The work begins....

Its been a while since the last time that I blogged about school, but I have a good reason for that!  I have been working on ACTUAL school work!  YAY!  All those aspirations about volunteering on my free time (at this dog retailer in the mall next to my apartment), and getting a job (it looks bleaker than it should) and everything else I thought that I would have time for is slowly fading into the fog that is my education at the moment.

Now that my classes are in full swing, I have reading, lots of reading, and am turning in my first paper on the discipline of communication and how it is going to affect me as a new scholar tomorrow.  Everything is electronic at this school, meaning that there are few if any handouts and all work is turned in via an email to a professor.  Most if not all information is found on blackboard - which thankfully I am pretty used to  the set-up (thanks Western!)  Its a little odd, but I guess some of it has to do with saving the earth and some of it has to do with budget cuts - and printing and paper being something easy to cut back on budget wise.  Its being graded on APA format, organization, thought process, and a group work section.  I have been working on it for the last week or so, trying to make sure that I have covered every aspect of anything that needs to be covered, but you never know, what I might have forgotten, or what he will consider good/bad writing.  Its been so long since I have been judged on academic writing that this paper seems a little daunting - its that hyper "its been so long since I have been expected to get an A on anything" feeling.  But I keep trying to let the universe know that I tried my best, and thats all I can expect!

Honestly, all my classes are interesting. My most interesting class is one on conversation analysis.  The material is so "real" and the analysis is incredibly dense, but it absolutely amazing what you can study from plain everyday conversations.  The first class I had studied phone openings - you know - the Hi! / Hello / How are you doing? / Fine and You - part of conversations.  We studied real time recordings of a family giving bad news to their family members.  The patterns that can be found in everyday life are incredible! I imagine that this sound incredibly boring - but if you were sitting there listening to them and then walking through a data session, I PROMISE you would be amazed! I am thinking about doing my research proposal on the communication relationship between mentors and their mentees and how the bond of trust is formed...I have yet to explore the intricacies of it all, but it sounds relevant to me and to my past experiences.

The pace picks up for this upcoming week as we start presenting on articles (which I have been collecting) related to various topics in intercultural communication, I have a data session on audio transcription so I can start on my research proposal, and I attend the second colloquia where we get to intimately meet the faculty professing their knowledge in the department.  I hope that I can keep up....

On other news, been traveling around town, and have been to two different farmers markets, one in Hillcrest and one in Little Italy!  Both places I would consider living when Perry and I move out of the apartment that we are living in right now.  The complex is filling up with a lot of military personnel who keep occupying the work out room (its totally intimidating to work out with people that have passed basic)...oh well, I need to work on other amenities!  Hello free printer :)

till the next time, keep thinking positive!