Indiana University East

Well November starts, TOMORROW! As crazy as that is, the semester ends in a month and a half. It has seriously flown by. I have made a pretty big decision since I last wrote. Maybe I can tell you more about that later. I’ve seen a lot of neat things up around campus about homecoming. Seems like it’s going to be a pretty exciting week! Definitely a big step for the school in becoming a more traditional campus. Very cool!

I was wondering if you guys could tell me what is the best thing that I.U. East has to offer in your own opinion. Is it the size? Professors? Peers? Price? What?

I’m just curious how everyone wound up here and how they are liking it?

…that Julien Simon wants me to write about my French class. I suppose I can do that for him!

I am in French 100 with Julien this semester. We meet two times a week from 2:00-4:00. So far, we have learned a lot! The class is pretty cool because it is very non traditional. We aren’t allowed to speak in English at all during our class time, and Julien doesn’t speak to us in English either. The idea is to learn French by exposure. Instead of spending the first two or three weeks learning the alphabet, numbers, colors, animals, and how to tell the date, (like my High School Spanish class…cough cough) we just dove in head first.

The method we are using is called the Capretz Method I believe. Basically, we spend the majority of class refining what we learned in the class before. We do exercises in our workbook, read conversations out of our book, answer questions from Julien, and we do a lot of group work (mostly skits). It’s actually kind of fun! At the end of class, we watch a video. This is the neat part! The video we watch is a continuing story line that we will watch all semester. This is how we are exposed to the language. The videos are about an American man, Robert and a French girl, Mireille that will eventually meet. The story and videos are usually pretty interesting and even funny at times. It’s especially helpful because the work we do in our workbook and the text we read in our book are all directly related to the video we watch in class.

The skits that I mentioned doing before…they are all filled with dialogue straight out of our current chapters in the book. We choose what we want to say, using the new vocab we have learned. Julien usually gets really into our skits and pouts if he doesn’t get to do the “ACTION” move before we start our dialogue. Sometimes we pretend to be friends that come across one another in the middle of a street, other times we are on a date with a classmate and discuss our favorite movies, books or ideal characteristics in a mate….which can be a bit awkward if you don’t know your partner very well. haha Beth Crose and I are usually partners and we know each other from High School so it makes it a little more comfortable.

I still have a lot of trouble remembering things like conjugating verbs. That was always my problem in High School too. Well..that and the fact that they gave us a different instructor to get used to every year. It seems that no matter how much time I spend looking at the charts, I just can’t make it stick. Besides that, I actually feel like I am beginning to understand more of what Julien says during class. He really tries to help us understand. Sometimes I have no clue how to ask my question so I have to ask in English…he still answers in French but he finds some way to explain what he’s saying which is really helpful.

Besides Julien, we also have our SI, Dorothy….or Dottie. She is really nice and definitely helpful. She meets with us before and after class to answer questions and usually has some kind of worksheet..or two or three…to help us understand what we’re learning in class. Yesterday she busted out the “Verb Bible” haha. That was amazing! I need to get my hands on one of those.

One thing I’m kind of bummed about is the foreign language department shows a film on Wednesdays. I am not on campus on Wednesdays and I live 40 minutes away in Oxford so I can never make it to watch. We watched a trailer yesterday for today’s film and it looks really good. If gas wasn’t a million dollars a gallon, I would try to make it.

The rest of my afternoon is probably going to be spent going over numbers, sports, and parts of the body which will be on our exam tomorrow. I also need to work on my Midterm paper which is due Saturday night. French class keeps me on my toes, but I actually feel like I am learning something which is a pretty cool feeling. I didn’t think I would catch on at all when I first found out we wouldn’t be speaking in English at all. I have to take 4 foreign language classes for my English major. I was really scared at first, but with Julien and Dorothy’s help, it’s not so bad and it can even be fun sometimes. You should really consider taking his class!

O, I almost forgot to mention! I’ve never told him (because I don’t know how yet)…but Julien looks almost identical to my best friend, David! If you know what Julien looks like..you will get a kick out of this….

Julien's American look a like

Wow! It’s been quite a while since I last wrote. Sorry about that guys!! Lots and lots has happened since then. I am busy as ever these days and trying to balance school, two jobs and the people I care about. I’m sure you know exactly how I feel! School work seems never ending right now, but I didn’t expect otherwise. I’m really excited about the next paper we’re preparing in my writing class. There are a few options, but I’m choosing to re-write a fairy tale. It’s going to be fun! I think I’m going to include my own illustrations as well. We’re supposed to relate it to something current. I’m going to apply the presidential campaign to the story of Robin Hood. Use your imagination!!

That leads me to why I meant to write for you today. The election is coming soon!! Just a few weeks away now. With that in mind, it is extremely important that you take advantage of your right to vote! If you don’t know who you should vote for, I would suggest finding some literature on both candidates. ALSO, I would consider simply typing “Obama” or “McCain” into your search engine. Read & watch the good and the bad about both candidates. In my mind, there is a definite difference. I am finding myself very passionately concerned as well as involved in this election with each day that passes. I would also suggest looking past whatever your parents, grandparents, etc. usually vote for. You are an adult now and you need to be informed on things of this magnitude for yourself.

