It's been a while since my last post, but I promise you all that I have good excuses! First off, let me give my two-cents about Expository writing... It is true this class is the one which all upperclassmen will tell you stories about, and in my experiences so far every story is true. It is true that Rutgers wants to change your writing style and make you forget basically everything you ever learned in school. It is true that some teachers couldn't care less about you. It is true that the essays which are required of you will cause you sleepless nights. It is all true. However, I am finding my expository writing experience to be not too bad (or at least I am making the best out of it). I have expos on Mondays and Wednesdays in Hickman, which is a pretty nice building as long as you don't think it looks like a jail from the outside. The class is tiny- probably 15ish students- so we get a lot of individual attention which is surprising. While my teacher is not an English professor, she is brilliant (at least I think so) and she has a great attitude. On the first day she said "Let's get to the point...You don't want to be here but Rutgers does so sit down, shut up and learn. Just kidding. But not really". I love that woman. In my class there are 4 other dancers and we all decided on the first day to sit in the back left corner together so our teacher thinks we are some cultish clique who are antisocial and have superiority complexes...sounds bad, but she loves us. In fact, the other dancers and I are extremely friendly and really facilitate class discussions (and in no way are a cult kthxbye). I feel that your teacher has a lot to do with your experience in expos, so as long as you maintain a good connection then the class will not be as difficult. In fact, when we handed in our first papers the dancers and I folded in a Hershey's chocolate bar between our essays to be discovered by our teacher later. Not a bribe, mind you, but definitely a show of good faith.
Now on to the papers and serious business of expos... For the first paper, I thought I wrote a good essay which connected two seemingly unsimilar articles. In High School it would have been an A effort. At Rutgers, it was a C+. I really have no qualm about posting my grade on here because it shows that we aren't in High School anymore and efforts along that line cannot stand. Also, I want to give myself incentive for doing really, really well on the next essay so all you readers don't think I'm a numbnut. Trust me, I'll do better :P
Okay...some more dance related stuff. I am now in three student choreographed pieces- one of them is about relationships, one is about suffering (wow, nice contrast), and one is about being arrogant and prideful. I'm working on getting some footage to post here to show some of the early efforts but I'll need to discuss further in detail with the choreographers. Each piece requires a separate rehearsal so I'm always running around. Further, on Monday the 12th we have "Dance Assembly", which is a gathering of the entire dance department to talk about stuff, which includes a showing of student choreography. This basically means everyone is freaking out trying to get ready for the showing; leaving me a bit frazzled. In addition, I still have the Opera (which I'm pretty sure I wrote about before, and if not basically the choreographer of the Rutgers Opera asked me to dance in it with a few others) and that is performing on October 30 and 31 (so everyone COME!!). What all this means is that I have no time. But I love it.
For the future:
Saturday the 10th is HOMECOMING, so I'll be going to the football game! However, Im also going to see a modern dance showing in New York City at 8pm so I'm leaving with a few of my friends a bit early.
Sunday the 11th I will be frantically reworking my expos essay in time for Monday, as well as going to Target and shopping for Halloween Costumes!!
Location: SinglePost