Before I tell you all about my interesting life, I'd like to say that if any of you are interested in becoming dual enrolled (simultaneously in high school and college), feel free to ask questions!
That being said I'll start with the first time I entered a college campus. Luckily the college campus where my classes are held is beautiful, complete with a pond and gardens and rolling hills and trees. When I first saw it I thought it was too good to be true. At first I thought maybe it wasn't. After you start night classes however thing start to get scary. This is when you stick to well lit areas and hope they don't close the building you're in before your class starts.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first class I took on campus was a Spanish 1 class. What most high school students don't realize is that most college classes only last one semester, not the whole year. It took me awhile to realize this as well. Naturally then, when my teacher announced the last day of class was coming I was very excited- but very nervous. This meant that the Final was coming up. Normally that would be okay, but this wasn't any normal Final. Oh, no. That would have been far too simple. For this Final we had to compose a speech- totally in Spanish about Christmas traditions in various Spanish speaking cultures. Even that wouldn't have been too bad. I'm generally good at organizing myself enough to give a speech. But this also had to be a group project.
This is where I introduce the first of my friends, Jacob Heart. If he knew that's what I called him he'd probably kill me, but seeing as how he doesn't even like writing I doubt I'll have any problems there. Anyway, we decided to do the group project together since each of us was fairly comfortable with the other and we were avoiding at all costs speaking to the college students. (Here you must understand our point of view. These kids look like zombies. They're almost always on drugs, and are very loud, very big, and very insane. You get used to them after awhile though).
We started to get to work as soon as we got to his house, and it looked like everything would be okay. We had pretty good ideas and a whole five days to finish our presentation. What could possibly go wrong? I should probably also mention however, that he has a VERY big family.
At the time there were only five kids, plus one recently adopted. Now there are nine members of the family total- all under one roof. Needless to say we didn't get much done that day. I ended up doing most of the work, what with my normal sized five person family. I'm the oldest of two sisters, and thankfully only one of them enjoys getting on my nerves.
It took a long weekend and some emailing back and forth, but finally we got everything set up and planned to meet at my house the day before class to make props and practice. Oh yes, we were going to ace this thing!
The day before the Final, we met at the library to print a few things out (and also because we both like the library). The plan was to go to my house and finish up what we couldn’t at the library, and then call it a day.
We finished up a little early and just sat there talking for the last ten minutes before my dad came to pick us up. By the time we got pack it was around 3pm and I was exhausted. Then I remembered the Christmas lights! I ran ahead to plug in the lights and show off, and suddenly Jacob seemed irritated with me.
"Come on!" He said. "We don't have time for this. You're being too slow!"
"Goodness," I said smirking, "Try not to freak out okay? I'm just plugging in the lights! See how pretty they are?"
"Yeah, yeah." He said pushing me toward the door.
I was upset now. Furiously I jammed the key into the door careful not to make eye contact with him. I swung open the door, then shut it and turned around, ready to confront him. That's when I heard a muffled little cry on the other side of the door. Curious I opened the door, only to have about twenty people screaming in my face.
I will not own up to how high I might have jumped or screamed, no matter how many people got it on video. The first thing I did when I realized why these people were here was swung around and punched Jacob hard in the shoulder.
"What is your problem?" I yelled, but the next moment we were both laughing and soon everyone joined in.
I have to admit, they did a pretty good job. My birthday wasn't for another nine days, which is why I hadn't expected it. When your friends are all there to support you, it’s an amazing feeling. There's really nothing like it. Almost everyone was there. My best friend Carly, her sister Sarah and their brothers Joseph and David were there. Friends that I had become much closer to, like Zeke were there (that's another story for another entry), and my whole family was there. We went a little crazy that night, not in the ridiculous way some teenagers do, but in the run up and down the street and go to a concert at from 9-11 on a school night type of crazy.
The Final went well. Jacob did amazing on his part and I did okay too. I did mess up at one point and tried to recover by asking the teacher, "Ustedes quieres una galleta?" or in other words, "Would you like a cookie?"...
I was happy I got a B on the Final, and wait for it.... An A in the course!
