Schooling

Well, I survived my first day of school. My English Comp I class should be pretty good. We'll be focusing on writing about popular media, so it's nice that it has a connection, if ever so stretched, to what I'd like to major in- Radio, TV & Film. And the professor bears what I call a "bargain basement" resemblance to Colin Firth, so I should be able to stay focused. History, there's a lot of class participation which I'm not crazy about. Debates and the like, along with a service project and field trips. I get embarrassed having to speak in front of people, but I need to remind myself I'm there for me, not them- so who gives a crap what they think, right? Easier typed than done, ha. And then there's math. Algebra to be exact. The regular kind, cause I have to relearn it. Oy vey. I am not a fan of math, particularly Algebra. As soon as a big jumble of letters and numbers are written on the board, my mind just becomes foggy. I can never remember what to do first. Or next. Or last, for that matter. But I keep trying to re-frame it in my mind. Every time I say to myself "I hate math!", I adjust it to "I don't like math.", and then eventually I'll shift that to "I like math." And once we get there we'll consider it a miracle. Gotta hit from every angle. I'm hoping my decent writing skills will get me through the first two classes without too much of a struggle, so I can really put the effort into math that it's going to require.

But, the important part is I survived! Day one, at least, ha.

Learning French...for Free!

As you may recall I decided to renew my attempt to learn French. I am however currently far too cheap to buy any fancy Rosetta Stone or similar product. Instead I've been searching for free resources to try and learn the language. So far I've been working with a combination of FrenchPodClass and Coffee Break French. FrenchPodClass has lesson review sheets also available for free, and I believe Coffee Break French has work sheets and other support material available for a fee. Both are available free through iTunes. I just download them to my iPhone and listen while cooking or doing other chores. FrenchPodClass ended in 2008, but there's 3 years worth of podcasts to utilize. And Coffee Break French will be ending soon, but they say they will be working on an intermediate course next. I also found the free app "French 24/7 Tutor Lite Edition" so when I need to waste a little time I can do play games and puzzles to help me a little. And, on top of that it turns out our friend Jason speaks French, so I'm going to tap him know and then for a little practice.