August 22, 2017
So, today was my second day of college, my second set of first day classes. I only had two classes today, one of the required Natural Science and Mathematics courses (N&M) following the scientific, or rather, biological, viewpoint of race, gender and sexuality. There are two other courses looking into the same topic, one is an Arts and Humanities course (A&H) and the other is a Social and Historical Studies course (S&H), they go over the topic from different angles. According to my professor he'll teach us for eight weeks and then we'll be taught for a bit by each of the other two, it's a new thing they're trying where the professor change up classes a bit and show each one the other way of looking at the topic they've been studying. I think it sounds cool and I'm looking forward to it, especially because the other two viewpoints are way more up my alley, not a big science person. Unfortunately universities require GenEd's so I don't have a choice. It's fine, though I have had some trouble remembering the acronyms for the different kinds of courses, I kept calling my class S&M rather than N&M, that is an entirely different thing, I don't have a problem with it, everyone is free to express themselves however they want, but, yeah, saying I'm taking an S&M class to someone I've just met isn't really the best first impression.
So today was alright, mostly we went over the different syllabuses in each of my classes, my N&M is totally packed, not looking forward to that though the class itself sounds like it'll be really interesting. My second class of the day was Spanish Grammar in Context, apparently it's the highest course you can test into because IU won't let you take any 300 level courses without it. I've been studying Spanish since I was in kindergarten, Lawrence Township has a Spanish Immersion program kids can participate in if their name is drawn from a raffle, it's a pretty popular program teaching kids Spanish throughout the entirety of their pre-university schooling. From kindergarten all the way through high school. When I talk about it I like to say that I don't ever really remember learning the language, I can't remember a time I haven't known it. We aren't really taught Spanish, especially after elementary school, it's more like we are taught in Spanish. It's really neat and I'm always grateful that my parents put me in it, but because of it I get the feeling my 280 Spanish class is going to be too easy. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, I could always use the grammar refresher, Spanish has got some pretty crazy grammar going on.
The biggest issue, I think, is probably going to be listening to the other students in my class. I've gotten used to learning Spanish with the same 50-ish people my whole life and now I'm in a class made up of people who've mostly just learned Spanish in high school. Their accents are terrible, they make me cringe listening to them and they don't know some of the simplest things. I don't claim to be fluent, I stumble over certain knowing certain vocabulary, but this was just bad. I don't know how I'm going to put up with listening to them the whole semester. Towards the end of the class we were told to break into groups and, speaking only in Spanish, get to know each other, our names, our majors, why we're taking Spanish, what we want to do with it, etc. It couldn't have been more obvious that most of the groups didn't do that. Mine did, but that was because I didn't give the girl I was talking to any other option, even when she tried to slip into English I kept speaking in Spanish. That's what the class is, that's what I'm going to speak. In general, though, I have some okay hopes for the course.
I had some bad experiences with the food court today, I wanted a sub sandwich from the deli place in Wright food court for lunch, my class ended at 2:15 so I thought I'd be able to get my food pretty quick, but it was actually crazy busy and I didn't have enough time to wait to get my food in between my two classes. Actually, I might have, I overestimated how long it would take to get ready and go down there. In any case, I ended up losing track of time doing my assigned readings and went back over there around 8 for dinner, again thinking since it was so late I'd be able to get my food quickly. Nope, it was even busier than earlier, it was absolutely insane and the guys working at the deli place were incredibly slow, at least, the one was. I was first in line for order but after waiting ten minutes while I watched the cashier make sandwiches at a painfully slow pace, and seeing how many orders were to go. I decided, "screw it" and went to Jimmy John's. Picked up some milk from the little grocery store on the way back and came back to my dorm.
That pretty much catches up to now, I want to get to bed early, I have an 8 am class tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
So today was alright, mostly we went over the different syllabuses in each of my classes, my N&M is totally packed, not looking forward to that though the class itself sounds like it'll be really interesting. My second class of the day was Spanish Grammar in Context, apparently it's the highest course you can test into because IU won't let you take any 300 level courses without it. I've been studying Spanish since I was in kindergarten, Lawrence Township has a Spanish Immersion program kids can participate in if their name is drawn from a raffle, it's a pretty popular program teaching kids Spanish throughout the entirety of their pre-university schooling. From kindergarten all the way through high school. When I talk about it I like to say that I don't ever really remember learning the language, I can't remember a time I haven't known it. We aren't really taught Spanish, especially after elementary school, it's more like we are taught in Spanish. It's really neat and I'm always grateful that my parents put me in it, but because of it I get the feeling my 280 Spanish class is going to be too easy. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, I could always use the grammar refresher, Spanish has got some pretty crazy grammar going on.
The biggest issue, I think, is probably going to be listening to the other students in my class. I've gotten used to learning Spanish with the same 50-ish people my whole life and now I'm in a class made up of people who've mostly just learned Spanish in high school. Their accents are terrible, they make me cringe listening to them and they don't know some of the simplest things. I don't claim to be fluent, I stumble over certain knowing certain vocabulary, but this was just bad. I don't know how I'm going to put up with listening to them the whole semester. Towards the end of the class we were told to break into groups and, speaking only in Spanish, get to know each other, our names, our majors, why we're taking Spanish, what we want to do with it, etc. It couldn't have been more obvious that most of the groups didn't do that. Mine did, but that was because I didn't give the girl I was talking to any other option, even when she tried to slip into English I kept speaking in Spanish. That's what the class is, that's what I'm going to speak. In general, though, I have some okay hopes for the course.
I had some bad experiences with the food court today, I wanted a sub sandwich from the deli place in Wright food court for lunch, my class ended at 2:15 so I thought I'd be able to get my food pretty quick, but it was actually crazy busy and I didn't have enough time to wait to get my food in between my two classes. Actually, I might have, I overestimated how long it would take to get ready and go down there. In any case, I ended up losing track of time doing my assigned readings and went back over there around 8 for dinner, again thinking since it was so late I'd be able to get my food quickly. Nope, it was even busier than earlier, it was absolutely insane and the guys working at the deli place were incredibly slow, at least, the one was. I was first in line for order but after waiting ten minutes while I watched the cashier make sandwiches at a painfully slow pace, and seeing how many orders were to go. I decided, "screw it" and went to Jimmy John's. Picked up some milk from the little grocery store on the way back and came back to my dorm.
That pretty much catches up to now, I want to get to bed early, I have an 8 am class tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
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