School Reflections

So as the semester winds to a close, I feel the urge to talk about my classes over the last 3-4 months.

For starters, I had 'français de tous les jours' (Everyday French) module 3. There was some stress right at the beginning, about whether I could actually sign up for the class. Odile (Martin's Mom) has been super supportive, though. She knows the guy who runs the vocational school system and more or less pulled some strings for me to get into the class. Makes me feel a bit guilty, but then I've since decided that the best thing I can do from here is to 'pay it forward' as Mom puts it. I think I have been, seeing as I can actually talk directly to Odile now rather than wait for Martin to be around to play translator.

The week preceding and the first day of class, I was full of anxiety. I hadn't paid for the class yet (we pay them the first week of class), so there was a large cowardly part of me reasoning that if I didn't go for the class yet, it would be a no-harm, no-foul thing. I was placed into Module 3 (second-highest for this course.. It actually appears to go up to Module 10 or 12 formally for language courses), and honestly felt it was a mistake. My verbal skills seriously lack. Read/Write, I am decent at, but Listening/Speaking I have serious issues with. I stuck with the course, though, obviously, and don't regret it at all.

About the class itself .. The people involved in the class are all extremely interesting. People from Peru, Africa (several countries, not gonna list them all), Sri Lanka, Turkey, Portugal, Spain, and Great Britain are all in there. There were a few memorable exercises where I became proud of myself, such as when I was asked to conjugate attendre (to wait) without prior coverage in class, and did so perfectly. There were some times when the teacher just astounded me, such as when we were discussing "beaucoup de" (many, or lots of).. Mme Oriet asked one of the Muslim students .. "Vous avez beaucoup des femmes?" (You have many wives?) and the entire classroom more or less fell silent. Seriously uncomfortable that day. Then there were times where I was put on the spot for being American. Aside from constant questions about US culture (which I typically astounded most of my classmates for not being all "YEAH, U-S-A, U-S-A!"), the most memorable is when I was asked something akin to "Avez-vous l'intention de retourner aux Etats-Unis?" ("Do you plan to go back to the US?") My answer was no, and I had to seriously struggle to explain that overall, I don't like the US. That was fun. Not really. xP

Overall, though, it's been a positive experience. I still feel left behind when some of my classmates will go into full-blown conversations and I'm stuck trying to figure out what is going on, but I'm definitely getting better. I don't feel like my head is gonna explode after leaving class anymore, which is a good thing.

I've also been taking Psychology online at UMass Framingham, which has been an interesting experience in and of itself. There are a lot of times where I feel like I put more effort into my assignments than my classmates, and it especially showed in both of our group projects. The first one was a PowerPoint presentation, which (out of 2 weeks) took a week and a half for my groupmates to actually get the assignments out to everyone. Maybe I should have taken charge more, but I more or less laid out a plan.. And had to wait for people to agree to do different parts. The second project was a 5 page paper about a hypothetical psychologist's review of a patient. This also took a week and a half of 2 weeks in order for people to get organized. This time, though, I couldn't even work ahead of time because everyone was focused on a live chat to discuss the details. When we finally got into the chat (Weds), they more or less had 24 hours (project due Friday) to get their pieces to me. I think I managed to throw everything together in a way that will get us a better grade, but I really didn't like pulling a 30-hour day, waiting for everyone to send me their parts. My sleep schedule has been a wreck ever since. Side note, if anyone wants to see that paper, just let me know. I'm somewhat proud of it.

Ranting aside, I feel really good about Psych. I'm hoping to keep a steady B for the final grade (I was so stressed out one week that my A dropped to a B due to not completing a couple assignments in time), but probably won't know until Christmas or there abouts (the 5-page paper hasn't been graded yet and is 20% of my grade).

While I haven't done heavy-school for half a decade, I feel more and more comfortable as time goes by. It also strengthens my want to become a teacher. Might sound weird, given all my bitching, but it makes sense to me. There's frustration in every job, from what I can tell, and the process it takes to get that job. I have one more week of school left, this semester, and am actually looking forward to taking more classes in various subjects.