Back at it

I've finished my first week of summer semester. I was a little concerned about taking two classes, but I'd forgotten how relaxed it can be in a general ed class. I've got 2 tests coming up on Tuesday, but I'm not really that worried about it. I'll admit, I'll have to do some brushing up before my World Civ II class because I'm just not used to the weird names and the different religions. I did have a taste of the religions (Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, & Judaism) in World Civ I, so it's not that anything is new. I'm also familiar with the rise and fall of the Chinese dynasties; I'm just not sure where the knowledge comes from. However, it is my first taste of Japanese history which really is a lot like feudal Europe.

I love my World Civ professor's teaching style. She makes it so interesting and so not like reading a text book. It doesn't hurt that she has this fascinating accent which she explained to us the first day of class. She comes from Newfoundland, Canada which is primarily comprised of Irish immigrants. You can totally hear the Irish accent and it just thrills my ears.
My second class is art appreciation which I was not expecting to like. So far, I have been enjoying it. I especially like the Greek sculptures and architecture.

One thing I am not that thrilled about revisiting is the essay component that is required for all general ed classes. Give me multiple choice any day. I guess there must always be a stress component in every class.

At work, I'm back to supervising every day. My motivation for not supervising was to be able to leave early which is not happening these days with all the overtime we've been having. I decided that if I had to be there anyway, it really didn't matter if I was supervising or keying so I agreed to go back to full time.

2 days of pure pleasure

Sunday: Went out for breakfast with Dad. Went to church. Went to lunch with friends. Took a long nap. Watched a movie. Read a book until 5:30 a.m.

Monday: Slept until noon. Finished book. Picked up textbooks for summer semester. Went out with a friend to a quaint riverfront restaurant. Listened to a Jazz band at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre.

Productivity: Practically nil.
Pleasure: Oh Yeah!

Libraries

I really have to complain about the Hamilton County Library. My little hometown of Franklin, KY has got the big city of Chattanooga totally beat when it comes to a library. I've been to two of the branches here and have been very disappointed. The selection is very poor and limited, but even more atrocious--anything current must be rented out. Now that is not a library to me. I'm sure not going to shell out $2 for the privilege of reading a book when for a couple dollars more, I could own it. It's no wonder kids in the South have a reputation of not being able to read. Who wants to read unattractive, grungy old books that bore you to tears.

I guess I'll not totally write it off until I've been to the main branch which is downtown. That in itself is totally inconvenient since parking is a nightmare and expensive downtown. So much for living in a big city.

Finals are over

As of today, I have passed another semester of the nursing program. And that is no small feat! Especially considering over 20% of my class flunked one of our courses. I am so upset about it. It's the class that's been causing my severe anxiety. What is even more upsetting is the professor's attitude which consists of--"Tough. We need to weed you guys out now so we can have a better pass rate for our school on the NCLEX." She makes us all feel really stupid, yet they told us coming in that our class had the highest average GPA the nursing school has ever had. These are really intelligent people and to tell them they are stupid really gets my blood pumping. Most of these students are appealing their grades. For two of them, this is their second failure so they will be expelled from the program since we can only fail one course in all 5 semesters.

Personally, I totally respect and admire this professor's mind and store of knowledge. She is also one of the writers for the NCLEX, so she's obviously respected in the field of nursing education. I think her style of lecturing is very conducive to learning. However, she covers a lot of material with huge gaps which she expects us to acquire on our own from the textbook or out of thin air. This makes it impossible to predict what will be on that test. She will declare she told us something in class, yet nobody can recall it except her. As another one of my classmates said, "She's a wonderful professor, and I've learned a lot in her class; but her tests do not reflect the knowledge we have acquired." She and I both got B's and we normally get all A's. I don't know if she has ever gotten a B before. I've only gotten one other B so this will make my second one. Even worse, she has totally shaken my confidence in my ability to reason to the point that I have had second thoughts about being in the nursing program. However, I’m not going to let her beat me down.

Only 3 more semesters of nursing in addition to 3 or 4 more summer semesters to complete. My first summer semester begins a week from today. I'm not particularly looking forward to either class since one is art appreciation and the other one is World Civ II which really hold no interest for me.

As for my one week vacation, I plan to catch up on SEMMA bookkeeping, catch up my checkbook, clean my apartment, and then do the fewest number of constructive things possible. I feel the need to go to the library and get some purely insignificant fiction, take my lounge chair to the lake, and indulge.