Yesterday, all my troubles seem so far away

I didn't get around to writing a post yesterday because
1. I was too busy working on my AWESOME JINS paper
2. I listened to a lecture on ESL in our FABULOUS ENVS class
3. I participated in our FANTASTIC Bio Lab
4. I attended the STUPENDOUS potluck at Chad's house
(I am using lots of adjective here because I am not supposed to use in the VERY FIRST LAB REPORT I HAVE EVER WRITTEN that I will be writing soon/eventually.)(Also I am hyper because I didn't get a lot of sleep last night so I am trying to keep myself awake.)(And I do not use caffeine so I cannot rely on that to help me stay awake.)

Yesterday is pretty much outlined in the list above, but those who would like more detail keep reading.

1. My JINS paper is not that good. But I did work on it because I am an overachiever and I work ahead like that.

2. Dr. Sally Cook came to talk to our class about the challenges of ESL (english as a second language) teaching. I was surprised about how little Spanish she said we would need to know in order to interact with the kids at the school. Even though they don't know a lot (if any) English at this point, if they know that we know Spanish, they will use it as a crutch and not learn as much. Looking back at my experience learning Spanish, I can understand how that would happen. She also talked about how after a couple of weeks working with a student, we may notice a backslide in their learning. She said that is normal, and I think that is something that should be told to high school Spanish teachers...

3. Lab was way more fun yesterday then it was the first time we did it. The procedure was similar (read exactly the same) as last time so we all knew what we were doing. Since we all knew what was going on, we were able to talk a lot more which was fun because I got to know the people in that class a lot better. We shared stories about high school, college and mutual acquaintances. I enjoy Bio Lab and Lecture more than the other classes because it is so small (we have 5 people). It makes group work really easy, and everything is laid back.

4. We had a potluck last night so we could get to know everyone better. Fantastic idea. It was so much fun, and it was great to interact with people outside of the classroom. The conversations varied from coolest places we have been (which included Italy, Spain, Ireland, Israel etc.), pop culture (Avatar, South Park, blogging and facebook) to ants mating (apparently all ants mate while flying. Betcha didn't know that. Unless you are Will Petry.) We also tried to guess Marc and Chad's ages. Someone guessed 55 for Marc and Chad just laughed, so I'm pretty sure they were wrong. (I checked facebook and he graduated from high school in 1980, which makes him about 47. (Chad is 37, if I remember correctly, if anyone wanted to know.) Eventually numbers dwindled down until there were about 10 of us left. Then Chad started to tell us about times he was bitten by things like black widow spiders and 14 ft. long snakes. Yep, definitely an interesting evening.