Teacher Evaluations

So I've been in school now for nearly a month; four weeks deep into my fifteen week semester! Where I was once excited about a schedule that seemed so free, I hate it now. I've got work that seems never ending, I cannot ever eat dinner at a reasonable hour, my classes last too long, complaint, complaint, complaint. I've really gotten into school, though. I like my school. The time I've spent in school has seemed to pass at a pace too fast to measure. I've managed to get to know some of my teachers pretty well. I've decided I'm evaluating them monthly too see how my feelings towards them change over time. This is my second evaluation, having written my initial feelings down in February, and I'm realizing that I've developed strangely different opinions on my teachers in a very short time.

My only class on Mondays is Intermediate Painting and it lasts until 8:30. By the time I get home my brain feels like mush and I'm starved. I wrote originally that I thought my painting teacher was a snob, but she totally isn't. She is just of a certain opinion about art and how it should be done. She has assigned a course load so heavy that sometimes I really feel like I'm going to go home having painted enough to fill my own gallery. We've been in class for only four weeks and already we've had assigned five works and two papers. My professor and I have talked alot about my painting and she has definitely given me some sound advice on how I should be developing my works. She hasn't really taught as much technique as I'd have liked, though, and this bothers me. I like her alot because she is one of two professors who has brought in a food item to share with the class. She brought us cookies one night and for that she gets alot of brownie points. She thinks my pieces are boring, though, and has told me I need to stop getting so personal with my works. "Simpler!" she insists. I've also only painted things that have had to do with nature and she wants to me move away from that, also. Impossible to please, I think.

I loved my drawing professor, at first. She seemed sweet and fun and spunky. This opinion has changed to considering her mostly irritating. Her course load is also crazy heavy, including readings and sketching and a huge midterm project. UGH! She is really crazy about our homework being done precisely as she stated in the syllabus but managed to create the most confusing syllabus and schedule in history. We have nude models in her class, every class, and my reader you KNOW how difficult nude models are for me. We had a nude model the other day, a skinny older woman, who posed at an angle that allowed me to see the toilet paper stuck in her butt. I left that class less of a human. I've grown to dread her class. Nude models combined with the fact that I absolutely suck at drawing equals a miserable Gab. I also think my teacher may be dating my T.A. boyfriend-a serious infraction against me. The worst part is I have this class on Tuesdays for six hours after sitting through an hour and 1/2 of dreadful Italian. Tuesdays are my least favorite day, hands down. My teacher appreiates my tastes in music, though, and thats cool with me.

My Italian professor, though I like alot. Of all my professors her English is the worst which seems kind of dumb to me. You'd figure the teacher whose job it was to teach me another language would be able to speak my language pretty fluently. That is really my only complaint about her. She has realized that I can speak Italian a little better then the rest of the class and knows how much it kills me to have to sit through such a simple review. She has gone out of her way to help me get a better education and has given me work seperate from the rest of the class so that I can learn at least a little bit. She speaks to me in Italian and it makes me feel special and cool cause I'm the only student she does it to.

Travel Writing is still my favorite class, far and away. The work for this class doesn't stress me out and I always look forward to doing it. Alot of the things I post on my blog are things I use for my class :) I cheat. My teacher is exactly as good as I expected her to be when I first met her. I'm learning alot about the history of travel writing and this is something I appreciate alot. The course is inspiring me to want to travel more, write more, and really pursue the idea of becoming a travel writer. I don't want to do anything but have odd jobs in new places for a couple of months before moving on to someplace new. I'll write about my experiences on blogs and in journals and I'll sketch things I see (but not well). Eventually I'll publish these things and hopefully someone will want to read them before I die. If I make money from it, sweet, if not, also sweet. My future is bright even though I have no goals but to see the world. Simple living, and damn I'll do it well. I'm more satisfied with this class than with any of the others because it makes me feel inspired to live exactly this life. This teacher also brought in a food item. It was bread and not nearly as satisfying as cookies but I always appreciate teachers that go the extra mile. We were made to write a haiku about the bread after tasting a piece. Here's mine:
Tasteless. Boring. Flat.
It really needs some butter,
Or, perhaps, SALT!
Florentines don't put salt in their bread. It's a really big problem. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the rest of the things I'll have to write for that class.

Sculpture is fun. I play with ceramics and get super creative, listen to music and work with my hands. The best part about the class though is my professor. I'm still in love with him 100%. He T.A.'s for both Drawing and Painting and those are the parts of those classes I look forward to most. I've discovered alot about him: he plays guiatar (blues and classical, my two favorites), he is a professional sculptor, and he lives on the same street as me. I'm not stalking him, this was all information he provided without any questioning from me! He jokes around with me all the time (alot of his jokes have to do with cake, for some reason) and he spends time looking through my iTunes and suggesting good music for me. I enjoy his class mostly for the company, but it is definitely fun to explore a new art form. The thing about him though is I've been steadily falling for him harder and harder. He doesn't know it, but he is having a love affair with me. I'll be extremely upset if he is dating my Drawing professor. My flame for him only increased in intensity when one night I went to Babilon. I'm dancing and getting into the music with Selvaggia and Buzarro when I turn and am face to face with him. My smile split my face. I could make my move. "Ciao!" I said, and he said ciao back. I turned to Selvaggia, who knows all about my affections for him, and told her he was there. She encouraged me to be forward and let myself be known and I was ready to do so when suddenly I was afflicted with a case of shy so profound I couldn't form words. He started talking to me, though, and we danced briefly. His friends started chanting his name, though, and I think he got shy then because he smiled at me awkwardly and excused himself. Maybe he was concerned that he was going to offend his girlfriend. God, I hope she isn't his girlfriend. I've become seriously infatuated with him. Sometimes when Selvaggia and I are walking home from our nights out (which is basically every single night) I secretly hope he'll be walking home, too. I can see him on the street we share and convince him to love me.

Well, this is how I feel about my teachers in the month of March. I'd say I can't wait to see how these feelings change in April, but I actually really want my time here to stop going by so quickly.