Smile!

Classes today were pretty lame. I've decided I'm not a huge fan of the new German professor. We were learning about the placement of "nicht" in a sentence and she said in the sentence "Peter kommt heute nicht," it would always go at the end because you're negating the whole sentence. I raised my hand and said, "But if you were stressing the 'heute,' you would say, 'Peter kommt nicht heute, sondern morgen,' right?"

Her response was about five minutes long. I don't even know what she said. First she said that was exactly right. Then she said no, I'm wrong, it would always be at the end because you're negating the whole sentence. Then she said that it always goes in front of what you're negating. Then she said it never goes in front of the verb (which isn't right because it goes in front of the second verb when you use a modal).

Siiigh.

English was my last class for the whole semester. In that class, we got back our teacher's comments on the rough drafts of our research papers, which are due the day of the final. The teacher said my paper was good, but it was too short. I was surprised to see that he knows more about my topic than I do, because I wrote about quantum physics, and he seems to like the social sciences vastly more than the natural sciences. Of course, in the comments, he said he wanted me to apply it to anthropic issues. But he said it was just an option. I'm not going to because I'm a bit of a misanthrope. Instead, I'll expand the section about Schrödinger's cat and maybe talk about what Einstein thought of quantum physics.

Anyway, if we didn't take our papers in to the Writing Center to get it looked over, the professor was going to deduct 50 points from our grade, which is 5% of our overall score for the class. He said that's not a lot, but I kind of think it is. Of course, tomorrow is the last day the Writing Center is open for the semester, and they're totally packed. I'm pretty sure over half the class is going to lose those points. Fortunately for me, the professor's good friends with Cindy Hardy, the lady who's in charge of the student journal that I help edit. So he said she would count as a substitute since I couldn't get in to the Writing Center.

After class, I finally turned in my registration form so I can register for classes. While I was at Signer's Hall, I decided to stop by the Office of Admissions to see how my science credits transferred. My degree worksheet says I'm required to take two four-credit science classes, and I've taken two three-credit science classes. It seems like no matter who I ask, they won't tell me whether I have to take one more science class to finish the eight credits or two more science classes because they have to be four credits. When I asked my advisor, she said to ask the Registrar's Office. When I asked there, they said to ask the Office of Admissions. So today, I went to the Office of Admissions. They said I had to ask a lady named Emily back in the Registrar's Office. Grrrr. But then they kindly offered to send an e-mail for me and CC it to me and give me the lady's contact information in case they didn't get through. So right after I had Cindy edit my research paper, I checked my e-mail and behold! A final answer about my science credits! And guess what! Even though it says "four-credit natural science courses," a natural science class with a lab counts. So I only earned three credits towards my total, but they fulfilled the requirement, so I don't have to take any more science classes at all!

Normally, I would have been thoroughly stoked to take a science class. But I'm really running short on money, and science classes require really expensive textbooks and an extra fee for the lab. Plus, at this school, they charge tuition per credit. So in all, one four-credit science class would cost about a thousand dollars. Ewwww.

While I was in the Wood Center today at my Icebox meeting, a guy walked past and gave me a big friendly smile and waved at me. I smiled and waved back but was having a conversation with Cindy at the time, so I didn't talk to him. But I stopped listening to what she was saying because I couldn't remember where I knew him from. I knew that I knew the guy. I knew that I liked and respected him. But I couldn't for the life of me remember who he was or what class I have with him. Then it hit me. He's in my speech class. Holy cow! There's something about speech class I don't hate after all!

Amazing how much power there can be in something as simple as a friendly smile.