My Asinine Thoughts

Hay, I’ve only been in school for a little over a month and I’ve already gotten into a heated argument with a classmate. I promised myself that this time around, I will try my best to do really well in school (doing well meaning actually studying for an exam and turning in my assignments on time - I never did that before). I have this one class that requires us to get into groups and collect 15 articles from each other, and by the first week of November we would need to turn in 75 to 90 articles to the teacher. The problem with getting into groups, especially with people you don’t know is that you have no idea how responsible or irresponsible they are going to be. For the past 3 weeks, only half of my groupmates have bothered distributing articles to the group, the other half - nada. So last week, all three of us decided that if our other 3 groupmates don’t step up this week, we would talk to the teacher and ask to be grouped with others. I was really worried about my grade and when I talked to one of groupmates who kept promising she would bring articles, I told her straight that if she didn’t bring any articles this week, we would talk to the professor. She got angry and said she didn’t like my tone of voice and that I wasn’t considerate enough of the pressure she’s under. She has a family and she doesn’t have enough time to do all the things that needed to be done. I wanted to be sympathetic but she just pissed me off. The majority of students in class are working students with families of their own and while I wanted to say I understood that it wasn’t easy easy juggling school, work and family the mean part of me just wanted to say, “Hey lady, if you can’t hack it then drop the class.” What I said was actually more along the lines of, “If my grade didn’t depend upon your share of the articles, I really wouldn’t care if you can complete the articles or not.”Hehe, I guess it sounded just as bad but I just got angry that she was angry at ME because she DIDN’t do her work. Anyway our fight escalated to such an extent that we had to go to our professor to settle our disagreement. Geez! I hate group work!

One assignment I’m trying to finish now for my class tomorrow is to give a list of 5 moral values I would use in my treatment of others and I’ve decided on kindness, charity, and respect. I’m two values short because I’m not done yet, but I will try to exercise kindness when I see my classmate on Thursday… whether I mean it or not.

Does that defeat the purpose of tomorrow’s lesson?

Ever since school started last month, I haven’t been able to catch my breath. I’m swamped with assignments and papers and projects and I only took 4 courses! I thought that I should have taken more than 15 units at the beginning of the quarter but now, I’m glad I didn’t. It’s not so much the amount of work as the amount of time it takes for me to finish them. I am damn slow.

After almost a month of school, I’m seeing some distinct differences with the teaching style here and back home. Here, it’s more of a collaborative effort with my teacher and my classmates. The teachers are aware that the students also have something to bring to the table and they’re willing to facilitate. Most of them are pretty generous with grades and you’d be an absolute moron not to get at least a B+. I only have one class/teacher which I absolutely HATE! This teaches me a very valuable lesson. If the first class disappoints, don’t give it another shot, just move on to the next one. I was so worried during the first week about not having enough units and not being able to get into the classes I wanted that I just stuck to my first schedule. Bah! Bah bah bah! Next quarter, I’m going to select classes wisely. I hate griping and complaining every week, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 3 weeks.

Barring that lechefying class, my life here in San Jose hasn’t been all that bad. I’ve got everything I need, although not necessarily all I want since I don’t have a job (aka no money). I’m trying to make a list of the things I want and hopefully by the time I can afford them, they will still be for sale (hah).

p.s. I have a class which is about teaching music and movement to kids and I had an assignment last week that gave me a headache. The teacher required us to bring a nursery rhyme in our own language to class and for the life of me, I couldn’t find one that wasn’t nasty. I wanted a nursery rhyme that has no music connected to it which made it more difficult because Bahay Kubo, Leron Leron Sinta, and Tong Tong Tong are sung more than recited. I researched online for hours and these are just some of what I came up with: (WARNING: Bastos!)

Utot

Ako’y lumabas
Kabilugan ng buwan
Ako’y napautot
Nilagay sa supot
Nilagay sa sulok
Pamatay lamok

Puwet

Ma’am I’m finish
Ang puwet kong makinis
Kinagat ng ipis,
Lalong kuminis

One, two, three

One, two, three
Asawa ni Marie
Araw gabi
Walang panti

(tanong ng nanay ko, bakit yung asawa ni Marie ang walang panty?)

Yesterday was the last day of orientation for international students at my school, and after being advised by our counselor about what subjects I needed to take, I was finally able to register for classes and pay my tuition (ouch). Now all I need to do is sit back and relax until the 22nd of September when school starts. So what have I learned the last few days?

A significant percentage of the Chinese student population  is here in California. Everywhere I turn I keep meeting kids from China, Hong Kong and Macau. I’m sure the students from these countries are wondering whether they left their country at all.

I can pass for a college freshman apparently, so there’s no need for me to wear my Winnie-the-Pooh and Cinderella t-shirts to fit in.

I’m getting a record number of zits on my face. My skin’s contribution in my desperate bid to reclaim my youth.

The sun is scorchingly hot and I can’t use my umbrella for fear of alienating people and repelling potential new friends.

Sunvisors? Forget it! I’m sticking to my shades. I can’t do anything about the freckles but I can certainly do something to prevent getting premature wrinkles from squinting too much.

The boys during orientation are exactly that, boys. I’m too ashamed to even find anyone attractive. I don’t want to be a cougar in my late twenties.

I’m excited about courses I’ll be taking next year such as astronomy, visual arts, geology, human sexuality, introduction to film/tv and music: rock from roots to rap. I wish I had courses like these when I was in college the first time around. It would have made going to school less tiresome.

School, work, volunteering. School, work, volunteering. School, work, volunteering. School, work, volunteering. School, work, volunteering. School, work, volunteering.

This is THE PLAN.