Things to do before November 4:

Get familiar with both candidates and what they have to offer

Watch videos on Youtube to see what the candidates have already said that you may have missed.

Make a note to watch the second debate between Obama and McCain tomorrow. Oct. 7

Watch the following debate which will be on October 15th at Hofstra University.

PLEASE vote! Whatever you decide, you should vote for someone! It’s really important guys! If we don’t take advantage of the rights we’re given, we might lose them one day.

Emily

PS-Don’t forget about Nader. (That goes out to my twitter buddy & moderator of the IUE blogs, @aaronmhill)

Have you ever noticed that the worst things happen at even worse times? Last week, while driving to campus, my car decided to throw a temper tantrum. It all started with it’s usual “No, Emily…I don’t feel like accelerating past 35 mph at this moment” scheme and that turned into “Also, I would like to make myself boiling lava hot so that you start to worry about popping like a hot potato on the side of the road.” I’m no grease monkey, but I know when I should be worried…and this was one of those times. With the temperature gauge stretching as far as it could go, I pulled into a tractor sales store on the side of 27 (and not a second too soon). I picked the wrong spot to die in because AT&T wasn’t in the mood to give me service in my hot (but shady) car. So I had to step out into the sun and squint like a crazy person…while sweating and trying to get ahold of everyone I needed. First Dad, check. Then Fudge’s Wrecker guy, check. Someone to pick me up, no check. This is where the title mentioning a secret comes into play…Twitter.

Ever heard of it? If you haven’t, you need to.

http://twitter.com

Anyways—back to my story! I quickly sent a text to 40404 a.k.a. directly to twitter that read something like “Stranded on the side of 27. Gonna die in this Buick one day. Need a ride!” Shortly after I received a call from my boyfriend, and a girl I work with here in Oxford for rides. Bridget saved me Hooray!

So what is Twitter? To put it simply… it’s a social network between you and your friends. You might picture it as a simple form of facebook, without the fluff. Like facebook, the site offers a “status” entry where users can write what they are doing in a short sentence or two for their friends to see. “At the Richmond Starbucks with Danielle. Care to join us?” or “Does anyone know how to upload pictures on facebook?” are some of the entries you might see. The beauty of Twitter is that it is all mobile as well so it can be used as little or as much as you’d like. If your friends sign up to “follow” you on their cell phones, they will receive a text in real time when you sent a “Tweet.” I guess you could say it is comparable to sending a mass text.

Twitter chooses to describe itself in the following way: Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Some people think that it sounds creepy when they hear about it because they don’t want people to constantly know what they are doing. I would say from my experiences with Twitter, that is not the case. It is fun to stay connected with your friends. Also, unlike Facebook, in general, you really only follow your close friends and family. You might follow a lot of people online, but only follow your siblings, and close friends in mobile alerts.

Last night, my boyfriend and I went Uptown to get dinner at Skipper’s (a bar here in Oxford). We both made a “Tweet” about eating there and said “At Skip’s. Come join us!” Within 20 minutes, three of our friends were sitting outside with us and two more joined later. It turned out to be a really fun and random evening!

So why do I think you should consider getting a Twitter account?? Well…it’s free! It’s super easy! But more than that..It’s actually a very useful tool in everyday situations. Maybe you and your friends decide that Twitter sounds interesting to you so you get an account…You can “tweet” things like “In Whitewater Hall studying French….HELP.” Next thing you know, your friend is there helping you understand your assignment better. I’m not getting paid by Twitter to be their sales girl, (maybe I should be!) but I really do believe that you should at least give it a try and see if you like it!!

If you decide to open a twitter account, my username is millEE. Follow me on Twitter by using the link below:

Follow me on Twitter!

You’ll be hearing from me..

Emily

UPDATE: I’ve got three new people following me after reading my blog. If anyone else chooses to do so, please leave me a comment or say something in your twitter status so I know who you are. Thanks!!!

Well, Summer is officially over. Sad day!

I’m sitting here in Joe’s Pizza to drag out the time until my next errand. Just went in the bookstore to see what I need for my classes. Apparently one of my classes requires six books!! Unnecessary? Hopefully not. Breaking the bank? Definitely. Happy to say that most of the text my classes require actually looks interesting this semester. Hooray!

I can’t believe the day is already winding down. I had to work this morning at 6:30 until 10:30 at the Cafe I work at in Oxford before class. Let’s just say I am ready for a fatty nap! I’m thinking that having a job this semester is going to be really good for me because I have a limited amount of time to get things done. It’s really easy for me to just push school work off to the side when I have too much free time. [Too much free time?? Is that possible?] haha

Well I need to get on my way! I’m really going to try and update often with little snippets of thought. I hope everyone is having a great first day! Say hello if you see me around! Oh and don’t let yourself get too stressed out just yet! Breathe!

-E m i l y-