First Day of School

Last night while I was busy being nervous for the first day of school it snowed. It was beautiful, and then the power went out so I reread my syllabus by candlelight.

The library is no longer in the blissful state of pre-term emptiness, and the carrel I wanted turned out to be taken, but even with everyone around me eating an early lunch it still has a certain broad and scholastic peacefulness. The thing about teaching is that, even when you have done a lot of planning and photocopying in advance, there's still a lot to do on the spot. My goal of having to do nothing but show up isn't going to work. Still, my class seems nice and it was good to see my returning students again.

Update: Okay, this is just weird. In the assigned-carrel section of the library, there are all these undergrad guys in suits, all eating lunch. It's must be some kind of fraternity thing. They're also working--the one closest to me is reading photocopied poems--but still, like ants or mice, what in the singular would be harmless or even cute is horrifying when encountered as a swarm.

Update: I feel like I'm in some kind of performance art piece. Every time I look there are more of them. And now they have reached the critical mass at which the imperative to be quiet in the library stops seeming important. Most are working but at any given moment two or three of them are walking around, crunching potato chips, whispering. What I don't understand is why, if they must make of the library their private lunchroom, it has to be here in the assigned-carrel section where people obviously only go if they really want to study.