A Few Notes After My First Week of Classes

An update from NYC:

Classes have started and I now officially find myself in the somewhat surreal and thrilling position of being, once again, a full time student. (See photo above.)

My first week of school has been stimulating. I’ve enjoyed meeting my fellow MA program classmates — about half of whom are international — and the J-School professors and staff are, of course, top notch.

I may provide more details on my courses later, but for now let me simply share a sampling of some of the wide ranging classroom materials I’ve encountered over the last seven days.

I have read (or re-read, as I tackled it during my undergraduate years) Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” I have delved into Francis Bacon’s “New Organon.”

I have contemplated journalism in the context of social psychology. And in studying the history of journalism, it was intriguing to read a passage by Joseph Addison in The Spectator, his early 18th century UK newspaper.

On the business side of things, I have also (seriously!) found my financial accounting class compelling. But check with me in a few months, as it will only become increasingly challenging.

It’s also been illuminating to read an academic paper on the relationship between economists and journalists. And I wrote a news story for my business seminar about Friday’s employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are many more things I want to share about my first few weeks here in this great city after spending six years in Bangkok, from thoughts on urban planning to the NYC subway to the availability of high quality beer here.

I also still plan to share some long-overdue insight on blogging, Mac and iPhone apps, and more. But for now I’ll leave it at this.

Due to my current time constraints, please be sure to look for me on Twitter, as I suspect I’ll continue to be more active there than here, at least over the coming weeks.