Ouch. Am sore from swimming. Although I feel like a baby doing all the kickboard drills that Kelley makes us do, I do admit that it builds muscle.
Update on the financial aid: I heard today in linguistics class that I'm not the only one, that nobody has gotten their Bright Futures yet and that others have had their tuition deducted from their normal scholarships too. So maybe it's not just because I was abroad. Still, I'm glad my advisor wrote to them, because he got a letter back today saying they'd mail a transcript ASAP and that they'd include the Boswell classes. That sounds promising; I hope 'ASAP' means within the next week.
We got our assignments today for TESL, finding conversation partners (people learning English who we can help) and planning presentations with activities for non-native English speakers. We have to do them with our class as if we were real teachers. Luckily, we can work together. Most people preferred to work alone, but Stephanie, whom I didn't know until this semester, and I elected to work together, saying two heads are better than one. As for the conversational partner, most people are signing up to meet people from the English Language Institute (ELI) here in Gainesville, but I had mentioned this to Martin in passing while he was still here and he asked me if he could do it. I asked Patty (the teacher) about that today, and she said that it was probably okay but that she'd give me a definite answer on Friday.
Speaking of Friday... we've got another hurricane out there. The last one missed us by a hair, unfortunately - I like hurricanes. Probably because they've never destroyed my car or house or anything like that :) but still, I think they're exciting. Frances, this new one, is supposed to hit Friday or Saturday, I think. Depending on where it comes in, I may go to Jacksonville.
On campus, they're kicking up a big fuss about voting. Which is actually a good thing - as Mom never fails to remind me, Alachua had the biggest percentage of Nader voters last election - undecideds. I'm walking around with a Kerry button on my backpack now. Mom's tried to explain to me all the details of the situation, but there are only three things that really stick in my mind.
The first is, Bush is simply an idiot. There it is, plain and simple. He can't talk without (a) someone else's written-down ideas to prompt him, (b) tripping over his own tongue, or (c) mentioning God. (Isn't there some rule out there mentioning, oh, I don't know, SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?!) And not just an idiot, but an idiot who can't seem to separate what he PERSONALLY believes from what is best for a COUNTRY full of 280,000,000 people.
The second is gay marriage. I'm not even really familiar with Kerry's stand on it, but I sure know Bush's, and I think it stinks. If two people love each other and want to be together forever "'til death do they part", then what does it matter what they have inside their pants?
And the third, the biggie, is stem cell research. In my opinion, that is the best thing that ever happened to medical science and he's stopping us from doing it, afraid to offend his precious pro-lifers. I don't think the world understands the potential here. We have the capability to regrow arms and legs for amputees, grow new hearts and livers and bone marrow for people who need transplants, new pancreases for people with diabetes, new reproductive organs for infertile women. Maybe even, someday, parts of the brain for those with brain damage. And all this can be done without fear of rejection or other problems, because we will be using those peoples' very own cells! That seems so magical to me, that we could treat and cure so many things that way. I really think that's going to be the "double helix" of the 21st century, like Watson and Crick with DNA last century. But Bush says no, afraid it will be seen as supporting abortion. (Which I'm also in favor of, but don't get me started on that.) While, as Mom says, thousands of embryos are thrown away every day at fertility clinics. All this is going to do is ensure that some OTHER country without such a religion-compromised leader makes a breakthrough before we do. And our fall from grace from our coveted place at the top of the world will then be short and hard, I can assure you.
The Secret Service is probably going to track me down for this post, but whatever.
Anyway, vote for Kerry. :)
OK, gotta go check the student job site - I want to see if there's anything on there like house-sitting that I could do once in a while. Then I have to hit Publix. See ya.
Update on the financial aid: I heard today in linguistics class that I'm not the only one, that nobody has gotten their Bright Futures yet and that others have had their tuition deducted from their normal scholarships too. So maybe it's not just because I was abroad. Still, I'm glad my advisor wrote to them, because he got a letter back today saying they'd mail a transcript ASAP and that they'd include the Boswell classes. That sounds promising; I hope 'ASAP' means within the next week.
We got our assignments today for TESL, finding conversation partners (people learning English who we can help) and planning presentations with activities for non-native English speakers. We have to do them with our class as if we were real teachers. Luckily, we can work together. Most people preferred to work alone, but Stephanie, whom I didn't know until this semester, and I elected to work together, saying two heads are better than one. As for the conversational partner, most people are signing up to meet people from the English Language Institute (ELI) here in Gainesville, but I had mentioned this to Martin in passing while he was still here and he asked me if he could do it. I asked Patty (the teacher) about that today, and she said that it was probably okay but that she'd give me a definite answer on Friday.
Speaking of Friday... we've got another hurricane out there. The last one missed us by a hair, unfortunately - I like hurricanes. Probably because they've never destroyed my car or house or anything like that :) but still, I think they're exciting. Frances, this new one, is supposed to hit Friday or Saturday, I think. Depending on where it comes in, I may go to Jacksonville.
On campus, they're kicking up a big fuss about voting. Which is actually a good thing - as Mom never fails to remind me, Alachua had the biggest percentage of Nader voters last election - undecideds. I'm walking around with a Kerry button on my backpack now. Mom's tried to explain to me all the details of the situation, but there are only three things that really stick in my mind.
The first is, Bush is simply an idiot. There it is, plain and simple. He can't talk without (a) someone else's written-down ideas to prompt him, (b) tripping over his own tongue, or (c) mentioning God. (Isn't there some rule out there mentioning, oh, I don't know, SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?!) And not just an idiot, but an idiot who can't seem to separate what he PERSONALLY believes from what is best for a COUNTRY full of 280,000,000 people.
The second is gay marriage. I'm not even really familiar with Kerry's stand on it, but I sure know Bush's, and I think it stinks. If two people love each other and want to be together forever "'til death do they part", then what does it matter what they have inside their pants?
And the third, the biggie, is stem cell research. In my opinion, that is the best thing that ever happened to medical science and he's stopping us from doing it, afraid to offend his precious pro-lifers. I don't think the world understands the potential here. We have the capability to regrow arms and legs for amputees, grow new hearts and livers and bone marrow for people who need transplants, new pancreases for people with diabetes, new reproductive organs for infertile women. Maybe even, someday, parts of the brain for those with brain damage. And all this can be done without fear of rejection or other problems, because we will be using those peoples' very own cells! That seems so magical to me, that we could treat and cure so many things that way. I really think that's going to be the "double helix" of the 21st century, like Watson and Crick with DNA last century. But Bush says no, afraid it will be seen as supporting abortion. (Which I'm also in favor of, but don't get me started on that.) While, as Mom says, thousands of embryos are thrown away every day at fertility clinics. All this is going to do is ensure that some OTHER country without such a religion-compromised leader makes a breakthrough before we do. And our fall from grace from our coveted place at the top of the world will then be short and hard, I can assure you.
The Secret Service is probably going to track me down for this post, but whatever.
Anyway, vote for Kerry. :)
OK, gotta go check the student job site - I want to see if there's anything on there like house-sitting that I could do once in a while. Then I have to hit Publix. See ya.
stormed at 15:59
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