Sunday, September 25, 2011

Recently

I've been quite busy with school work lately.  In fact, it's practically all I've been thinking about.  Sometimes I feel like I just need a break.  Fortunately, I went out last night, so that helps to break things up a little.

Well, I've taken a couple of tests in a couple of classes--Spanish and math, and so far I've gotten As and A-s.  I just took a big test in science and I won't know, at least until tomorrow, how I did.  I'm hoping for an A, of course, but I think it might have been a B.  I've been reading up on scholarships and so I've put myself under a lot of pressure.  It seems like the better grades I have, the better chance I'll have at scholarships.  Some of them are really big scholarships.  The Jack Kent Cooke scholarship pays up to $30,000 per year for transfer students, that is for students who get their Associates degrees at community colleges and go on to 4 year schools.  THAT'S one that I could really use.  I'm thinking a 4.0 would give me my best shot.

I've decided that I'm going to pursue my Associates degree before trying for the University of Pennsylvania.  There are many reasons for this.  For one thing, a lot of the big scholarships are only for people who have taken a certain number of courses with the intention of getting an Associates degree.  Also, just in case I flake out of school at some point, an Associates degree would be better than nothing.  Another reason, if you have 16 units of Liberal Arts coursework (almost an Associates degree) when applying for Penn, then they don't need your GED score and high school records.  My GED score and high school records aren't the best.  I'd rather apply with a clean slate.  Another reason, in all my years away form school, I'd forgotten the math that I learned in high school.  So I have to do a lot of catching up on math before I go to Penn.  So, those are the main reasons.

Most of my classes are pretty well-behaved, but my Spanish class--oy vey!  There are a handful of students in the back of the class who are really rude.  They're loud and obnoxious and are always making rude comments about other people, including the professor.  And a bunch of the other students seem like they just don't want to learn.  The professor calls on random people throughout the class, and some just aren't prepared at all.  The bad students were also, not surprisingly,complaining about their test scores.    I feel bad for the teacher.  She tries really hard and she gets frazzled by those few obnoxious idiots.  She warned me and one of the other good students not to become a teacher.  Poor thing.  I said to her, "You're a good teacher."  And a few other students agreed, and that made her feel better.

Monday, September 5, 2011

First Week of New Semester

I had a brief two weeks off in between my last summer class and this new fall semester.  I have  a full course load this semester.  I'm taking four classes--Math, Spanish, Biological Science, and Interpersonal Communication.  I have been doing homework ALL  weekend!  Math is easy, Spanish is fun, mostly because I hope to learn to actually speak/read Spanish fluently.  Science is hard, and Interpersonal Communication is weird.

I gave a girl in my Interpersonal Communication class my blog address, so I guess I'll have to be extra careful about what I write (hope I don't get too boring).  I thought it would be an easy class given that it's pretty much a soft science, but there's actually a LOT of homework (in Spanish, tarea).

I already speak/read a bit of Spanish, so that class has so far been fairly easy for me.  There is a fair bit of homework, but it's been homework that I don't really mind, because I actually do want to become fluent in Spanish.  It should help me to be able to communicate with 1/4 of the US population for one thing.  Plus, if I ever take a vacation in Mexico, South America, or any other Spanish speaking place, I'll be able to function properly.

In other GOOD news, over my two week vacation I found out that I won two small scholarships!  This happened after I got my second A from my summer classes.  It isn't that much money, but every little bit helps.  Mostly, it just feels nice to be appreciated.  I'll have to go to a scholarship dinner called "Dollars for Scholars" to show my appreciation to the donors.  I also had to sign a release so that the school could publicize my name in newspapers.  These weren't even scholarships for older women.  I actually beat out regular college kids for these scholarships.

Overall, my classes seem okay, most of the students seem like decent people, and most of the professors seem okay.