Friday, August 22, 2008

Welcome to Human Communication

This morning I only had one fifty minute class, human communication. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but as I walked in, I noticed that for once most of the students appeared to be close to my age. As the instructor walked in, she seemed just a little bit too excited to be there.

She began class by taking attendance, and then she said that we would be going over the syllabus, and if we were lucky, we would get to our first in class activity. Before she started to go over the syllabus, she explained how to log into blackboard. It is really difficult, trust me. Then she brought up the syllabus and started going over it.

When she got to the part about the textbook we were supposed to have, one guy raised his hand and started to give a five minute explanation as to why he didn't have his book. You see, he has been in the hospital for the last three weeks for something to do with his gull bladder, and he was late in filing for his financial aid. When he did file for financial aid, something didn't work out, so he had to file it again. Now he is waiting for the financial aid to come through before he can get his book. If the financial aid doesn't come through, it could be next Wednesday before he can get the book, and he may even have to drop the course. He isn't sure yet. Neat story, I know.

After listening to the story, the instructor told the guy that he would just have to play catch up when he got his book. He replied by saying that he definitely would because he had made sure to write down the assignment. The instructor continued on, and as I watched her, I couldn't help but think that she should have been a kindergarten teacher rather than a college instuctor. She was just too chipper. I am not anti-happy, but there comes a point when you are over doing it and talking in little kid voices. Oh well, better happy than mean I guess.

As the end of the class approached, the instructor said that she had an activity we could start and finish Monday when we have class again. She passed out index cards to each one of us that had a word written on it. What we had to do was find the person with the opposite of our card. For example, I had "day" so I had to find the person with the card that said "night."

Everyone was quiet as she handed out the cards, except for the guy with the gull bladder problem. When she handed him his card which said, "high, " and he immediately yelled out, "I resent that. I use Visine for my allergies." The instructor just smiled and moved on. God bless that man.

Once all the cards were handed out, we found our partners. Mine was a chick named Chelsea who had graduated from Republic in May. She has a boyfriend of two years, and she played softball her freshman year of high school. She was just going for general education classes at OTC, because she doesn't know what she wants to do yet.

I told her about me and tried to think of something interesting about me, but I really couldn't. You see, we have to introduce our partner to the class on Monday, and we have to say one interesting fact about them. I told her that I would have said it was interesting that I have a sweet tattoo on my wrist, but the man in the back, who was covered in tattoos, has me beat on that one. She did not find my comment even remotely amusing.

And so, my time in human communication drew to a close. It was an interesting fifty minutes, and I am sure it will be a class filled with plenty of good writing material throughout the semester.

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