At El Dorado, I'm taking a student connect class. All the other kids in it (I can say kids because they're around my age) are typical college freshmen. They seem like anyone I could meet at a high school, and they're pretty predictable. The teacher does not have my favorite personality type, but as I've been working on loving her anyway, I've noticed that I love her attitude about the class. The first day she never showed up, and two of the three classes after that she gave us an assignment and let us leave. Although she had a good reason to be gone, and had contacted her superiors about it, she's still frazzled and a little late all the time. This is not why I like her. I like her because of what she said the first day of class. "Okay, so you know you don't need to take this class, and I know you don't need to take this class, but they say you have to, and guess what? I'm in charge. So I'm going to try to keep this from being too painful for you guys, and we'll just go through it. You can get out of this class what you'd like."
This week, unfortunately, we've had a sub. Even more unfortunate is that the sub is Tim's teacher. He's an old guy with a beard who would like to believe he's hip and young and funny. He finishes every stupid pun with "Okay, I'll be serious now, guys" and thinks this class is the best thing that ever happened to college. He's just like the counselor in Freaks and Geeks.
However, he talks kinda like this guy from A Mighty Wind.
I also take a drawing class, but the kids in there are always focused on their work, and though I've gotten to know them a little, no one seems very interesting at the moment.In Andover, I've been able to meet students like me who are too practical to live on campus, middle aged women going back to school, and determined high school drop-outs ready to start over and get serious this time.
My Beginning Spanish II class is pretty interesting. The other students are older than me. We spend most of the class talking in Spanish about nothing in particular. (That's what's great about learning a second language; you can answer any question however you want, as long as it's grammatically correct.)
My Spanish teacher is tall and thin with a wispy comb-over and thick glasses. He was a navigator in the Air Force and is full of stories. He has a strange sense of humor. He always talks about his wife because "she's not here to defend herself" and most of my classmates aren't sure whether he really likes her or not. On the first day he told us, "I used to like kids until I had some... Me and my wife always say that if we were to get a divorce, the first one to sign the papers has to take the kids... that's why we're still married." He has two horses, and they're his life. "Yeah, I raised them from colts. This past year, one died, and I was really attached to her. It was really sad... especially because I had to dig the grave by hand!"
There is a middle-aged woman who is only enrolled at Butler for this class. She is more comfortable with written Spanish, so when asked questions out loud, she stutters through the answer in a strong American accent, but I love that she wants to learn. One answer made me laugh really hard (not out loud).
Teacher: "So it says here that Spaniards live longer than Americans, but their calorie intake is about the same. I wonder why that is..."
Lady: "They exercise more."
Teacher: "That's probably it. "
Lady: "They just live healthier lives... (and then with a thoughtful expression) ...unless it's el dia de Running of the Bulls..."
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