Monday Classes Day #1

Today was what will be one of my “long Mondays” that will occur every other Monday this semester. It isn’t that ALL my Monday’s won’t be long, but these “every other” ones will be even LONGER. Let me explain…

Today started off at 6 AM (well actually 6:11 AM when I finally rolled outta bed). I had to get up, get myself dressed, then go wake my little cousins up (they are two little girls that are 8 and 5). I get them dressed, feed them breakfast (which is normally a waffle with peanut butter and syrup and a glass of milk). Then we grab their bags from the weekend and get them each a pillow and a cover for the trip in the car and then go load up. Then they sleep for the next hour and fifteen minutes while I have to keep myself awake driving them back to where their mom lives to get them to school by 8 AM.

This morning I enjoyed my Switchfoot cd the whole trip (yes, over and over again since it is a 3 hour trip for both ways). I LOVE this cd! But this morning I had a little extra fun and called my buddy Becca to leave her a LOVELY message for her to retrieve either at lunch or after school since she is a big-time student teacher this semester! I was actually hoping to catch her on her trip TO school to give her a morning greeting, but she didn’t have her phone on at 7:15 AM. Oh well… I’m so proud of all my student teaching friends! I have many buddies doing that this semester and teachers are treasured individuals in my view (so anyone who wants lovely morning greetings or just random fun voice mails left on their phones while they are at school student teaching just let me know…I love to leave them!). That is a tougher job than people think. I got a small taste of it with subbing. Wow!

So…I got back home around 9:15 AM and then changed clothes and headed to work for a few hours. After work and eating lunch up there with my buddy Dawn at work, I headed back home for a change of clothes again and to pack the book bag and then off to school for my first day of my Monday classes.

So my 2 PM class is Research I. It is apparently suppose to be one of the toughest courses in our Masters program, but I’m not real worried. I’ve always had confidence in my research abilities and working on SPSS and interpreting stats and stuff. I’m all about numbers! But then there is the professor. Bless his heart, this fellas accent is ROUGH to say the least! HA! He is Korean but claims he has been in the states for ten years, but it is still rough and he knows it. He commented several times on how he knows he has “poor pronunciation”. HA! MANY times through his lectures he says “Do you know what I’m talking about?” And I’m sitting there thinking, “Uhh…if I didn’t and I said I didn’t I’m sure I wouldn’t understand you when you tried to explain it another way,” so I just sit there. HA! But then again, I just sit there in all my classes. HA! I gave it some thought today (yes, during my class) and I was like, “you know, I don’t really pay that close of attention in my classes. This can’t be good. But then again my grades are sufficient enough, so who cares…HA!” Let me give you a short taste of Dr. Moon’s accent. This one I LOVE….he says “woman” like “Oh-man.” Bless his heart, he is a sweet little man, but hard to understand, but he tries SOOO hard. Oh well…

Okay…so after that class Holly and I went and met Suzie MacKenzie for dinner at Jack ‘N the Box. That was fun! I love seeing old ACU folks! Especially after they have graduated and it’s like, “yeah, I know what it’s like being ACU alumni.” We can share in differences about not being at ACU anymore and stories like that and all. Suzie is a fun and really sweet chick! Holly and I had a blast just shooting the breeze with her. And yes, Suzie reads these, but I’m honestly not just saying that, Suzie! I told Holly when we were standing in Jack ‘N the Box and I saw you walking up, “Awww…it’s like old S.A. times!!” Tee hee hee! What can I say? I’ve always had a thing for Siggie gals (even if they aren’t real active Siggies. Right, Suzie?!!? HA!).

So then it was on to my 6 PM class. This lady is Chinese and her name is Dr. Yu. Okay, so this lady is this short older woman that I look at her and just expect to see her with an apron on pulling homemade cookies out of the oven with some big ol’ over mitts on. HA! No joke! She is just one interestin’ lady. I haven’t completely figured her out yet. HA! In the class we have to do an individual oral presentation that is 10-15 minutes in front of the class (not exactly my favorite thing to do, but it won’t kill me). Anyways…in the class there is the girl that was sitting diagonally behind me and she apparently grew up in Abilene and went to Hardin Simmons. So that was cool to me, but I’m still trying to see what I think of this chick. HA! Okay, I know this is going to sound mean, but face it, people do this, as I don’t doubt you do too, but you know how some chicks just come off first impression as looking “snotty,” well this girl came off this way, so I’m still gonna give her some time to see if she will continue to talk to me, or if she was just humoring me because I was talking to her friend that was sitting behind me who also looks like the “snotty” type but actually seems pretty nice. HA!

But, besides the “snotty” looking folks…HA…I know I sound SOO mean, but I just get mad when there are girls that think they are too cool to talk to people like me who comes off looking like a dork, but is half-way social-able once you get to know me! HA! So anyways, my friend that I made from first semester, Makiyo Murata is in there! She is a Japanese international student. I think she likes me even more now that she knows I drive a Toyota! HA! Just kidding, but she did say she loves that I drive one and support her country…HA! So when we got out of class early tonight at about 7:40 PM she was like, “hey, do you want to go to that Chinese food place that I wanted to take you too last semester but we didn’t get to go?” And I was like…sure! So we went to this place called “Bethanys” (and then it had some Chinese letterings after that which probably meant Bethanys in Chinese, but my superb Chinese skills failed me tonight! HA!) So we went inside and I was like, heck…I’ll eat again! I LOVE trying new things! So I got their Shrimp fried rice (not so different of course, I know) and then I sampled this one drink the dude had me try (which was good, but I don’t know what it was called), and then Makiyo ordered me a drink called “Taro” to try. The Taro you can get with Boba in the bottom of it or not. She gets the Boba in the bottom, but didn’t get it in mine because she said most her American friends don’t like it. But I did sorta try one of the Boba’s in the bottom of the drink I sampled. It was different for sure. They look like little blueberrys, but they are SUPER squishy and chewy. I can’t even describe what they were like. The Taro drink was way cool! It was a lavender/purple color and it was frozen. I can’t even really describe what it tasted like either. I suppose in a sense it tasted like iced sugar cookies…HA HA! Anyways, I had a BLAST with Makiyo! She showed me how to hold and use chopsticks and that was cool! We just chatted for about an hour and a half and had some good laughs! She makes me laugh (as I do her too apparently!) I love her story about how when she goes to church she pretends she can’t speak English so she doesn’t have to talk to people! HA HA HA HA!! I love it! HILAROUS!

Then on my 25 minute trip home I got to talk to my buddy Laura Singleton on the phone! I haven’t talked to her in a while and she brightens my day! Yet again, another of my student teaching buddies! It was great to get to talk to her again!

Anyways, that has been my day! LONG, but a fun day! I love hanging out with old friends (Suzie) and working on my new friendships (Makiyo), having “good ol’ times with good ol’ buds” (Holly), and getting to talk to buddies that I haven’t gotten to talk with in a while (Laura).