Thoughts on Sociology-- From 2011

I've been going through my old posts, and found this unfinished draft. Enjoy?

I had a few minutes, so I thought I'd jot down some thoughts while I was at the college library... apparently no one's used this computer since I was here yesterday evening. Anyway, some notes on the classes I've had so far today:

International Trade/Finance:

• The class was very quiet. I think we were expected to finish the professor's thoughts/sentences, but we didn't always know where he was going with his thoughts.
• I need a quick review in basic economics. I don't know why, but I just was not following what he was talking about.

Sociology:

At the beginning of class, the Professor had one student spit in a cup, and then asked if anyone would volunteer to drink it. She then said it was an accepted cultural norm for us not to want to drink spit out of a cup, even though "when you kiss someone, you're swapping spit. When you share a toothbrush or drink out of someone else's straw, you're swapping spit. You wonder, who makes up these rules? It's not ok to ingest someone else's saliva from a cup, but fine to do it straight from someone's mouth... One of the things us sociologists do is to take something normal, and then make it look weird!"

I understand the point she was trying to make, but I see that as more of a cost/benefit kind of thing. There is usually nothing to be gained from drinking someone's spit out of a cup, whereas in all of her other examples, there was. People get over the fact that spit is gross and move on with their lives.