Georgia Storms; My thoughts on AP classes; Unexpected Political Science Prof.

So I did not post on Friday, but I have a legitimate excuse seeing as I was on the road for two days, travelling back to college.

The drive went well, unlike the last time we came up when it rained cats and dogs the entire way, making it impossible to drive faster than a turtle.  It did lightning storm rather badly at the hotel we stayed in Georgia.  And when I say bad, we’re talking flash of light and the thunder is practically beating the former to us.  We were looking through the windows to check on the car.

A couple things I learned from our trip:  Gas station nachos are a no go, Krystal burgers are the worst burgers, and I finally got to try a Red Robin and that was excellent.

We made it here on time on Friday and got the Jeep unpacked into my dorm room.  Last year I lived in a dorm with an elevator, so getting stuff up however many floors wasn’t so bad; That was not the case next time.  I need to work out a little bit by the time I have to unload this place again.

I’m actually writing this before I have to run off to my 9 0’clock class:  Principles of Macro-Economics.  I’m taking 18 wonderful hours this semester in an attempt to lighten my load for my senior year, which is next year.  Being a transfer student and taking college classes while still in high school really paid off when it comes to my ability (my parent’s ability) to pay for college.  We’re at the crappy middle point where my grades are good, but not good enough, and my parents earn too much for me to get financial aid scholarships, but not enough that putting kids through college is a breeze. 

I definitely encourage taking college classes while still in high school!  What killed me is that no one told us about our ability to do that, so I didn’t start until the summer before my senior year, but in reality, you can do a lot more than that.  It’s a well kept secret that with just your ACT score, you can already take a lot of your General Education credits are your local community college.  More students need to know that they can do it themselves rather than taking shitty (excuse my language) AP courses where you slave all year keeping a good grade, get to the test and get a 2.  You take classes at your community college, you’ll do some work, but you know if you get a decent grade those three hours are guaranteed.  AP classes are some of the biggest bs I have ever seen.  Use your time and energy on credits you know you can get.

Oh yeah, and little story.  I started out taking AP U.S. History when I was in my Junior year of high school.  About a month or so in I told the teacher I was switching over to the standard class, because I realized that it was stupid to slave over a class I wasn’t doing well in, for a credit I statistically, probably won’t get.  He had the nerve to tell me a story about his friend who didn’t do anything worthwhile in high school and then went off to college and failed out  because he didn’t know how to study and had no work ethic.  Good story, probably made up, but I just walked away with a little chuckle.

I have had one C and that was during my senior year with a Biology teacher from hell.  The majority of my grades are A’s.  I don’t really think that story applied to me all that well.  I’ll admit, I didn’t do anything in high school, because it wasn’t all that hard.  You go to class, highlight some notes, memorize a few definitions, and you’ll be fine.  College is a hell of a lot harder.

Anyway, so today was my first day back in class.  Of my 18 hours this semester I am taking:  Principles of Macro-Economics, Intro to Digital Photography, Electronic and Technological Journalism, Public Relations, Concepts of Political Science, and Comparative Politics.  By far, my most challenging classes of the semester will be my Political Science focused ones, or so I thought.  It just so happens that my schedule fell so that I have all my PS classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, all in a row, and all in the same building.  Then my other classes are Tuesday Friday.

Comparative Politics was the most interesting class today, simply because I did not expect it.  As I’m sitting there, this guy walks in and I immediately think he’s lost.  When I think Political Science professor I imagine guys who wear a jacket everyday and are clean cut and stern.  This guy takes his spot at the front of the class and stares at us for a moment, before beginning to hand out the syllabus.  At this point, I’m still referring to him as “this guy” because he’s wearing jeans, has a long ponytail, earrings, and a beard.  Finally he starts to speak, and whoa!  He’s British!

This amused me, not that he was British, but the mixture of all the mentioned things.  I later realized that he looks British as well (shape of the nose, eyes, etc.)  He’s also a big fan of Liverpool which earns major points in my book (GO KUYT!).  Now we’ll just have to wait and see how bad the damage is in tomorrow’s classes, because today’s teachers didn’t seem so bad.