March 31

Today we learned, for the third time, about students in our class who want to study abroad and where they want to go. I'm nearly positive there were fewer students who said they wanted to study abroad this time. They probably figured that they had answered the question enough already. After asking this, she had us say which language we took in high school. A few people said, “French,” and one kid said, “German” because there's one in every crowd. After most of us answered, “Spanish,” she asked if we wanted to know the genesis of the program. I'm not sure why she had to use that word, but she used it several times. It just seems a little odd, and it relates this class to the Bible, which is just weird. Then she put some French words on the board. Apparently, LAS 122 is about “I”, the formal and informal uses of “you”, and “we”. Once she explained it, this made sense. One starts with “I” then branches out to working with people one could address as the informal “you” and working for people one would address as formal “you”, until the whole group of people becomes “we”. Still, French? This program is based on four French words? There's nothing wrong with the language, but it seems like a random thing to use to start a class. Then again, I'm not too surprised. I mean, it is this class.

After getting a brief language lesson, we discussed our service projects again. I do love hearing multiple times about these projects, especially when several people in the class went to the same place. It just seems like there's something more useful we could do with our time...like coloring. That would be pretty awesome. When we were discussing this, our teacher asked how we used leadership. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like entry level volunteering won't involve leadership so much as it will involve grunt work. Then again, what do I know? This class is just like high school, so I definitely know nothing compared to people who organized it. Also, we already knew that working with animals wasn't “humanitarian enough”, but today we learned that working for the environment isn't “humanitarian enough”, either. It's not like we live in the environment and we need to work to keep it livable. No, it's that other thing... I keep thinking that I won't be surprised by the ridiculous things that come from this class, but I'm wrong so many times.

March 29

Reflection Paper 3 arrived. I knew it was coming, but that doesn't mean that I want to have to deal with it any more.  Firstly, I have another of my famous edited versions of the prompt. Hopefully this one will be easier to read.

God help you if your project involved animals!

I had to add on a little more BS than usual to meet the two-page requirement. I don't know, maybe this paper won't net me a score of 9. Gasp! Also, do they expect us to say that we wouldn't help out our volunteer site more if we were able? I suppose in my mind it's more of a, “You have a crap-load of money. Would you give some of it to this site?” I doubt anyone will say something like, “No! I hate the place where I volunteered! No money for them!” Most people try to seem like awesome people in hypothetical situations because it doesn't take any effort. Anyway. The end is in sight of this terrible class, so I have less to snark about. Just know that I wrote this paper in one sitting and didn't bother to edit it much.

March 17

Today, my teacher confirmed something I've suspected about this class for a long time. “This is just like high school or a job, you let your supervisor know if you can't get something in.” I'm glad someone is finally owning up to the fact that this class is just like being back in high school. We have contrived group projects, none of the readings really pertain to the class, late work isn't a big deal, we have busy work all the time (I consider all of our homework busy work), and, when it comes down to it, this class's worth will be summed up when I check it off my list of required classes.

Speaking of that, the teacher asked us all to write down our impressions about the walkabout on a slip of paper. She assured us that, probably within a half hour, our papers would be shredded. Excuse me? You're going to read through them once and then shred them? (Saying that she'll read them is kind of a large assumption, but I can be optimistic at times.) I realize you don't care about our opinions, but this is a little much. I hope she takes my honest statement that I don't understand why we went on the walkabout to heart. Because they asked for student input in arranging this class, then ignored it, I doubt anyone will care about my opinion, though.

There was one bright spot to this class: one of our papers and our final reading are canceled. They wouldn't want us to have to spend effort on a class that has no merit close to finals. I'm glad they realize the pointlessness of this class, at least in part.

None of these penguins took this class, and look how happy they are!

March 15

I just wrote the second reflection paper for class. I hadn't realized we had another paper, so I'm glad my friend was complaining about it. The prompt was this:

"How does leadership play a role in living and learning in a diverse community like that of the University of Illinois?  Did the cultural Center walkabout influence how you think about leadership in the campus community?  Why or why not?  In what ways did the Walkabout lead you to any new insights, inspirations, questions or concern related to this class (and what are they)?

