Photoessay #2056 - on campus

Now that fall quarter is in full swing, I'm on the UW campus for two hours or so every MWF.  The largest college in this whole region in the country, plenty of students, mostly undergraduates of the age you would expect 18-23.

I'm trudging along with my old lady roller bag.  I have about 20 minutes before and after class to look around.  My class is right next to Suzallo library; I can always poke around there.

I do feel a little odd.  I KNOW I'm not there pretending I'm an undergraduate.  That ambiguity might come for a student 10 years or so older.  Hey I'm an old lady access student; most of these young people are younger than my own kids.  I'm also not trying to recreate my own college experience as it was long ago and very different then the bustling urban UW campus. 

I do like this class, it's very specific, has it's own agenda.  What was Jewish thought in Germany leading up to the holocaust.  We've read many classic texts, very meaty, but the professor is winding his own path about how they might relate to Jewish thought of the time.  I did go talk to him during his office hours the other day.  He makes it very clear that the undergraduates are his focus which is fine.  But no other students were there and he clearly really was not too eager to talk with me.  I had some good topics myself, mainly partial emancipation in nineteenth century Bavaria and my Jewish ancestor's participation in the German community. He did want to talk a little about the undergraduates in the class; he felt it was going well.  I agreed as their comments seemed substantive to me.   So it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.  Whatev, as Ilana would say.

Picture of undergraduates taken from California University of Pennsylavnia website, used without permission.  Yes, it is an odd name for a college but it is a real place.