Impressions

I really liked Sarah's idea of a personal farewell, so I decided to write one, too, especially since I was so quiet in class. First of all, I want to apologize for this, and I really get angry about it, every time I think about it. It was a difficult situation: my personal shyness combined with my feeling of being unable to translate and verbalize my thoughts. I somehow felt trapped in my own mind. I still feel trapped but hope that I will be able to cope this shyness in the near future, it really annoys me that I am seemingly not able to overcome my own doubts and boundaries.
Regardless of this personal 'problem', I enjoyed the class! I often had to struggle with the texts and became frustrated by trying to get the meaning of a poem. At the same time, this frustration was an incentive to continue my 'discovery'. I loved the class discussions as they added so much and offered new ways of interpretation. I think that the atmosphere in class was very fair and respectful. Sidenote about the twitter-thing: I became so used to it that I often wanted to tweet for other classes, too ;-)
This course was much more intense than I expected it to be. And it was good this way, I would not wish it to be different. So I not only learnt a lot about Romanticism but also about so much else, philosophical constructs, questions of belief and disbelief, power of imagination, boundaries.... This totally struck me! It works in my mind, my heart, my soul. My wish list for Christmas mostly consists of books: Milton's Paradise Lost, Kant, Blake...
To be honest, I can't remember any class since I attended university where I learnt so much in every sense! Together with "Capturing the Self", it was my favorite class.
I am unimaginably sad that I have to go back to Germany in less than a week. I really don't want to go. I realized that I actually like Loyola more than my University back home (bad ad...) . My reasons for Loyola: small university, personal and familiar , intense classes and teachers who are also interested in things beyond their subjects. And amazing people, of course. Being confronted with this 'detection' (approx. less than a week ago) I have a really, really, really hard time. I already now fear homesickness/wanderlust for Loyola. I will miss Loyola, New Orleans and all people so much, I don't even dare to think about this. I have never expected that this feeling could be so strong! Why has this semester abroad to end with such an inward struggle? In my head, my heart, my soul, everything seems to be a chaos.
So...thank you all for this amazing(!!!) class and experience.