No, I didn’t get lost the first couple of days a class, but I did have two extremely weird classes that made me wonder if I was in the right class, or even the right institution. So I’ll start with the bad and end with the funny, since I like ending on a good note. So Tuesday when I went to class, I had Cell Biology, which was boring but what I expected. Then I went to English 291: Introduction to Creative Writing: Essays. Now I have to admit, I was a little intimidated by the class before even going in because I am a Biochemistry and Psychology major and haven’t touched an English class since high school, 3 years ago. But I figured since there were no prereqs and it was an “introduction” class I would be. So I go into the class, and there are only 16 people. We begin talking about what an essay is from famous authors by reading excerpt out loud, and I realize when people are reading, they have this passion and inflection that is a tell-tale sign of an English major. So I begin to worry more. Then a name of a “famous” author comes up in class and she says “All of you are familiar with the name, right? Of course…” I can’t even pronounce the name or spell it, but it begins with an M and its French. So then I worry a little more… Then we break up into small groups to talk about our favorite definition of an essay, and I begin talking to these 3 other people, and I tell them my major…and they look at me like I have 3 heads. So I begin to panic at this point, thinking I’ve made a huge mistake. Then (oh, it gets better) we get our first assignment. We need to write an essay about “What is an Essay” due Tuesday! And better yet, our essays will all be checked by our peers!! So not only will the teacher know why I’m not an English major, but now the whole class will know… So needless to say I came back to my room and after taking some breaths I emailed the professor asking for her advise. She hasn’y gotten back to me, so I’ll have to keep you updated.

So on Monday, I had another class, experimental psychology, which I thought would be easy, but I still had to take it. So she talks about the syllabus, and then has six students toss a beanbag into a ring. then when they are done, she has them click their heels three times together, then say “I will succeed” then throw the beanbag. Then we see that the average was better the second time and she asks if this proved that her theory about clicking the heels together worked, but she said that we’d learn about it later…Well everyone pretty much knows that, “No, it was because they had already performed it once so they had more experience the second time they threw it, which was the confounding variable that you didn’t correct for.” Anyway, so then lecture ends like 30-45 minutes early and we go to the lab part. In the lab part, we take a “pretest” to make sure our math skills are up to par, which had questions like “Rank these number from lowest magnitude to highest magnitude” and “What is the order of operation for this equation.” Then the TA says if anyone struggled to see her after class. So then we play a game to get to know each other better, and the winning team got to draw out of the prize bag that had pencils and bubbles and candy… I’m sorry, I passed preschool, I really don’t need it again…

I had such extreme classes, but hopefully they will even themselves out in weeks to come…