What Silly Thing Did I Do Today?

Well, I took a final at 8am. I ended that class with an A. That's three down, and two to go. Then again, that wasn't silly. Nor was the trip to the bookstore to pick up summer textbooks and some Spanish study materials.

That Spanish class had a written an and oral final. If you had a 92 overall after completing the semester and the written final, you're exempt from the final. I ended up with a 96.5, so I was exempt. Meghan got 100 in the class, she was also exempt and makes me look like a total slacker!

However, my friend and classmate Meghan and I both expressed concerns about spending a month not speaking any Spanish before we begin the summer class. The summer class in which the instructor no longer utters any words in English. Both of us know how rusty we can get with a couple of days w/o practice and we're the ones who ENJOYED the homework and extra credit.

I mentioned picking up some study guides on my own, but Meghan approached our professor and arranged to look through the workbooks she has to decide what to buy off eBay or Amazon. We discussed getting Spark Charts and yesterday, Meghan
grabbed them for me. Plans were made to meet up on campus and I'd pick them up.

The time frame brought me right up to Meghan's scheduled time to meet with Profesora, so I waited with her outside the office as the last three students performed their required oral exams.

After they finished, we spent a bit of time talking to our instructor about the course, the books she had found to be helpful and we recapped the semester. I mentioned how it ended up I didn't need the extra credit, but in a sense, I think I did, because it gave me good study habits and practice. We both agreed with this observation, as she says that those that attend the Charlas events are consistently the A and B students.

Meghan had an agenda, she wanted to see how she'd do in an impromptu oral exam and asked to take one. The silly thing? I ended up taking one, too.

Even without spending a second on Spanish since walking out of the class Tuesday, so that I could focus on this morning's final, I ended up with a 93. A relief that some of this is sinking in.

The surprise part was that the books that Professora pulled out for us to examine? She told us to take them for our own use. I started a study group online for the class at the start of the semester and immediately thought that I'm going to pull some of the information within the books for refreshers (nearly everyone in the study group is in the summer class) and we can all walk in next month in better shape.

This has been one of those classes where I had the option of taking it in Tampa four days a week or Lakeland two. I opted for two and ended up with an instructor who loves what she does, freely shared all the tools for success and encouraged any and all creative ideas we came up with to foster our ability to learn. It's been so enjoyable that instead of just taking the two semesters required, I'll be staying the distance with her for three and likely four semesters.

It's amazing what happens when you end up wihth an instructor that inspires. You do silly things like take the final you weren't scheduled to take!

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