livin la vida loca

When is spring break? Wait, you're telling me its already over?! How did that happen?!?!?!?!

Well, I somehow managed to get a 4.0 last term. Even after failing a midterm in one class. I'll take it! Not so sure how this term will turn out though...Its the second day of spring term and I already feel overwhelmed with the amount of work looming on the horizon. Just because I'm sure you're dying to know, this is what I have in store for me this term.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I have Fundamentals of Spanish Literature from 9-10am. This is my only class on MWF, and of course it has to be at 9 am. Oh well, guess it could be earlier! The first assignment for this class involves reading a poem and answering questions like "What is an example of parallelism in this poem?" Or "Where is the decisive point? What is the climax, the conclusion, etc?" Yuck. At least the poem wasn't too bad. This class was held in the "Fourth Avenue Building" on PSU campus. Which is not marked. The outside of the building is called the Something Engineering Building. So after wandering around for a good 5 minutes, I just walked into the building and then found a sign which showed that this was in fact the Fourth Avenue Building. For this reason, half of the class was like half an hour late. And of course they've moved the class since then, so now we'll be meeting in a different building entirely.

Tuesdays and Thursdays start at 8am with a Communication class about Children and Violence. At PSU, you have to take these "junior cluster" courses, and can choose from a list of approved classes. Two of the three cluster classes have been pre-selected because of my Elementary Ed minor. The third was up to me. For some reason I decided to choose this one. The instructor seems like she's in her own little world, but I would probably have to be too if I taught classes about abuse and violence in/towards children. We watched this video today in class. Only watch it if you have no heart. Otherwise you will cryyyyy. Not only is it a really difficult topic, but looks like its gonna be a lot of work. In two weeks time, we have to read a book, write a report on it, plus do a research paper. Thanks, Gisele. I should mention that the book is A Child Called It. I'm not going to lie to you, I couldn't read the whole thing word for word. I had to kind of skim it because it made me sick to read. This is certainly not a book to read for pleasure. It is the story of the third worst child abuse case in California history. (Written by the abused boy himself-when he grew up and was rescued from it). He has since written two sequels, about his life after he was rescued from his abusive mother. I might have to read those so I can read the happily ever after ending to this heartbreaking story.

Next up, Linguistics. The study of language: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. This class is only 10 minutes after the Communications class. Fortunately its in the same building, otherwise it would be quite difficult! This class is full of what I'm pretty sure are the weirdest students at PSU. Maybe I shouldn't say that since I am in the class...? But let me give you two examples. First, there's the girl who feels the need to share her every thought and comment and opinion on everything. She won't quit talking. Even the professor was annoyed. At one point, she said, "Oh, this reminds me of something I learned in ASL class." And she proceeded to sign something. Uhhh, none of us know sign language. Plus it had nothing to do with what we were talking about. Anyway, then there's example two: We all went around and introduced ourselves. It came to this lady's turn and she says, "My name is so-and-so, but I go by Starlight. I was born in Maryland but my life started here." Okey dokey, Starlight, nice to meet you. Then, later, we are reading an example of a nonsense sentence to show that even if it has no meaning, you still understand the parts of speech. It reads, "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." The professor is laughing, saying, no one knows what that means!! Starlight says, "I do." Fortunately, the professor ignored her and moved on. Okay, I'm sure these are really lovely people and that they are super nice and great. Maybe they think I'm totally obnoxious.

Last up, Passions and Emotions in Poetry of the 16th Century. Funny story, when I registered for this class, it shows up as "Spanish Literature: Women Writers" (that sounded bad enough). So profesora walks in and says, well, this isn't Women Writers. Soooorry! So, here I am analyzing (I don't like having to analyze anything) poetry (which I don't really get in the first place), from the "Golden Age" (I don't even know when that was), and its all in Spanish (at least that part is okay...until I start reading Looking At Talents for Science...or something like that. The words in the title of this book could all mean like three different things. I don't even know what the title means.....).

So, all that, plus working 20-ish hours a week, will be my life for the next ten weeks. What, I'm supposed to have some semblance of a social life, too?! Well, this should be fun. (?)






P.S. Costa Rica is out, Korea is IN (maybe)! I'm applying for this 5-week program since I turned the Costa Rica one down. Its $400 versus $3000+, and is 5 weeks, twice as long as Costa Rica.