Slow English, Quick Acting

Yesterday I went to my first University level English class. It is a prose and fiction class, which I have been looking forward to taking. I was very sick last week and so I missed the first class, which kind of sucked because of course there was already homework, which I was unprepared for. I quickly read the stuff while the teacher talked... and I quickly learned that the teacher really likes to talk. Then I cooperated in the class discussion he was trying desperately to initiate, although it was more of a three people and the teacher discussion.

It was humorous and sad to me that this English class is SO reminiscent of a high school English class. It could be because the majority of the students in the class look to be fresh out of high school, or because the teacher has been teaching too long and has forgotten how to use more then a mono-tone to speak in. Either way, I found myself in grade 12 English yesterday... yeck. It also seemed that even though most people were present for the first class, a lot of them were as unprepared for the class as I, maybe even less prepared, as I was still answering the teachers questions and trying to participate. Even before the class actually ended the teacher gave us all an exasperated lecture about being prepared and doing the work, and then he dismissed early and left the class so fast it seemed to me that he was escaping. I want to participate and talk about the materials, I see it as the only way to make it through what appears will be a semester of Mr. Mono-tone and the gang of goof-offs. Can I make it? Sure. It's mainly a bunch of reading at home and then pointing out in class what the author was trying to impart by using... lets say... an open window in the scene. For some this may be pure torture, but for me its easy as pie and I don't mind being the brain in the class, all the better for me.

Now the other class I had yesterday was Theater. In high school Acting was generally my best class. I always ended up with A's whether or not I liked the teacher. It has been about 10 years since my last high school acting class and so I was a little nervous before class yesterday. I wondered if I still had 'the stuff'. I needn't of worried. It came back like riding a bicycle and I remembered why I decided to take the course in the first place. It also helped that I have a very hot young teacher, I think he and I are the only 'older' people in the class though, but that's ok, I generally find acting students to be pretty open-minded in the first place. It was a lot of fun, and even the trust and focus exercises were somewhat stimulating; lying on the floor in the dark with our eyes closed while the teacher walks around us speaking slowly and quietly about what part of our body to tense and relax, with soft, relaxing music going in the background. Yup, acting has its perks. Next class to conquer... Psychology. I can hardly wait.