My dear blog readers, I apologize for not having updated you with my clever insights and entertaining rants for so many days. I sincerely apologize for any pain or withdrawal symptoms you may have encountered from this break in my typical blogging habits, and I promise to try to improve in the near future.
No, really, I've been crazy busy. Between getting work done and goofing off/not getting work done, I've hardly had any time to do things that fall somewhere in the middle of those two areas -- like, for instance, this blog. What is probably going to be the most horrible month of my life has arrived, and trust me, there aren't many things right now that look less appealing than schoolwork.
Let me attempt to summarize the month+ from hell:
Tuesday (10/7) - Test in Geography of Costa Rica. I haven't studied for this, although the plan is to do so on Monday before my class. Unfortunately, one day will not be sufficient to read all the parts of the textbook that I haven't read yet.
Monday (10/13) - Test in Environmental Management. Honestly, I'm scared about this test. We have done NOTHING in this class. Like, seriously. We show up. We "listen." We "take notes." No homework, no reading, no nothing. I have no idea what he's going to test us over, and that scares me. He also is having us turn in our critique this day. In an act of incredible foresight, I have already finished this critique.
Wednesday (10/15) - Presentation in Cartography about how GIS can be used in my field of study. I need to ask whether there is a paper associated with this... I didn't understand when she was telling us about it in class. Right now the plan is to re-purpose my critique from Environmental Management into this presentation.
Wednesday (10/22) - Draft of group paper/project is due in World Geography. I've got an outline, sources, research, and about one page written so far. It's taken me three or four days to accomplish this meager progress, which does not bode well for the remainder of my time here.
Monday (10/27) - 10-page research paper in Environmental Management due. I have an idea for a topic and one source.
Wednesday (10/29) - Test in Cartography.
Sometime in November -- Paper and presentation in Geography of Costa Rica. I finally talked to the teacher and settled on the topic of "Urban Planning" -- mostly because that's one of the last topics we cover, and I don't have time to write anything before then. However, I don't have an exact date on this (which kind of scares me) and I'm still not sure I completely understand the requirements for the project. I know I need a paper. How long it is -- this is what I think she said -- depends on how much source material there is. When it's due, I'm not really sure. I would have guessed the week shown for my topic on the syllabus, but we aren't following the syllabus too closely, so I have no idea. She has given us ZERO guidance or guidelines on this project (or, well, zero that I understood).
Also sometime before the end of November -- Turn in two more reflections for World Geography.
And after that, I think I have a presentation in Environmental Management sometime in November, plus finals. I don't think anything in my life is going to be hard after this.
In other news, I got my test back in World Geography. I got an 86 on it. I have never been so happy to see a B in my life. However, all this does is confirm the suspicion I've been building that my teacher does not recognize made up nonsense -- although some of the readings he's been giving us should have confirmed that long ago.
I still have a million places I want to go to. I want go go back to Monteverde. I want to go to Golfito. I want to go to Cahuita. I want to go to Tortugero. I want to go white water rafting somewhere. I want to go back to La Fortuna and Arenal. I also haven't cracked the guidebook in weeks because I know I don't have time to go anywhere until the end of the semester.
It's bad when schoolwork means you can't hang out with your friends at home.
It's worse when schoolwork means you can't go snorkeling in coral reefs, or trekking through virgin cloud forest, or white water rafting, or on a trip to see lava.
It's bad when you don't understand the homework assignment.
It's worse when you don't understand IF YOU HAVE homework.
It's bad when you can't answer the test question.
It's worse when you don't understand the test question.
It's bad you have to correct the grammar of all the idiots you got stuck doing group work with.
It's worse when you're that idiot.
It's bad when a teacher doesn't give you guidelines for a project.
It's worse when you don't know if your teacher gave you guidelines for a project.
Cilantro is yukky. (Sorry, I think my host mom is cooking something, and I just got a HUGE whiff of cilantro. GAG! )
It's bad when you haven't done the reading for a class.
It's worse when you've done the reading and still don't understand it.
It's bad when the professor is boring.
It's worse when the professor is boring AND hard to understand.
As much as I would love to continue this, it's now 11am. I need to go work. My goal for this weekend was to finish a draft of my World Geography paper, and I still have a lot of work to do.
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