Back to studying

I've just begun an OU course - Introduction to the Humanities - and it's quite good to actually begin to stretch one's brain again. There was an introductory essay we had to do in order that our tutor could gauge our brain power I guess and the subject was on Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

There were three paragraphs whose language we had to analyse and I found it much harder than I expected. I was a bit lazy really and, even though we could write up to 500 words, I submitted just over 250. It was an unmarked project but my tutor told me that if she had been marking it I would only have received a *C*, so I'd better try a bit harder.

There don't seem to be any OU progs on BBC2 these days; you receive a set of DVD's and CD's instead. I've watched two things so far - one on Jackson Pollock's Summertime and the other on the formation of the sonnet. Both very interesting and I didn't know that Pollock used to be known as Jack the Dripper. I'm not really a fan of his style, but seeing the painting analysed did make me start to see the merit it contained.

One thing I've noticed is that in the three and a half years we've lived in France I've begun to lose my grip on English grammar and spelling. French words seem to come to my mind much more often these days. I really ought to develop my French grammar as well. We picked up the rudiments through courses and books and now just coast along with what we know, with much room for improvement.

I hope I report back that my next essay will merit at least a *B* and that I do almost the maximum amount of words. We'll see.