Don’tcha hate it when things have been going along smoothly and then, bam! Everything happens at once!
Yup, I decide to go to school and the business gods decide that and working full time just aren’t enough to fill my days… and nights… and weekends. Two and a half weeks ago, I got to work to find an email saying the company I work for was sold. It’s been controlled chaos ever since. Through the transition, I’ve been working overtime and a smidge of double time, some of that on weekends. It’s been challenging, to say the least. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. One more payroll with special handling next week and things should settle back to normal. I’m lucky that we’re all being retained, with our benefits and seniority, so I can’t complain. Yawn and whine a bit, well, yeah…
Then, I realized that I should have been doing homework in the workbook and lab book (listening to MP3s online and answering questions) all along, in addition to the online work… *sigh* So, I spent what I’d hoped would be a restful weekend catching up on all that… I will say, though, it was a good review for the big test we took last week!
Watson “helping” me with homework:
I hope I did almost as well on the test last week. I didn’t start off well--part of the test was done on a scantron, you know those papers that you fill in the bubbles for your answers. Several of us (thank goodness it wasn’t just me!) used pen and the machines won’t read the answers unless it’s in #2 pencil… So Abeer has to grade those individually, plus the written parts of the test, so we should get our grades next Tuesday. Fingers and toes crossed that I did ok.
In class, we’re moving along: greetings, university/classroom, verbs, adjectives, conjugation, time… But speaking is slow and putting sentences together is still tricky. But the class is pretty fun. We do a lot of verbal activities in class and everyone tries to help everyone else and there’s a lot of good natured ribbing and laughing. Most of the students are in their early 20’s and I haven’t figured out yet whether they like me or just consider me a strange being in their midst. They do encourage me and I’ve exchanged phone numbers with a couple of the kids who I sit with at the back of the class, Nancy and Rudy.
I’ve also attended a few tutoring sessions. Very helpful! Abeer, our teacher, is really fun and patient but she has to move fast to keep up with the curriculum. Joel, our tutor, has the luxury of taking a little more time with explanations and getting us to talk and pronounce better. And we have the opportunity to ask specific questions that we need help with. Last week, I had him all to myself since no one else had signed up for that block of time. We’ll see if that happens again this week.
So, student life is going well but I wish I had more time to do the actual studying… Soon, life will quiet down and I’ll have more time to go back to a more organized study pattern. At the beginning of school, I was establishing habits that seemed to be working and I’d certainly like to get back to that. I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants and that seat is going to rip and I’ll be in a free fall of French garble!
One thing I really want to do when I finally get some time is to plan a trip to France in 2015. I always love the planning phase as much as I love the travel itself. I’ve been thinking of what I want to do there and now I’d like to make a proper wish list of places to go. It’s occurred to me lately that I don’t want to stay exclusively in Paris. I’d like to visit more of France, maybe take a cruise on the Seine (I know The Husband would like that, too). The more I think about what I’ll use the French for, the more I’ll keep it up.
Speaking of keeping up, I’ll try to write more often here. It’s what I started the blog for, after all!
Here’s the parking structure that welcomes me every day I go to school. Just thought another picture in the post was needed :-)
Tomorrow is a new day: begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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