If you write a typo is that a writo?

College? It's overrated. Too much money, too much work, way too much bullshit, but yet I signed up to do it again next year, and even this summer as well as working 40 hours a week. So much has happened in a month. I feel like my life has really transitioned. I'm paying rent, working 40 hours a week, just finished up the first of my two classes this summer, and still trying to fit in a little bit of a social life. What happened? I've only been out of high school for a year now.

This past semester sucked. I didn't enjoy any of my classes, and it took a beating on my GPA. All I can say is that I am glad Valley offered all of those easy college credit classes to counter balance my grades from this semester. This college shit it hard, especially if you know what you want to do, but don't know how to get there.

My first summer class was called "Drama in the Classroom." Sadly it was focused on using drama techniques in the elementary classroom. Over the course of three weeks, we had to teach two demo lessons. The first of the two lessons was a lesson that was already written for an elementary level classroom, and the second lesson we had to create for what ever context we wanted to teach in and it had to relate to a science, math, or social studies subject matter. My lesson that I did to day was about character development. I rocked the lesson! It was the first thing in a long time that really gave me a confidence booster and motivation to continue on with this whole teaching degree thing. Sadly I ended with a god damn B+ because I didn't do review in my first lesson and that brought me down a few points. I hate it when a class is only based off of about 100 or so points.

Next semester I'm applying to the college of education. There's about a 70% chance that I'll get in, and hopefully I'll be able to do my 10 hours of volunteering at Valley. The college of education is like an abyss or a black hole. I don't really know what happens in the college of ed. I'm pretty sure it's full of spys, because they don't like talking to you if you aren't actually in the college.

In May I did my first lessons for scuba diving. That was very challenging, rewarding, and frustrating all at the same time. It's a whole other world underwater, even just in a twelve foot deep pool. It's actually fairly easy to get used to breathing underwater and maneuvering around in the gear. The most dramatic moment was when I left the pool momentarily to go switch out my tank and I came back in and headed underwater. We were given some free time to practice our skills for our open water diver. A lot of the divers were working on hovering in the pool and fine tuning their buoyancy. I look out at the deep end and there are all these strange people in scuba gear just floating in the water. It was very creepy, they all looked dead. Darin and I do our certification dive later this month. I'm so excited.

So I've left Des Moines behind, I've moved to a new city have all new friends. I'm one year older, one year closer to doing what I want to. Is it worth it?

~Until Then

One week down and what a week it was.

Okay so technically I still have one more class to go before I can officially call it a week, but I've got another 2 hours of a total of 6 hours in between the two classes I have today. So I'm going to write this. It's been a blast. I don't think I'll have any hard classes this semester, which is awesome. I don't have any math, science, lecture, or discussions classes this semester. Two of my classes (which both just happen to be theatre classes) are hands on, so it give me a break from German and Rhetoric.
I auditioned for the fall shows last night. They group all of the auditions into one setting so all the directors are there and can pick and fight over who they want in their casts. Now, as most of you know, when ever I've auditioned in the past, it's with 1-3 people watching me, and they are about 100 feet away. Well since our lovely theatre building is still under flood repair, they've moved it to a classroom. I walk into the class room, not only am I 8 feet from the nearest director, but there are about 30 of them watching me. I get to choose my monologues for the first time, and you have to fill 3 minutes preferably with two contrasting monologues. I guess nerves helped, because when I was practicing, I was at three minutes or over. But with the adrenalin, I managed to spit out both in three minutes while still maintaining a good pace. I had them laughing with the comedic monologue, so I left the room on a great adrenaline confidence high. Now I just have to wait a week for the cast lists to go up.
It weird having all this ample time in between classes, instead of just 5 minutes. Normally I go back to my dorm and do homework so I can have evenings free. I also managed to land a job today. I work the the Hillcrest market place (cafeteria) and it's during the morning and/or afternoons so it won't ever conflict with theatre rehearsal, which is awesome. My schedule this semester is super bad ass. I think I can do this whole college thing after all.
Oh I guess my teachers are all right. My German teacher is really young and from England, so she has a crazy strange accent. She speaks only in German unless we don't know the word, so that really helps. She like a mix between Hansen and a small psychotic dog. My Acting teacher is a lesbian first off. That's like the 4th thing she told us in that class. She's very strict, but in a good way. She knows what she's talking about and is willing to help you, but only if you're wiling to work. But the class is only for theatre majors so that will really help. My theatre design class is taught by a temp unfortunately. I have a feeling this class will be a fluff class. But she seems nice, and has let us out super early so far this week. My rhetoric teacher is a grad student and has no clue as to why he's in the class. He's really quiet, and the class will probably walk all over him. Also it's taught in the basement of a majorly flood damaged but repaired building so it reeks of stagnant flood residue.
For those of you who care, Fall Nite is Sept. 18. I'm going back, but it'll be a one day round trip, so I won't have time to do much after the show. Hope to see you there.
~Until Then

Orientation...finally.

I had my one day orientation today. It went by so fast since they were trying to cram 2 days worth of stuff into one day. I have my schedule, but it's weird that the typical 'Do we have any classes together' shenanigans isn't happening. I'm taking 16 credits, 15 in class and one technology course online. I've got German III 5 days a week in the morning. Acting I 2 days a week, Theatre Design 2 days a week, and my required Accelerated Rhetoric class 2 days a week. I like my schedule, no back to back classes. Only 2 days where I have 3 classes. Monday I'm done after 12:30, Tuesday and Thursday done by 3:30, and Wednesday and Friday I'm done by 5:30. Not too bad. Scheduling was hell. I had the last pick of classes since I'm one of the last groups to come and register. It was a race to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do for the next 5 years of my life. That's right, I said 5 because I've decided to pursue a double major with Theatre and English Secondary/post secondary education. Awesome. I could do it in four years, but I'd have to be taking summer classes and over 18 credits to do so. I dunno, my mom did something like that, maybe I can do it. Walked around campus and had no idea where anything was really, but the campus is basically in down town Iowa City so there's all sorts of shit to do. Classes start in 31 days.

~Until Then