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The power was just out here for like an hour. It was really strange, and nobody could call
off campus because the pin number system was down or something. So I spent most of
the time the power was out in a little tiny pay phone booth talking to my mom. I feel
slightly less homesick now. Slightly. It is so bizarre here. I mean, technically everybody
is here to be learning stuff, but nobody ever seems to be studying. I’ve seen people
studying just a couple times and they’re always doing more talking than studying... It’s
weird. I’ve been studying a lot. More than I usually do, because I really want to make
sure I get great grades... I’m definitely going to grad school, of some kind, somewhere,
whether or not I take a while off in between. And the only way I can see to do that
without a whole lot of loans is scholarships. So I’m being all ambitious now. Maybe it’ll
stick. The thing is I don’t usually study, because in most classes, I can get an A without
much work at all, and the rest of them I can get a B without much work. There have been
two exceptions to this since I started college... both of them last semester when I was
doing 20 credit hours... one was the public speaking course I took, where I’m really not
exaggerating when I say I got a C because the teacher didn’t like me. (...it was the first
time she taught a college course, she didn’t grade any of our speeches until the
final one, she didn’t even tell us what we could’ve done better so we had no idea how to
improve, so I already didn’t like her, and then she told us that for our final speech we had
to get dressed up, which I’m told is fairly standard practice at most colleges, but it just
wasn’t possible for me. I think I mentioned the whole fiasco in my “clothes” entry that
y’all love, but just in case, her definition of dressing up for anyone female involved
nylons and makeup, and in order for me to do that I would’ve had to wear those clothes to
5 other classes that day, changing into them in the locker room after my 8:30 Karate
class, and I would’ve had to spend time and money that I didn’t have shopping for a dress
because I didn’t own one and I explained all this to her and she just didn’t care. She just
said “well, if you don’t have a dress, wear nice slacks and a blouse” and she didn’t
believe me when I said I didn’t own either of those things. I tried and tried to reason with
her, but I couldn’t. So I did the best I could, and I wore corderoys and a shirt that related
to my topic (another person who did her speech before me wore a sweatshirt and leggings
and the sweatshirt was one of those craft project jobbers with lizards on it and it related to
her topic, and she got an A on her speech... So I thought if I looked presentable in a
“righteous babe” shirt for my speech on feminism she would at least treat me the same.
But apparently not, because she made two comments on my final speech grade- “you
should have dressed up” and “I know you can speak better than that.” Nothing telling me
what I did wrong, just “I know you can do better.” And I got a C on it. And everybody in
the class got the same final grade as they got on their final speech, because she didn’t
grade anything else. It was really pathetic, and I’m totally off topic.)
Anyway, the other class I took where I couldn’t get an automatic B was a history class I took that same semester where the teacher was a really hard grader and everybody just dreaded his tests, and I studied like crazy and was so proud of my B. :-) Anyway, back to the present. Or whatever. My roommate and I got up around the same time this morning and we both had a 9:45am class, I got up, got dressed, washed my face, all that, and then was on my way out the door to get some food..... and my roommate was in here in her robe ironing her jeans. I have never worn a pair of ironed jeans in my life. Not ever. And she’s going back home again this weekend to see her boyfriend, even though she just got here.... we definitely have different priorities. you know what I love about my mom? when I called her today and she asked about my roommate, and I said “she ironed her jeans before class this morning” or whatever I said, my mom knew exactly what I was really saying. And she agreed with me. When I was taking Karate, on the first day of class I got all done with class and my feet were really sweaty and the mats were really dirty so basically my socks were disgusting, and I literally walked downstairs to the locker room thinking “I wish I’d brought an extra pair of socks!!!” ...and I got down there, and was changing, and discovered an extra pair of socks in my gym bag that my mom and thrown in there because she thought I might need them. It was so great. I think I’m gonna study for a while. Or take a shower. Or basically something that’s not this. |