New Year, New Semester

Hola amigos! I'm taking a Spanish class this semester. I'm learning a lot... Yeah, in all seriousness, I have a pretty busy semester and I am actually learning something. Spanish is definitely the hardest just because I haven't taken a Spanish class since high school and when I took the test that tested me out of the language requirement, I had the advantage of it only being a couple months since my last Spanish class. So I'm in a bit over my head. Pray that my first exam comes back to me with something over a 70% and if that happens, I'll be overjoyed. The other classes I'm taking are upper-level English classes including part two of my heroines class which makes this the third semester in a row that I've had this particular professor. She knows my name. Unfortunately, there is a girl named Marin and my professor will never pronounce it with the emphasis on the last syllable but pronounces it like my name. I have to admit, Marin has courage; every time the role is called, she corrects the prof. "Maryn?" "No, it's actually Marin" "Maryn?" "No, Marin" "Maryn?" "NO it's Marin!!! Ma-rin! IN!!!! And so on. I'm glad I have the advantage of precedence or else it would be me with my name mis-pronounced only I'd probably give up and let her say it however she wanted. As evidenced by my putting up with "Merwyn" last semester from another of my professors. Yeah. Moving on, I'm taking a class with the subtitle "Love, marriage and contract." The main questions of the course so far are: 1. Does love exist or is it a social construct? 2. Should marriage be extinct? 3. What is the purpose of marriage? Yeah, it's a blast. Actually, the professor is pretty awesome. He's funny but not condescending to those of us who believe in love and marriage. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's a believer himself. Anyhow, it's a fun class and I'm taking it with a friend so it's even better. The last class I'm taking is an essay-writing class on "creative non-fiction." This class will be a bugger in many ways, but I enjoy my classmates, it's a small early-morning class so we are getting to be friends pretty quickly. Bonding in the elevators down from the 4th floor because there are no stairs anywhere near our classroom. It's pretty tight. I was inspired late last night and early this morning, so I actually just finished my first assignment. Now I just have to write 8 pages of peer reviews and I'll be all caught up for the coming week. Sigh. I really despise writing peer reviews. So that's this semester so far. Christmas was a blast and I wish it could have lasted longer. Hastan luego!