As some of you may or may not know, I changed my major this past year from History to--GASP!--Classical History. Yes, they are considered two entirely different majors and departments. Yes, you must make a decision to sign up for one or the other. No, credits from one do NOT count towards your major for the other besides as "variant" courses that you need to fill up the extra 40 or 50 or however many credits you need to make the full 90 or 120 you need for your Undergrad degree.

...and YES, there's a huge amount of paperwork (at my university, anyways) as well as EXTRA COURSES that need to be taken alongside your standard set of courses when switching majors. That, coupled with other various incidents I had the luck to... experience... during last year royally screwed me up and so no, I did NOT pass all my courses.

So it was kind of really no surprise for me to find in my mailbox a letter from the School of Education at Laurentian stating, in no uncertain terms, that as probation is only offered to those in first year, not second, and that since my average is less than 75% for my last thirty credits, I have been summarily kicked out of the damn concurrent program (nevermind the fact that I am currently working my butt off at a full 15 credits of courses and currently have a Spring/Summer term average of 94%).

In a way, this is actually a good thing. Doing placements DURING the school year--having to make time for them, doing all the extra prep work, PLUS keeping up with normal studies and, for me, my job--is killer. I forget who, but someone told me when I started University that very, very quickly you really only end up with time for two things if you plan to graduate University. One of them, obviously, must be school. The other can be friends. Or work. Or, if you don't care, your two focuses can be friends and work, and school can suffer.

In the ConEd program? Unless you somehow manage to land a job in the late afternoon/evening or on the weekend? Placement becomes your second focus, school first.

It. Is. Not. Cool.

AND some of the hardest courses offered at Laurentian are actually for the ConEd programme, so, really, this isn't too bad.

What makes me happiest is that, in having to switch out my ConEd courses, I have the opportunity to choose courses that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to choose. AND SO~

My schedule for next year!

FALL TERM (Sept - Dec)
Classics: The Ancient Novel
Classics: Greek History
Geography: Introduction to Cartography
*Greek: Introduction to Classical Greek (language)
*Computers: Computer Application Software (programming)

WINTER TERM (Jan - Apr)
Religion: Death and Immortality in Western Religions
Classics: Greek Art and Archaeology
Classics: Roman History

*Courses marked with an astrics (sp?) are full-year courses and so are taken in both terms, starting in the fall with final exams in the winter

Soooooooooooo.... I'd have to do the Classics and Greek Language Study anyways for my degree, and the computer programming I'd do anyways, too (Laurentian requires BA students to take at least 6 credits every two terms of a science or math), but the RELIGIOUS STUDIES and the CARTOGRAPHY~~~~! You have no idea how happy getting to do these courses makes me. I'm a complete map FREAK (can't go ANYWHERE without having a map somewhere on me, even if it's to somewhere I already know how to get to!), and the 'death and immortality' theme makes me squee. So much. [Well, theoretical debates about death and immortality. Death itself makes me do anything but squee. ...I love physics, too, so kaa-san suggested I choose a Forensic Science course as my last course pick and, uh... I had to explain to her the idea of 'bird' courses. That, and my queasiness regarding cadavers. Uh, NO THANKS.]

ALSO, for those who know me and should be SQUEEING with me~! I've arranged my schedule this year so that, not only do I have Fridays off, but I ALSO have Thursday afternoons from 1 pm onwards off in the Fall term, and Thursday afternoons from 2:30 pm onwards off! [And Tuesdays with the same time restraints, but that's beside the point.] WHAT THIS MEANS is that I am a very happy chibi because I'll have time to hop the 5:15 pm Ontario Northland bus when I come home for the weekends, so EXTRA TIME TO SEE PEOPLE. HELLS YES.

...thissssss probably should have gone on my lj, since it's not exactly art related, but I'm just so happy about it, I needed to spread the news!

...

Why yes, I did just say I was happy about failing some courses and getting drop-kicked out of one of two degrees I was going for. HEY, I'M STILL IN CONTENTION FOR HONOURS BACHELOR OF ARTS. And after that, I can decided to do a Consecutive Teacher's College OR go for my Masters in Classical Studies. I'm so tempted to go for my masters, you have no idea.

[But maybe I'll do that closer to home....]