Spanish 2 was just as difficult, but that's a story for next time! Until then! Hasta Mañana!
That being said I'll start with the first time I entered a college campus. Luckily the college campus where my classes are held is beautiful, complete with a pond and gardens and rolling hills and trees. When I first saw it I thought it was too good to be true. At first I thought maybe it wasn't. After you start night classes however thing start to get scary. This is when you stick to well lit areas and hope they don't close the building you're in before your class starts.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first class I took on campus was a Spanish 1 class. What most high school students don't realize is that most college classes only last one semester, not the whole year. It took me awhile to realize this as well. Naturally then, when my teacher announced the last day of class was coming I was very excited- but very nervous. This meant that the Final was coming up. Normally that would be okay, but this wasn't any normal Final. Oh, no. That would have been far too simple. For this Final we had to compose a speech- totally in Spanish about Christmas traditions in various Spanish speaking cultures. Even that wouldn't have been too bad. I'm generally good at organizing myself enough to give a speech. But this also had to be a group project.
This is where I introduce the first of my friends, Jacob Heart. If he knew that's what I called him he'd probably kill me, but seeing as how he doesn't even like writing I doubt I'll have any problems there. Anyway, we decided to do the group project together since each of us was fairly comfortable with the other and we were avoiding at all costs speaking to the college students. (Here you must understand our point of view. These kids look like zombies. They're almost always on drugs, and are very loud, very big, and very insane. You get used to them after awhile though).
We started to get to work as soon as we got to his house, and it looked like everything would be okay. We had pretty good ideas and a whole five days to finish our presentation. What could possibly go wrong? I should probably also mention however, that he has a VERY big family.
At the time there were only five kids, plus one recently adopted. Now there are nine members of the family total- all under one roof. Needless to say we didn't get much done that day. I ended up doing most of the work, what with my normal sized five person family. I'm the oldest of two sisters, and thankfully only one of them enjoys getting on my nerves.
It took a long weekend and some emailing back and forth, but finally we got everything set up and planned to meet at my house the day before class to make props and practice. Oh yes, we were going to ace this thing!
The day before the Final, we met at the library to print a few things out (and also because we both like the library). The plan was to go to my house and finish up what we couldn’t at the library, and then call it a day.
We finished up a little early and just sat there talking for the last ten minutes before my dad came to pick us up. By the time we got pack it was around 3pm and I was exhausted. Then I remembered the Christmas lights! I ran ahead to plug in the lights and show off, and suddenly Jacob seemed irritated with me.
"Come on!" He said. "We don't have time for this. You're being too slow!"
"Goodness," I said smirking, "Try not to freak out okay? I'm just plugging in the lights! See how pretty they are?"
"Yeah, yeah." He said pushing me toward the door.
I was upset now. Furiously I jammed the key into the door careful not to make eye contact with him. I swung open the door, then shut it and turned around, ready to confront him. That's when I heard a muffled little cry on the other side of the door. Curious I opened the door, only to have about twenty people screaming in my face.
I will not own up to how high I might have jumped or screamed, no matter how many people got it on video. The first thing I did when I realized why these people were here was swung around and punched Jacob hard in the shoulder.
"What is your problem?" I yelled, but the next moment we were both laughing and soon everyone joined in.
I have to admit, they did a pretty good job. My birthday wasn't for another nine days, which is why I hadn't expected it. When your friends are all there to support you, it’s an amazing feeling. There's really nothing like it. Almost everyone was there. My best friend Carly, her sister Sarah and their brothers Joseph and David were there. Friends that I had become much closer to, like Zeke were there (that's another story for another entry), and my whole family was there. We went a little crazy that night, not in the ridiculous way some teenagers do, but in the run up and down the street and go to a concert at from 9-11 on a school night type of crazy.
The Final went well. Jacob did amazing on his part and I did okay too. I did mess up at one point and tried to recover by asking the teacher, "Ustedes quieres una galleta?" or in other words, "Would you like a cookie?"...
I was happy I got a B on the Final, and wait for it.... An A in the course!
Spanish 2 was just as difficult, but that's a story for next time! Until then! Hasta Mañana!