Hello, Diary.

School started on Monday. Only one thing keeps me from quitting: my dad has promised to pay for my lifetime membership fee into the International Scrabble Society provided that I get all A's this semester. It's only eighteen dollars, but dumb kids like me need material incentives. It all started in first grade...the only way my parents were able to get me to finish my math homework was to promise weeknight celebration dinners at Chuck E. Cheese upon completion of the easy addition and subtraction problems. It was a good ploy, I must admit.

Speaking of, I was walking through the mathematics section of one of the buildings at school today and I found that someone had made a huge banner that read, "MATHLAND." Where was this sign when I was struggling through my Algebra course last year? Had I known that I was taking a class in MATHLAND, the C- I ended up getting in the course surely would've been at least a C+.

In my Cultural Geography class we each had to pick a country to represent and research throughout the course of the semester. I was the last one to get the sign-up sheet. Surinam was taken. England was taken. New Zealand was taken. After a quick glance at the atlas on the wall, I picked Switzerland. More on this story as it develops.

One of the best and worst things about starting new classes are Introductions. Each of my instructors have insisted upon going around the room and making each student share a little bit of their lives. If I had it my way, first day introductions would involve standing up in front of the class, quiet laughter at the appropriate times, and polite applause after each student is done. I mean, it takes most of the class period anyway. Why not make a show of it?

Top Three Quotes from First Day Introductions:

***"I can't remember ever finishing a book ever in my life. And I don't know why I'm in this class."-A boy in my Novel class. You heard me right.

***"The most surprising thing about me is that I have died two times."-A boy in my Advanced Composition class.

***"I can't help but feel smarter than almost all of you." and "Am I the only girl at this school who is not engaged and/or pregnant?" and "You are an elementary education major, and you can probably already sense that I hate you. But please, you're in college. Make note of the correct usage of 'was' and 'were.'"-Me. Not really, but sometimes my school is really hard to handle.

In the car today I came to the awesome conclusion that I have a kickass Michelle Branch impression. Try-outs for my school's Spring musical are approaching; should I just sing along to the single during my audition? I'm not excited at all. In high school anyone could be in the musicals, I think they expect you to have talent in college.

Should get going. More later.

XOXOXO

J.