In the cafeteria at UCLA (as well as a large number of other US schools), there are TVs all over the place, with college television broadcasts. These TVs are visible (and quite often audible, too) from any corner of the cafeteria. Half of it is obviously commercials, and 90% of it is not informative – entertainment, shopping tips, and junky corporate news. The latest and greatest is the snippets from the Republican convention, and W’s charming smile. Unfortunately puking buckets are not accessible as easily as the crappy television programming! I really don’t miss the intrusive bombardment with information I didn’t ask for.
I checked into Danish courses today. There is a pretty sizeable Scandinavian department at UCLA, with Elementary / Intermediate / Advanced courses for Norweigian / Swedish / Danish. Also there are some courses on Scandinavian literature, such as Kirkegaard / H.C. Andersen / H. Ibsen, as well as Scandinavian cinema. That sounds really cool. To my utter dismay, however, in the Autumn 2004, only Elementary Danish is offered. And even that was cancelled, for lack of interest. The Swedish course on the other hand has a waiting list on it. What a bummer!
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