Last fall was the beginning of my senior year at Texas A&M (*whoop!*), so course-wise, things were starting to actually dwindle down as I only have a few more classes left to graduate. I took studio (required for the major, unfortunately, 4 hrs), linear algebra (towards my math minor, 3 hrs) and government (of course I left a gen. ed. class to my senior year, lol, 3 hrs). I still had to stay full-time (12 hrs) so I filled in the extra hours with a couple of PE classes (yeah, I know, I actually signed up for extra PE! but hey, they're only one credit hour a piece and just pass/fail), so I signed up for ones that sounded fun: bowling and ballroom dancing.
Studio - while I've never liked my studio classes, and the one I had last spring was simply awful by the end, overall I have to say I kinda liked this one. My professor was an older English gentleman who hadn't taught an undergraduate studio in twenty years (just been doing research and grad students). His specialty was historic preservation and renovation, so that was a large focus in our class. Our main project was to design a new art community center and studio space in an unused print factory near downtown bryan. It was finally an individual project (seems like it's been forever since I've done one without a group) and more importantly, my prof let us take our own designs and run with them, never trying to change it to match his ideal but simply helping us improve upon our own designs. That, for me, was very encouraging, and it made for a lot more variety in our projects anyway. Plus, he seemed to understand that not everyone can be or even wants to be some bigshot designer who does all the crazy fantastical visionary designs, and that we need all kinds of architects, also very reassuring. All in all, though it was still stressful, one of my better studios. Final Grade: B+
Linear Algebra - at first I felt way in over my head, with a bunch of engineers and math majors surrounding me who'd taken many more math classes I hadn't taken that probably would've helped during the class, like differential equations. But after getting into it and a lot of studying (and a very thankful make-up test after the class did dismally on a mid term, esp. me since it was the same day I had a studio project due), I managed to grasp the concepts (it was pretty much working with matrices the entire semester) and was able to pull my grade up to a high B, and by some miracle (maybe he dropped some of our hw grades, or he curved the final), I was able to get an A in the class! whoop! esp. when most of the class (those engineers and math majors) got B's and C's. :D yay for being a blonde female design major who can do math! haha. Final Grade: A
Government - ... this was such a blow off class. to be honest, I skipped most of this class - it was taught by a recently graduated political science PhD grad, probably 29 yrs old at the most. and he told us we didn't need to come, and often cancelled classes anyway. and his tests? just go to his review session the day before and he practically gave us all the answers and what questions to look over in the book. easiest A ever. ... did I learn anything? probably not, lol. Final Grade: A
Bowling - this actually become one of my favorite classes. It was only once a week, and basically all we did was bowl two games each class period, and I'll admit, I stink at bowling. my average going into the class was probably around 40, and I couldn't even remember a time I'd broke 50. but I guess all the playing eventually paid off because by the end of the class, not only had I raised my average to around 75, I was often bowling games in the 80's, and had a few scores in the 90's, and twice broke a hundred, my two best scores now being a 104 and a 111! so now it's actually fun to go bowling! :) ... though, it's a good thing I took it pass/fail, because while the class is easy to pass, it's near impossible to get an A. you have to have at least a 120 bowling average. ... yikes. but no worries. I'm quite satisfied with my 75 and 111 high score. Final Grade: Pass
Ballroom Dancing - this class was twice a week, and was pretty fun. We learned four dances over the course of the semester: Foxtrot (a 4/4 count graceful dance, tricky counting and flow though), Waltz (a 3/4 count very elegant and graceful dance, very flowy, and my favorite of the dances we learned), Salsa (much more fun, energetic, and lots of movement and hips, whereas the other dances you stayed straight ... a little too, um, romantically inclined? for me... I just couldn't really get into it as much), and Swing (this was pretty fun, but very fast paced and got you tired really fast, and also, more free than foxtrot or waltz, which meant it could be really fun or really boring if the guy you were with knew or didn't know what he was doing). It was a co-ed class, and we did dance boy girl... I'll admit, it was pretty awkward at first, but we switch dance partners so often, you got used to it, and eventually knew who were the good dancers, the reasonably okay dancers, and the guys who simply moved to the beat of their own drum, or at least not the beat of the music. ... the class did get a little frustrating near the end, though, because a bunch of guys kept skipping class, so then you have to rotate sitting out a dance. one class time we had almost half the guys gone and all the girls there. but despite all that, it was a fun class, glad I took the chance. Final Grade: Pass.
So, I survived yet another semester, and managed to keep my gpa at a 3.71 while working around 20 hrs/week and keeping up with church callings. On those subjects, work is ... well, my duties in my job have changed a lot in the last few months. For a while, I was put on inventory, seeing what all we had in the archives. Currently, I'm working on this eternally prolonged special project for my boss that only has minimal degree of relevance to the archives, but he seems to find it important, so I just do as I'm told. and I guess I must be doing an okay job, because in the last eight months, we've already lost five student workers and keep having to hire new ones to replace them. that only keeps me on the edge of my seat, for sure. but to be honest, I still am very grateful for the job and they are good people to work for, and are so good about being flexible with my school schedule, and there's nothing more I could've asked for.
As for church, I was finally released as Compassionate Service Leader (... perhaps they caught on that I didn't do anything? lol), and called as a Relief Society Pianist around september or so. I'm totally happy with that, it's my favorite calling. ... then, around October, I got called to be Choir Pianist. ... six weeks before our Christmas program. hmph. not so thrilled about that one, but I'm making do. I had to practice nearly an hour everyday, and I still wonder how I got that in what with work and school. On the plus side, my piano skills have greatly improved, lol. It's not so much that I mind playing, though it is more nerve racking than relief society, but the biggest disappointment was that I didn't get to sing anymore. *sigh* fortunately, I was able to actually sing two of our Christmas songs (one was a women's piece, the other was a duet with my friend Gina), so that was nice. Hopefully I'll get to do the same for Easter too. and at least this time, I'll get more than six weeks to master all the songs, lol.
One last thing, since this post is already so wordy, here's a picture from one of the many office parties we have (my supervisor loves having parties... can't remember if this was the Christmas party or Boss's Day or someone's birthday, lol).
(l-r) Construction Science Prof in our office (plaid); my boss (gray); former grad student worker (green); me (blue); supervisor (red); and former/current student worker (black) (she's on study abroad right now, but they're taking her back next fall).
0 comments:
Post a Comment