something that I have not done in a while. That isn’t to suggest that I’ve tried everything under the sun. Rather its just that I’ve been focusing my study on a single art, with a bunch of familiar people, for quite a while. It’s been a while since I’ve been a raw beginner.

Truth is I’m loving it. This week I began lessons in Judo (to supplement my throwing game) and Lui Ho Bi Fa (Water boxing). Between both classes I learned a total of four techniques in four hours. Years ago I would have hated that. I’d want to advance as quickly as possible. Now I’m old enough to understand what it takes to learn something well and slow and steady is fine with me. In the case of the water boxing, I literally spent more than a hour learning how to take a single step.

And I’m still not sure if I have that step down.

Chicago so far has been a humbling experience in this respect. From school to Martial Arts, I’m a beginner. And that’s one adjustment that seems to be going pretty smoothly.

how things change

My class for the day is cancelled. At RIT this would usually be cause for elation. Now I’m really worried. Chicago, like RIT (the Rochester Institute of Technology), is a quarter system school. I only have ten weeks of courses. Enthnography, the course in question, only meets once a week. So if it isn’t rescheduled, I miss one tenth of my ethnographic education. As the title suggests, things change.

This weekend was a strange mix of good and bad. On Sunday a shelf collapsed in my apartment, causing a huge mess and a lot of distraction. On Monday, while closing a stuck window, I impaled my right palm on a obelisk type knick knack that on the sill. But on the positive side, I reconnected via phone with some old friends, I met some new friends at a martial arts event, and caught Supersize me, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

Oh and I tried Giorgdano’s Deep Dish Pizza. I can’t remember if Tina like them or Gino’s pizza. Oh and I have seen Jamba Juices, but none have been in Hyde Park so I have yet to buy one.

So much for my time off before classes

I’m sitting in the library as I type this. Why am I in the library you ask? Because I’ve been dealt the first surprise of my graduate career: that I have reading assignments due on the first day of my classes. And what makes things more complex is that certain classes currently do not have syllabuses available. So I’m going to need to wait until a day or two before the class begins before I know what I need to read for that class. Or where the class is being held, for that matter.

This is all part of the school’s effort to put a fear of God and the program into us. Discussions have focused on how much work is about to come our way. Judging from the reading, it’s true. For example, my Perspectives in the Social Sciences class has nine full books and 75 articles associated with it. I’ve been told I should expect to read a minimum of 300 page a week. And that’s before I get to the writing assignments.

Still, I plan to explore Chicago this weekend. But for the moment, it’s nose to the books. And tomorrow I’ll be taking a bus tour of Chicago sponsored by the MAPPS program. I’m told it’s quite good and that the tour guide is quite saucy.

I’m heating up the ol’ MC3 and will start to post some videos and pictures of things really soon.