Existentialism

Before getting to the meet of this post, I think I can give some updates as the Putney situation. My new farm experience this morning was cleaning it a chicken coop, which was positively horrendous. At first it looked as if the poop was the floor, but then when we started to dig in I realized, much to my chagrin, that in reality, it was the top of about a foot of chicken droppings. It had a disturbing similarity to paper mâché in texture, and as we shoveled it realsed a dust that got absolutely everywhere. Since I was avoiding breathing through my nose in order to bear the stench, the inside of my mouth and just about everything was coated the dust, and it was positively miserable. Just another thrilling day on the farm. Even though it sounds like I don't enjoy it, doing AM Barn really is one of myfavorite things about my stay. Getting up early and having a satisfying start to the day really is nice, and I truly am learning a lot from the experience. Luckily, however, I will have my day off tomorrow, meaning I get to sleep in past 5:25 for the first time since last Saturday... Oh the excitement :)

Anyways, the class today that I shall talk about is Existentialism, which is turning out to be a pretty great class. It's mainly discussion based, and student run, so it's great to hear all the ideas that other students have. I must admit, the Northeast was, is, a bit of a culture shock after the Midwest, but also certainly a welcome one. They are very liberal, even more so than Maumee Valley, which is both nice and strange. Back to the class though. I began in right when they finished reading Camus's The Stranger. Today was the final discussion, and the assignment of a project on our understanding of Camus's ideas, meaning that I am both lost and fascinated. I did manage to get some ideas in based in what others were saying and my bare-bones understanding of the book from Sparknotes. The philosophy involved in his writing is very interesting, and I believe, though I don't think the teacher expects it, that I might read The Stranger briefly and then do the writing project that he assigned, which was basically to relatively portray your understanding of what Camus was talking about. Is fun to be n a class whose main focus is one philosophical discipline, and though I'm a bit lost occasionally since I don't have as solid a base due to my jumping in as the others do, it's still fascinating to be in the class. The teacher, Lou Cannelli, is wonderful as well, and has very intelligent methods of getting us all to participate and think through the lenses of Existentialism.

My discussion in class has led to another topic, which is that of the people at Putney. Although I had a fear of not being able to relate or interact, or that it might be more difficult, everyone here is wonderful and a lot of fun, making the entire experience better than it ever would have been otherwise. I don't remember is I had mentioned this already, but I think it something worth reiterating,