I now have a laptop, and so there's no holding me back now from spilling all about this school. Except there ain't much to tell. There's a new, fuzzy atmosphere the new (she came last year) dean of students is trying to inculcate, and that was crystal clear in her address to us newbies: "The competition is over," she said, and paused for effect. "You've won." There used to be all sorts of scary competitiveness here, but a new age has dawned, and it is round and pink and fuzzy.

We all joked about it afterwards (and still are -- "I might have flubbed that answer, but I'm winner. The dean said so") but it's actually kinda nice.

Classes aren't like the lectures I loved in college. They're very interactive, and I live in terror of being called upon (though in this kindler, gentler era, the profs really are pretty kid-glovey dovey about the Socratic method). I never participated in class or section as an undergrad, and some things don't change. Which makes the teaching method even more horrific -- after you give an answer, the professor asks you to back that up, or to consider another factor and say how that affects your answer, or goes to another person and then back to you and asks you to respond. I hate that shit. It's fun for some, but I've never even been a dinner table debator. It's interesting to listen, but I don't want to participate, I just don't.

But enough complaints for tonight. I think I'm going to apply for this mediation program, where you go and act as a mediator (duh) for people coming to small claims court. I'm not sure how competitive it is. It sounds interesting, though, and sort of up my alley in terms of interest and strengths. Most of the time, I think, people just want someone else to say that their concerns are valid. I can do that.