How To: Proudness

It's been such a lovely week, generally!

Except for how it snowed yesterday and I almost died trying to get to and from work because they don't plow the sidewalks until it stops snowing.

And how Olson 305 is dying of illness right now. That hasn't been much fun.

But now the snow looks really nice outside and it's so white and sparkly and it's almost Thanksgiving which means I get to go home and eat food and sleep in a bed that used to be mine before a snerb took it over, even if I have a ridiculous amount of homework to get done over break because I'm a procrastinator and I should be doing it right now, but I have become ill so I'm not going to do anything, except fun things, because that's how it works when you're sick. You do only fun things and use your sickness to get out of the work things.

I've been trying to keep a positive attitude because I kind of realized that I let the first things that happen to me during the day influence the rest of my day. And this is most obvious when I go to work at 6:30 in the morning. Because I like my job, but sometimes (all the time) people are rude and upsetting and ask for too much food, like, no, I cannot give you this entire tray of sausage, I'm sorry there are people who also want food who unluckily happened to fall in line behind you, you cactus.

And if I let those people get to me, I tend to hold a grudge against them all day, and that's not much fun. So this week I've punching people in the face when they upset me, and that makes me feel a lot better all the time. I'm so proud of myself for that.

ALSO IN SPANISH NEWS:

I'm sorry I talk so much about Spanish, but this is my blog and I don't care if you are annoyed at the lack of other things that occur here, because Spanish is great and if you don't think so we can't be friends anymore (probably a lie but also be careful, because I punched people in the face this week so nothing is for certain).

SO, IN SPANISH NEWS:

The other day (Thursday), I had to present my lesson plan for my Content Area Reading class, and I presented the entire thing in Spanish! I wasn't even really nervous, because of how much I know Spanish. I just taught an entire lesson to ten of my peers in Spanish and it was great!! And I was so proud of how much I proved to myself that I really do know Spanish and can speak it in a fluid, coherent manner.

But then! After that internal self-validation, my classmates were talking after class and here is a transcript of what occurred: (it's not bragging if I already told you I'm proud of myself, right)
Person 1: I really liked Jen's lesson plan! She's really so good at speaking Spanish!
Person 2: Yeah, sorry guys, when I do my lesson plan in Spanish, it's not going to be nearly that fluid or anything.
Person 3: Me too. I had no idea she was so good at speaking Spanish.

So there's that. External validation is important too?.... Right...?

And then after I left, my professor, who happens to be the same professor who took us to New Mexico last year, ran after me as I walked down the sidewalk, and she asked me, "Jen, when are you studying abroad?" And I told her and then she patted me on the back (very strangely, as is her prerogative (thanks for that word, Dad)), and said, "Your Spanish really is quite good, you know." And then she ran away from me very quickly, and yes, I really do mean ran, because she's a weirdo.

So that was a nice good thing to hear after my lesson plan!

Also, I think it speaks to the fact that I made the right choice in changing my major to not education because after I did so well on this lesson plan, I was proud of myself, but I also didn't feel any want to continue teaching lesson plans like this. I just wanted to do the Spanish part of it. It's really great that I keep finding all these little signs in my life that I made the right choice, because my brain likes to freak out at me for deciding different things. It's building my confidence.

Speaking of different things, I now have a bunch of super weird classes that I'll take next semester. Spanish, of course, which I'm super excited about (if that even needed to be states) is a class about Heroes and Revolutionaries. And then, though, I have anthropology, economics and an introduction to international studies class, which I'm also excited about. AND EVEN BETTER: I'm auditing a linguistics class about grammar, which will be so great I might die but probably not really!!! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Oh, I forgot another Spanish news thing. Maybe I won't tell you, because I've done enough bragging for today, but suffice to say, it was really cool and I liked it a lot.

And we won the Spanish talent show! Did I mention that before? My great Spanish class won the talent show which is awesome, especially because we're not very good at dancing. That probably just shows you how not good at dancing and things the other contestants were, though. So that's cool.

Do I have any other Spanish news to share? I don't think so. Probably just that one thing that I won't tell you unless you ask. (What? Was that a hint to ask me about it? No..... What...? No.....)

Don't forget to eat delicious mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, and also to speak Spanish all the time or else we can't be friends (lies--or are they?).