Classes: Halfway Point

I have been experiencing difficulty in finding the motivation to write this next entry…,mainly because there is just so much to say, and I have no idea where to start. Let’s see…

I am now getting more adjusted to my classes- but this has been QUITE the struggle. I think we have finally accepted the fact that in our theater scholarship courses, we will not be learning a lot. Culturally, I feel like I am learning loads, but not academically. However, we have been exposed to a variety of different materials, which is always nice. And I have finally read Hamlet (yeah…I hadn’t read it yet. Oh well.) We have been assigned many plays such as Tears of Lucifer (a play by our own teacher), The Dilemma of a Ghost, Edufa, etc. Even if we aren’t getting the “analysis” of the plays like we thirsted and hoped for when we joined these classes, I still find that I am learning, regardless.

This past Tuesday (two Tuesdays ago) I had an unfortunate battle with my Play Analysis teacher (we have so affectionately coined the class ”Play Anal”). You see, instead of analyzing plays, we have been debating about matter such as “which speaks more to the essence of drama- comedy or tragedy”, “does a society make a play, or does the play make the society”, “should the playwright be celebrated?”, etc. incredibly frustrated that we were discussing such mundane points that either had no answer or an answer so obvious that it could hit in the head, I decided to do some reading during class. Of course, I did not hide it. I was close to the front. Some choice quotes from the debate, “Tragedy. Just think about it.” Followed by a long pause, and that was the end of the principle speaker’s speech. I rolled my eyes and through myself into Maya Angelou’s work instead. I decided she was more worth my time. However, after the class, the professor beckoned to me and said, “You weren’t paying attention in class.” I said, “yeah. I was reading.” When he asked why, I told him that what we were discussing confused me, and I didn’t find it to be important.

Yeah.

That went over well. Let’s just say that my frustration had hit a certain level over the academics here. Keep in mind that we have FOUR WEEKS of classes left, and we have YET to analyze a play in this class. Which is the CLASS TITLE and DESCRIPTION. I was beyond aggravated. More so because Maggie and Kim weren’t paying attention as well but I got talked to. Haha. Petty, yes. But one of my huge things is getting into trouble- I hate it. Believe it or not, the funny thing is, I have only ever gotten into trouble in class for reading. Sometimes I cant help it if I have a good book with me. But, I was clearly being disrespectful. Sigh. Ghana. Learning learning learning. Previously in this class when I made a statement in regards to the debate, I made an enemy. She came up to me after class with a determined face on and said, “I did not agree with anything you said. You were wrong.” I said….”okay.” Then after staring at me exasperated for awhile, she walked away deciding to leave it at that. One thing I have noticed about myself is how I have become more confident in the way I hold my body and speak to others. I have no longer been apologizing to people about my opinions, the way I react to things, even the way I dress and present myself. I have slowly been discovering that there is nothing wrong with the way I am. I am imperfect, and a screw up, but I like being confident in my screwed-upness.

These past two weeks have brought my fist University assessments and I have found another level of frustration- but it is something that I have dealt with before in just terms of grading and how different teachers tackle it. This week I had a test in my Music of West and central Africa class and I can’t tell you how nice it was to be studying for something. I forgot how much I missed the feeling of learning loads of information and finding really ridiculous acronyms to prompt my memory. I am a HUGE acronym person. When we took the test, I felt such a satisfaction knowing all of the answers and being able to write myself into a writing hand cramp. I felt productive for once. So interesting because at Muhlenberg I hate tests and quizzes. I dread studying and making flashcards. But it is a small sense of pride coming out of a class room and knowing you just took a test in Ghana- meaning you have actually begun to learn something about the country that you are residing in temporarily that is valuable enough to be tested on. A small sort of accomplishment I suppose.

Also, Maggie and I have gotten involved in starting an acapella group on campus. One of the voice teachers who apparently has taken a liking to Maggie and I breached the topic with us, and between the two of us, and a few other international students including one Ghanaian, we performed a demo of a few acapella songs to the choir here. We sang, “I’ll be There”, “Gravity”, and “Rolling in the Deep”. Also, a shout out to all the acapella geeks- we learned those three songs in TWO HOURS. Yeah. So InAcchord,, don’t be telling me you cant learn a song in a freaking rehearsal. Haha. We are going to crack down next semester! Tomorrow we hold auditions for people to join. Even though we only have about two months left, we figured it would be a good exposure to different methods of performances in music. We are hoping to arrange some Ghanaian highlife songs as well. Should be interesting. A post will be coming soon about Kumasi! We just did a weekend trip there.