A Sigh of Relief- I Passed!!!

Well I took my exam last Friday and haven't had time to reflect on it too much because it's been a crazy busy week.

The exam went really well. I was very nervous the morning of but once I got in the room I was fine. There were a couple questions that threw me but overall it wasn't nearly as stressful as I thought. I was worried about one of the professors because he has a bit of a reputation, several people warned me not to work with him- or to at least expect that he would grill me during the exam. I am so glad I decided to work with him anyway. His section of the exam was the most enjoyable- I really did enjoy the conversation. I was also nervous about having War and Society as one of my minor fields because I don't have a strong background in military history- but again, this ended up being the list I enjoyed the most. I've already got a stack of war memoirs I want to read this summer.

In order to celebrate and reward myself for surviving comps and finishing in one semester- I went out and bought a Nook. I haven't actually read a book on it yet since I am still recovering from the comps reading but I really wanted to play with my new toy and it has two games on it chess and sudoku- neither of which I have ever played before- so I learned how to play sudoku. I am not very good at it yet- which is why I cheat.

I am also almost done with the training so I can teach online this summer- I am looking forward to the experience. And it looks like I will be working with NIAHD as well (the National Institute for American History and Democracy) but I am not sure which session or what exactly I'll be doing.... but either way it is going to be a busy summer!

First full day of Keio

I wrote this post the first night of Keio thinking I would sit down and write something every night- ha! That never happened- I got home super late every night and was exhausted- so this is my one journal-type entry. I'll write more about it soon.

BTW- the Keio program was my summer job. I was hired as a Classroom Instructor (CI) to run discussion sessions with Japanese students from Keio University in Japan- and, more importantly, to drive them around. They came here for two and a half weeks to take part in a cross-cultural collaboration- and to improve their English language skills. So they attended lectures (and then our discussion sessions). They had to research and write a group presentation. They also got to do stuff like go to baseball games, museums, and Colonial Williamsburg. We ended their stay with a trip to DC. They left this morning. I'm very sad.

July 30, 2009

Today was the first full day of Keio. It went really well.

We started out with a lecture on why culture matters and then broke into our discussion groups- my students are awesome- they are so much fun. Afterwards we went to lunch- the food was not so good, but again the students were fun. Next the students went on a campus tour and we headed off to get the vans. Each of the classroom instructors drives a van with her group of students- Wendy decided we should name the vans after the golden girls nd that mine should be Blanche. Blanche doesn't really fit me so I wasn't too excited but because of it I got the best van! I figured Blanche should have a red van- so my group gets to rock it in the happening red 12 passenger van (with a big dent on the passenger side).

We went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays-my class decided to eat together and two of the PAs joined us (they are the undergrad students working with us). We were a party of 13 who all wanted individual checks- the waiters couldn't have been too excited to see us. It was not easy trying to help them decipher the menus- how do you describe what ribs are? Paying the bills were fun too- they are just learning american money and they also don't know how to tip- they don't tip food servers in Japan- it made the evening more of an adventure.

I got to talk to a different PA on the way back to campus- they are all really fun.