Is it odd to be excited by textbooks?

Renewable Energy (It's physics, engineering, use, environmental impacts, economy and planning aspects) by Sorensen, Bent - ₤27.75
Renewable Energy by Boyle, Godfrey - ₤26.75
Natural Resource and Environmental Economics by Perman, Roger - ₤32.55
Environmental Science in Building by McMullan, Randall - ₤20.55

Four nerdy textbooks
= ₤107.60 (~$210.00)

Being this excited about textbooks
= Priceless!!

Okay, so it's a cheesy rip off of Mastercard's overused ad template, but hey, borrowed clever is better than none at all.

In any event, I had my first two classes this week, and I have to say I am simply thrilled and still a little amazed that (a) I actually managed to find (and get in to) a master's course focused on pretty much exactly what I want to learn (with only a little extraneous material) and (b) that it's off to a strong start with the first two modules, both of which promise to kick my butt, and be really engaging. AWESOME.

For each of the next six weeks, I have one solid day (9:30-5:00, Wednesdays) of 'Renewable Energy' and a second solid day (9:30 -5:00, Thursdays) of 'Sustainable Development.' A good bit of the rest of the week will be spent reading material, working on assignments, and preparing for those structured days. The schedule actually feels a little overwhelming, believe it or not, but if you haven't already surmised, I'm really excited.

Renewable Energy this week was a general introduction and overview - the carbon cycle, the energy cycle, various energy flows and pathways, and a broad look at the available alternative and renewable energy technologies that we'll be focusing on in depth. We even busted out with some energy formulas and units that I haven't thought about since my last Physics class. Please say I stored all that stuff away somewhere safe in the deep dark depths my brain. That would be helpful.

Sustainable Development was a little bit more theoretical - we discussed the origins of the term and our own preconceived notions of its meaning, then looked at the history and milestones of the global political 'sustainability' movement and compared the varying opinions of what exactly the idea entails. Toward the end we got more scientificy (not a word, I know, but it should be) and looked at some of the statistics on poverty, global wealth inequity and what it would mean to address sustainability on a worldwide scale. It was really interesting, especially since the goal, apparently, is to take a scientific approach to figuring out how the idea of sustainable development is best realized and applied to the climate change struggle. Oh, and we're also going to work on our "critical appraisal" skills. That should be interesting...

And there you have it - WAY more detail than anybody would want to know about my first week of school, but I'll post it anyway and you can just skim down to the funny pictures of the Englishman's butt.