1 week down... 9 to go!

I have officially been in classes full time for an entire week. I gotta tell you, it’s really not that bad. I know, it’s only been a week, and it gets MUCH tougher, but I think I’m ready for it. As for the classes themselves, I have mixed reviews...

Out of all of my classes, the Spanish one is the only one that concerns me. I think it has to do with the fact that I spent so many years doing ASL (which is completely visual) and now I’m switching to an auditory language. Besides that, this course is an immersion course. HEAVEN HELP ME!!!

As for Family Studies.... this class should be pretty fun! Yes, I’m the oldest person in the class (aside from the token “little old lady” in each of my classes). We had to come up with last names in pop culture, and everyone was coming up with ones like “Hilton”, “Gilmore”, “Simpson”, “Lachey”, “Carter” and “Osbourne”. The first ones that came to my mind were “Huxtable”, “Seaver”, “Tanner”, “Ingalls” and “Walton”. Sad, I know.. but you have to take into consideration the fact that I’m a decade older than these students. the shows I saw every day on regular TV (and remember life before they were on), are now aired on Nick @ Nite and TVLand. Luckily, my instructor is my age... :-)

Let’s see.. then we come to American Family History. Ok, this sounds like it would be fun.. and it’s a pretty low division course, so, what’s the beef there. Well, the instructor introduced the class by saying that this is a very writing intensive course, and that she expects us to write our best assignments throughout the entire duration of our academic career during these next 10 weeks. WAY to put some pressure on us. Oh well... I’m a good writer, so that shouldn’t be too difficult. She also said that she would be assigning light reading loads (day 1: Pages 1-51; 214-245).... light, huh!?!?!? Nice... good to know what I’m to expect!

Then there’s Psychology of Women. I was a little (ok, a lot) skeptical about how this class would go considering how much I hated my Women’s Studies’ class last term. I read the description, and it was all about the way women’s minds work. So, I thought, “hey.... I can do that... how bad could they screw that up?” Well, the true description of this class is how society affects gender, and how gender affects society (and especially how society affects gender roles in regard to women). Ok, so, so much for the idea that this class wouldn’t be feminist/male-hating. I guess I’ll just have to learn to grin and get through it.

I’m also taking 2 institute of religion classes: New Testament and Doctrines of the Gospel. For those who don’t know what I mean by the “institute”.. I explain it in the blog titled: LDSSA. My Tuesday/Thursday New Testament class is at lunch time. The secretary cooks lunch for the students, and we eat while we study. There are about 25 people in this class... 20 of them are HOT GUYS!!! I started to get all excited, and during the introduction, they each introduced themselves (and they absent wives who were all absent because they were either expecting their first child, or had young kids at home). DANG IT!!!! Oh well, maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll have single friends. There’s always hope!

I’ll fill you guys in next week with how things are going... Oh yeah, and ANY Spanish tips (or Single Portland guy contacts)... please, send ‘em along! :-) Love ya!!!