Your paper should consist of a response to the prompt above that is carefully crafted and edited.  The minimum length is 2 pages, double spaced, in an 11 or 12 point font with standard 1 inch margins."

Yes...a carefully crafted paper. With directions like these, there's no way I BSed this paper. No, wait...that other thing... I don't care enough about this class to actually spend time on this paper. I put what I think in it, though. That could be dangerous. I might not get the coveted “9” score! Oh no! Really, though, the cultural center walkabout taught me nothing about leadership. I don't understand how we're supposed to write a paper about how it did. That's why I called them on their ridiculosity in my paper. When I got to the part about questions, I almost put this in my paper, “I question this class every time I think about it.” I decided to phrase this a bit differently and much more subtly. While I was writing this paper, my friend was sitting next to me writing hers. I took down a few quotes while we were talking. Unless otherwise noted, these quotes are hers.

“Did I just make connections with stuff that wasn't even in this class?” she asked. “That's the only way to write this paper,” I replied.

"It's pissing me off; race has nothing to do with leadership."

“This is bad and I don't even care.” (about her paper)

Also, remember how one of my friends dropped being a spiffy scholar so she could drop this class? I just learned that another one of my friends dropped being this kind of scholar as well so she didn't have to take this class, before she started it. Just the idea of taking this class made her stop being this spiffy kind of scholar. A friend of a friend was scared away from being a scholar because she didn't want to take this class and the one I had to take last semester. I'm pretty sure the people organizing these classes are doing something wrong. I'm just sayin'.

On the topic of not being organized... At the beginning of the year, we had to print out the syllabus and bring it to class. Each of our paper assignments was written on the syllabus and they told us that was exactly what we would be writing. I don't know why I'm surprised when they lie to us anymore. According to the syllabus, we were supposed to write:

“How do you connect your current definition of leadership to the idea of being an ally in a diverse society? Describe how you believe being an ally can aid progress towards addressing humanitarian issues. How did the Cultural Center Walkabout help you lean about being an ally and effective leader on campus? In what ways did the Walkabout lead you to any new insights, questions, or concerns, and what were they? What are some possible ways you can involved [sic] with Cultural Centers on campus in the future? Do you plan to do so? Why or why not?”

It would be nice if they could be consistent. Oh, and having correct grammar would be a good thing, too.

I'll make that class make sense later.  These puppies are so cute!

March 8

We had to do a walk-about today. It went from 7 to 9 at night. Our walk-about covered the various cultural houses on campus (Native American, Asian American, African American, Women's Resource Center, GLBT, La Casa). I'm not sure being a woman is a culture, but whateves. Anyway, this walk was mostly handled by the people whose houses we were visiting, so I don't have much to complain about. My two dislikes are these:

-It was cold.

-It was raining and I didn't have an umbrella.

Pretty much like this, except without a way to keep my head dry.

There's nothing anyone could have done about those (except for me bringing and umbrella). I accept that, but this blog is a complain-a-thon so there you go.

Anyway, after our tour in the rain, I went back to my dorm and tried to twist myself up to squeeze out all the rain.

March 2

A couple of things have come up since my last post. Firstly, remember that paper we had to write where only people who wrote with heart would get a 9? Remember how I BSed it? I got a 9. Either I'm good at pretending to write with heart, or my teacher is bad at telling, even though she told us she wasn't. Either way, I feel this is a win.

Secondly, I dislike using Moodle even more now. I got an e-mail about every discussion board post. Every. Single. One. I know I could mark these e-mails as spam; that's not the part that bothers me. Every group's decisions about what they are doing are delivered to my mailbox. I was uncomfortable with the lack of privacy in planning before, now I'm a little pissed. Instead of there being a possibility that someone in the class could see what someone else had written, now everyone in the class gets what everyone else has written shoved in their face.

Those points aside, the homework for this week was as follows:

Pretty much, "Whatever you came up with in class, put up here with a spiffy video."

My group-mates and I discussed this over e-mail. (Sucks to your asmar! I mean moodle.) One of them posted a nice summation of what we talked about. I pretty much had no homework for this class. It'd be nice if this were to become a trend. I mean, if it's going to be a waste of time, it may as well be a small waste of time.