you do something really embarrassing like barging into a classroom full of quiet, studious people? Today I got out of Spanish early, and I thought I would go say hello to my former Theory professor. I was sure that he has Theory I this hour, and I figured that at this point in the semester, they probably wouldn't have formal class because they would be working on their final compositions. Yeah, well, not so much. About twenty of them were sitting nicely, taking notes. I was surprised that they were not only in class, but that they were quiet and taking notes. None of my classes with him were ever like that- we were constantly asking questions and blurting out answers. And notes? Please.
So now I'm just hoping I don't see any of those students ever again. =)
On another note... (I'm so punny.)
Last Saturday I watched A River Runs Through It, and then I watched Legends of the Fall. I didn't realize they were both going to be period pieces, set in Montana, with Brad Pitt playing a alcoholic crazy man. I enjoyed River, but Legend... wow. That was a whirlwind of a movie. (No worries, one of the girls knew which parts to skip over.)
This post may end up not being interesting to anyone but my Mom, so there's your disclaimer!
I wound up buying a new brown towel. It was a tough, though, because Target no longer has my original set. One year down and I've already got mismatched linens... (do towels count as linens?) Oh well. It was bound to happen, right?
I have mentioned before that I hate Spanish, right? Yeah well I still do. But I had my final oral exam today and I made a 94. =) I was pretty satisfied. My pronunciation and comprehension were "good," but my vocabulary was "creative." I got flustered by the end of it and made up some Arafranish words.
Things in the Writing Center are winding down. =( I've really enjoyed watching the students grow. Remember the girl who said that she wishes all her teachers were like me? Every time she sees me on campus, she hollers, "Hey Laura!" I holler back, "Hey Laurenqua!" and it makes me happy. Another one of my tutees hasn't been so pleasant all semester. He was actually quite abrasive at first. He told me constantly how much he hates English and thinks it's stupid. None of the tutors could stand him. But during out last session, while we were working on shifts in tense, he pointed out a comma in the textbook and asked, "Why is that comma there? It's not a list, compound sentence, or introduction." =0 This is a kid who, in September, couldn't distinguish a verb from a Volvo, much less volunteer 3 uses of commas! Ah! It was so great. Not only has he made academic improvements, he has also made social improvements. He doesn't offend as many people in the Center, and he even does that high five/hand shake thing with me around campus. (I'm not quite cool enough to know what that thing is called.)
In some different kind of exciting news.. North Charleston is the 7th most dangerous city in the US. Prior to this year, that was sort of strange to think about because I just never go to those dangerous parts of the city. Duh. But in the past month and a half, my campus has gone on a security lockdown 4 times. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't really know about the first one; it wasn't that serious. I think two of the others were drug-related, and the most recent was a robbery. I'm pretty sure firearms were related in all instances. I've never been scared during the lockdowns.. I suppose I should clarify that. Lockdowns vary a little bit each time. Generally, a witness or victim calls security, residence life people run around and tell everyone to get into the nearest building and stay there, all entrances and exits are sealed while the police do their stuff, people are stuck wherever they are for about 4 hours, and then it's all over. We have an emergency alert system that is supposed to call and email everyone. It's not always reliable though, and that's why I didn't know about the first one.
Anyway.. I was saying that I've never been scared during one, but they've been so frequent that I'm on the edge of being concerned. So, my school could maybe use a few extra prayers. =) Don't worry, though. I've been wearing my big girl pants!
My posts have been greatly lacking in frequency, but I still check Pleonast about every day and catch up on everyone's blogs!
Everything in Lauraland is going pretty well. It's finally cold, and I'm loving it. My classes are all going really well. I'm loving my History of the English Language course. I am becoming a pro at the ways of Old and Middle English. The Writing Center is also still great. My Spanish class is my only complaint. I didn't want to take it at all. I've never liked Spanish. At all. But after much distress, I signed up for 8am Spanish 101 three days a week. Bad idea, people. I should have listened my my Arabic professor said that if you don't have an interest in a language or its culture, there's no point in taking it. He was very right. Oh well.
I think I have lost a towel. I don't understand how that can happen. The driers sometimes eat my socks, and that's reasonable. But a whole towel? There's a chance I put it somewhere really strange after I last did laundry, but there are only so many places I can hide things in my dorm room. Unfortunately it was my favourite towel. sigh
So barring Spanish and the missing towel, life is pretty good!
This semester I've started working in the Writing Center, which is for students who are in remedial writing classes. They have weekly appointments to work with tutors (like myself) on their papers or general grammar stuff. Yesterday, one of my tutees was Laurenequa. She might be my new favourite person. She brought in a rough draft of an assignment, and she knew she needed to trim it down, but she didn't know how. So we read it together, talked about it, did a few things to get her mind flowing, and she totally owned the essay. It was so cool. After we were done, I could tell she was really proud of it. She said she was going to bring it to me when she got her grade. And she also said, "If my teachers were like you, I could be good at everything!" That made me super happy. She really did all the work- I was just there to facilitate it. Isn't it cool that someone will pay me for this?!
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And in regards to my previous post... We DID end up sort of evacuating. The school shut down at 11 on Friday, but I stuck it out like a pro. Not that there was really a lot to "stick out"... But now I have officially survived a hurricane. Now for a tsunami...
