Halfway Done

Well folks, I have officially reached the halfway point!
Well maybe not officially, I haven't really done the math, but I just finished all my midterms and am now on spring break so it feels like halfway. Plus, in one more week I will be attending the HIGHLIGHT of my time in America, the BEST (okay, well second best, because Alon always comes first) reason to come back to America...(drumroll please).... Shawn and Melissa's WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!

This wedding has been the most exciting thing that I have been looking forward to ever since I knew I was going to be here to make it. It has been my consolation every time I had to sit by my computer waiting for someone to post pictures on Facebook of the weddings I missed in Israel. Now I just have to find something to wear and I can go spend the day in Miami with all my friends from college, some of whom I haven't seen in two years :)

It will also be a lovely way to end my spring break as I am spending most of it in New Hampshire, where spring has very clearly not yet sprung. While DC has been acting like the tease it is, interspersing days of wintery windiness with sunshine and high temperatures, it still made me feel like spring was just around the corner. But as I drove north today the temperature slowly dropped, and the snow began to accumulate. I am now bundled up at my Bubbie's with a few feet of the white stuff outside. Apparently all the flooding roads are a sign of spring here, but it just isn't quite as exciting as reading about the plans for the Cherry Blossom Festival in the morning paper.

 

But no matter what the weather or where I am, the exciting part of this week is where I am not. I am very happy that I have one week in which I do not have to sit in class. While the topics we are covering have become much more interesting- we have moved past Freud, Freud, Freud, to the current generations trend towards later marriage, how a baby learns to speak, and various types of anxiety disorders. We watched video's of Milgram's study, read case studies on people with Disassociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder) and read about an experiment where the doctor checked himself into a mental institute to see if anyone could tell he was sane. The material is all very interesting, but unfortunately, it is mostly not well taught.

Ranging from terrible examples to professors oversharing about their personal life (which leads to students oversharing about their personal life), there have been certain professors that,well, suck. There is one class that I actually think I could teach better than the professor because at least I have read the book. I was given a test this past week and was told that each question was worth 2.4 points and there would be 2 points extra credit because she got a little confused when trying to calculate how many questions to put on the test. I have another teacher who has yet to give us a test, a homework assignment, a reading assignment, or a quiz. It took him a month to give us a syllabus and he has only now realized that he has done nothing in terms of assessment. Oh, and I chewed out one of my professors last week after she went on a rant against alternative therapies. She did send out an apology letter to the class, so I don't think it will badly affect my grade, but there is just only so much stupidity that I can handle.

Which is why I am now going to go back to enjoying my break :)