Saturday, September 06, 2008

College Life

So...I feel bad because I haven't really kept anyone up-to-date on college life.

I must say I love it!

I've made so many friends with the people in my hall and with people in my classes.

My roommate is so much fun. Her name is Courtney and we have gotten along so well. We haven't had any arguments or anything yet. I think that we'll be great the whole year. We talk a whole lot in the morning and at night.

My classes aren't too bad. I have 5 classes. I'll go through and tell about each one:

French: I have this 4 days a week and its in the morning. I'm never thrilled to go to this class because its so often and it is my earliest class, but once I'm there i like it. I took french throughout high school so this isn't too difficult. It was mostly review at the beginning and now we're beginning to learn things that are new to me.

Intro to Hospitality Business: I only have this once a week and that is a shame because it is my favorite class (which is good because its an intro to my major). The professor is really cool and the way the class works is he gives us notes and stuff in class, and we have guest speakers, and after every class we have we have an exam that is put online. We just have to take it during the week before the next class. We can use all our notes, and he puts the powerpoints online and then we can use our book obviously too. We are giving 25 multiple choice questions to answer and 15 minutes to answer them. On the past two I've gotten 50/50 points. I love it.

Statistics: Soooo boring. I have this class 4 times a week. 3 days it is a 50 minute lecture. We learn things like what a pie chart is and how to find the average of a group of numbers...and then the other class is 1 hour and 50 minutes and that class is in a computer lab. We are given an assignment that specifically tells us what to do on this statistical software and then from the charts we make we answer simple questions and then we go to a website and post our answers on the site and that is our only homework assignment of the week. I finished the only one we've had so far in 40 minutes. At least the lab is airconditioned because the lecture hall is not. But I do have a friend in this class so that makes it bearable. Her name is Emily, and we met in the class.

Business Seminar: This is my 'freshman seminar' class that i take with the rest of the Broad Freshman Students (Though we are in small groups, not all 101 of us in 1 group). This class only meets once a week and it is a pretty useful class. We have a lot of guest speakers and business' that come and visit to talk to us. It will be a helpful, interesting, easy class.

ISS: This is a class on Human Resource Management and Labor. It is a class I don't really want to take but I need a 200 level ISS class so I'm taking it and hopefully it will be easy...or at least not too hard.

Now the reason I'm even in the ISS class is because I couldn't stand my writing class anymore so I had to drop it. My writing class was called WRA195H. It was an honors class and the topic was "Major Topics of American Thought". Well...what they mean by 'topics' is that your teacher decides what he/she would like to teach about and that is the topic. My teacher chose 'Race'. More specifically she chose to inform us on how 'race is not biological, it is a concept that we as a society have come up with over the last 500 years'. I heard this and was slightly dismayed. Because honestly I feel that as long as people do not discriminate against different races it doesn't matter how we came up with that term. So after the first class I was frustrated with that, and that I had bought the wrong book, and that my teacher seemed crazy. Someone recommended looking her up on a teacher rating site. So I looked her up and out of 5 points she received a .77 her highest rating was a 2 and most rated her as a 0. I completely agreed with all the comments left.

During my second class we opened a debate on the topic. It was absurd because we would voice our opinions on why it is biological and she would say something along the lines of "I can see how you would think that now, but by the end of this class you'll realize that that is wrong and that it really isn't biological" or "that is a good question but I really don't have time to explain that now, but you'll see by the end of this class that I'm right." I was completely fed up with ehr belittling manner. So I raised my hand and when called upon said "The thing I don't understand about this is, as long as no one is discriminated against then why does it matter" and she was like "well...it matters" and I said "Why, who cares that there are different races" and she piped of "well all the people being discriminated against" and I said "but you said earlier that this class is not about racism, and I said that assuming there is no discrimination then who cares" and she replied "oh believe me people care". She reminded me of a cross between Professor Umbridge and Professor Trelawney.

Anyways, I left that class fuming, feeling sick to my stomach, wanting to yell at everyone, and in great need of coffee to calm myself. So, I dropped the class.

Another thing, the first week of school I started to receive the NY Times. I had no idea why my roommate and I were receiving the newspaper so I went to the front desk and asked. I was shown a list of 4 other people, and myself the list didn't explain why I was on the list however. So when i went to my first day of my writing class the teacher asked who all had been receiving the NY Times. I felt relieved that I at least knew why I was getting it...but I was the only person to raise my hand. So somehow something got messed up and now the only person who was receiving the NY Times has dropped the class...and I am still receiving the NY Times. I don't really have time to read them though, so they sit in my room until I have time to run down and recycle them. So, yeah thats that.

I really have so much more to tell but I'm going to cut this story here because I really do have homework to do.

PS. I like getting mail...I even enjoy going to the mailbox to get the NY Times even though I don't read it. So ask my parents for my address and send me a letter or something. I even bought stamps so I can send mail back!

Loving Everyone Always Forever

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Laurel!

It is great to read the update on your classes! It sounds like the ones in your major are your favorites and that is a huge bonus!

Don't be shy to get up and talk to those professionals who speak at your lectures and make sure you write down their names and business information. You never know when you will be looking for an internship, and mentioning how you met someone previously looks great in a cover letter - even though they will most likely not remember you!

It is also great to hear that you and Courtney are getting along and you are making lots of friends.

I have something I've been meaning to send you, so I'll have to get your address from your Mom right away!

Take care,

Aunt Beverly

Tim Parenti said...

Aw. My little cousin's all growed up. ;)

In all seriousness, though, I couldn't be happier that you're adjusting well to college life. It doesn't come easily for everyone, but thankfully we were both blessed enough to have it easy.

(Although, from experience, the real challenge is adjusting back to home life over winter break, and then back again to college life after a respite from the chaos. Going from zero to light-speed so many times is the only real tough part, I've found.)

Email or IM your address to me, please, or put it in your "Info" section on Facebook. I love getting mail, too, so I'll try to send something your way so you can have that same feeling.

Lots of love!