November 6th

Hi everyone! Last weekend I went with the 10 other kids in my bio program down to the coast, where we learned about various ecosystems like mangroves and tropical rain forests. Unfortunately this blog is not about that trip.

I'm writing because I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to post that blog. Hopefully this weekend, we'll see. Right now I just thought I'd give you all an update. Things here have been peachy as always. We've got around 5 or so weeks of school left, but still a lot of work ahead of us, especially for those of us who are taking Herpetology. It's a tough class. The teacher is still in his 20s and has published a ridiculous number of papers. I think he said he's already published 10 this year and he said it was a slow year. This guy is a machine. When he was about 6, he decided one day to start learning all about birds. By the time he got to college, early into his 17th year, he was already a bird expert and knew as much if not more than the teachers. By his early 20s, he was head of some really big conservation group in Ecuador. One day, in much the same way he decided to learn about birds, he suddenly decided to drop birds and learn all he could about frogs. He went to grad school at a very prestigious university in England, I think. This guy knows so much, it's overwhelming. I have class with him for 2 hours a week from 4-6 on Wednesdays, and although it's a 2-credit undergrad class, he's treating it like a more-than-2 credit graduate level class. He talks non-stop for those 2 hours and just goes through his slides, in which he shows us a genus of frog, talks about it briefly, and then moves on to the next. It's so much information that there's no way we can retain enough of it. This is his first year teaching and he's so enthusiastic about what he does, that I think he's trying to do too much. It's really tough keeping up, especially when this 2-credit course is probably harder than my 5 other 3-credit courses combined. I get the feeling that he expects us all to be as hard-working and dedicated as he is, but the truth is that it takes a very certain kind of enthusiasm, interest, sacrifice, and motivation to get as far as he has, and we're just not wired that way.

There's no doubt that he's a very smart, dedicated man who knows his stuff and wants to make a difference. It's just that I feel like he needs to realize that there's no way he can teach us everything he knows in the time that he has, and that instead of just teaching it all really fast, it would be better to slow down and give us the major points and the take-home message. Also in my opinion, he would be a better teacher if he had a better homework philosophy. Some assignments that he gives us seem more just like busy work than a teaching aid. But I guess these are things that are only learned through experience. It's not that I'm wishing he'd just dumb everything down and give us a free ride, but I think he needs to come to a compromise between what and how he wants to teach, and what students are able to reasonably handle.

So changing subjects, how about that election? I am personally extremely pleased with the results and feel comfortable coming back to the States, when that time comes (which will be about a month after Obama has officially gotten into office). I was at an English-speaking bar with many of my friends watching the election returns. This was the same place where we went to watch the debates. The place was packed with people who were cheering every time a state turned blue, or when the graph on the bottom of the screen showed another blue vote from the senate. When it was finally time for the results from the west coast to come in, everyone in the bar was counting down together. We got to zero and then all burst into cheering and yelling and hugging when on the screen appeared the four words we had been waiting for all night long: "Barack Obama Elected President". We stuck around to hear McCain's resignation speech, which I thought was very respectful, and then for Obama's speech, which I found to be quite eloquent, uplifting, and inspiring. Like he said, this is only the beginning, there's a lot of work ahead of us in terms of repairing the country, but we've certainly taken a step in the right direction. The best part? I didn't even have to wear my lucky boxers for it to happen!

I hope everyone is doing well. Keep your eyes peeled for the next post: A Trip to the Coast.

Take good care,
-Joey

P.S. Happy Belated Halloween!