CHRIS YODER
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008

AGORA DAYS is back, everybody.

With the abysmal weather of late, and the workload of this semester starting to heat up, the Agora break from Feb. 19 to 22 couldn’t come any sooner.

Even though everyone has to take two “academic” classes during Uni's annual four-day break from regular classes, that still leaves six periods in which to play video games, watch a movie, or learn a martial art.

Starting today, juniors and seniors can choose their classes, while all other students will wait until Monday to cast their course requests. As usual, everyone — even those lower on the pecking order — will have an abundance of good classes to choose from.

Only 10 classes are offered first hour, so getting into a class this period will be harder than those of any other. Intro to Japanese should be a great academic class, but if Badminton or Bughouse don't interest you, then it may be wise to take this period free.

Second period fields a variety of interesting options, from Elementary School Mentoring to playing “Halo 3.” Whether you choose to take a class in cooking, making and watching movies, or polynominoes, there’s a good chance you’ll find something this period to interest you.

Third-period classes offer even more variety, with classes from Advanced Ultimate Frisbee and Cricket for Beginners to the Magic School Bus and Explorations with Mathematica (two of the six academic classes).

Fourth hour presents seven academic classes, but only six other choices — a Ken Burns documentary series on the Civil War could be a good academic class, but it may not be worth the two periods to watch it because of all the options in the next period.

DDR and Belegarth figure to fill quickly in the first class after lunch. Unless you’re going on the German trip or you take yearbook, the other academic classes are tossups. The movie classes showing “Scrubs” or “Fight Club” could be good options too, depending on your cinematic taste.

As good as I hope the Japan Trip will be this summer, I won’t be able to take some of the intriguing sixth-hour classes because of it. Cell Game will be very popular considering its status as an academic class. Nuclear Risk and Rubik’s Cube look like great options as well.

Not many classes catch the eye in seventh hour, but there are still some decent courses available. German for Beginners is a good option as an academic class, and anyone who likes playing cards has two options this period. Tae Kwon Do and Hot Air Ballooning also look good on the schedule.

I’ll be using eighth hour to write about my classes for the OG, but everyone not in journalism or the spring play should have plenty of options that period. With more options than any other period, Guitar Hero, Basketball, and Futurama should be great classes with which to end a day.

Agora Days is going to be great, everybody.