don't worry, I'm still alive

Don't worry, I survived the first day of fall semester. If you'd known what I'd be subjected to in accelerated Spanish 101 and you cared about me at all, you'd be thankful for that reassurance. The first half of the class, we were given no evidence that the professor spoke any English whatsoever. He jumped right in, pointing to people and asking them questions in Spanish. Fortunately I knew enough to survive.

To one girl he asked "Are you nervous?" Not totally sure what he was asking, or if it was the right answer, she replied "No." He had her stand up in front of the class. "Now are you nervous?" She realized she should say "Yes." "OK, you can sit down." He then began asking the class how they were doing. One guy told him that he was doing well. "Do you have a girlfriend?" "No" "Aren't you sad?" "Well a little" "Oh" Professor Meredith shook his had sadly. He pointed to the guy holding out his hand and made an appeal in his behalf to the women in the class: "girls..." We laughed. He asked the girl next to me if she had a brother. She replied "Yes." "What's his name?" She looked at him blankly. "You don't remember the name of your brother?" A little confused, she replied "si (yes)." The class laughed a little bit and I realized I better come to her rescue "He wants to know the name of your brother" I whispered. "Oh" she replied, relieved "Mike." And so the class continued.

The professor finally broke into English long enough to explain straight faced that he expected us to give 80 hours a week to the class, and fail all of our other classes, but at least we would be proficient in Spanish. He listed chapters we would blitz through at lightning speed, the hours we would spend studying with partners, the hours we would spend speaking in a lab, and I gulped. I looked at the rest of the class. At least we were in this together. And I'm sure most of them, like me, were a little overwhelmed, but I think we were also a little invigorated by the challenge. Hope that invigoration lasts.