This Term's Sit-In Course is:

I've always liked variety in my schedule, and in the past, when I've had courses such as Literature, West Thought, Eastern Thought, Calculus, or Physics on my timetable, variety wasn't the problem. In fact, it was often part of the problem! -- but hey, no one said university was supposed to be easy. This past year, as my schedule (see below) has become increasingly dominated by courses from one single discipline, I've decided to sit in on one extra course each term -- some random, fun course that interested me, but that I didn't have time to write the papers for. So I would just show up to all the classes I could make and contribute once in a while to the discussion. No one knew I wasn't supposed to be there (I think technically you're supposed to pay a 'listening fee' for doing that, but that's gotta be a scam if I've ever heard of one).


In first term, that course was Russian Literature. In terms of sheer perseverance and mental satisfaction, I'm pretty sure that reading a novel by Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky must rank right up there with any other human experience. It's probably equivalent to running a marathon with your eyes and with your brain. And I knew that without this course, I would never finish even one of these books -- let alone the 3 that I read heading into the term. No, not War and Peace, yet, but like running marathons, ya gotta work up to it. It was the perfect companion to all the math and stats i was doing at the time.

This term, I'm sitting in on Christianity in the Modern Period... Kind of a critical analysis of my religion that I'm fond of. I've always wanted to learn more about Roman Catholic doctrine (my parents chose not to send me to Catholic school despite my relgious upbringing) , but it looks like the focus of this course is more Protestant. Nevertheless, it should be a good time and I'm hoping it brings up a lot of compelling questions that religon raises.

I was actually tempted to overload and just take those two courses, but I decided against it. I've overloaded in both 2nd and 3rd years to take interesting courses like these, and though I managed, it was pretty intense. Seeing as I have those extra credits (plus a full-year equivalent at U of T summer school), I have more than enough credits. In fact, I could have underloaded this year if I wanted to, but perhaps that's just not my nature. So auditing will be where it's at.