Week 8

This week, Monday was a very nice day for me because when I went to Mr. O’Regan’s office for my tutorial at 9:00 am, I saw that there was no cross on my feedback. So I wouldn’t need to make a huge change on my essay. Tuesday and Thursday were spent for our essays again. Mr. O’Regan talked about our mistakes and how to correct them. We also talked about our podcasts and our homework for spring break is to assess each other’s podcasts. Every single one will listen to every essay of the class and write feedbacks. We have to be very careful about it because wrong decisions for feedbacks will also affect our own grades.

On Tuesday, I was just like a corpse in Comm. class because I hadn’t slept approximately for 44 hours to revise for my Hist. 245 mid-term. It was a bad planned study again but fortunately the exam was easy for me and I did a good job. But after my classes were over I slept all the day. Next week won’t be that tough and I am looking forward to going home for the spring break.

A few hours ago, my favorite football team, FENERBAHÇE, beat Beşiktaş and I feel really good now. But Beşiktaş was easy to beat for Fenerbahçe. Next Wednesday, they will play against Chelsea in Champions League and I know they will bury Chelsea into six feet under the hell of Kadıköy. As you can also see, next week will be the Fenerbahçe week for me.

Week 7

What a week! I really understood that I was a student. I worked hard enough this week and I am comfortable and happy now. For Comm. 101, the most important date up to now was this Tuesday because it was the deadline of the draft 1 of our first essay. And it was a nervous day for most of us even though we completed our drafts because no one was completely sure that their draft would be accepted by Mr. O’Regan. But I was relaxed when Mr. O’Regan accepted my draft. On Tuesday we also talked all about vocabulary and our homework was to check the first and the second 1000 most common words in English.

Thursday 5:00 pm was the deadline for our podcasts so I prepared and placed it on the F-Drive on Wednesday. On Thursday Mr. O’Regan warned us about the tutorials for 45 minutes. And we learned that we should be very careful about punctuality not to have some absences. After the Comm., I had a psychology class and I could only go to Mr. O’Regan’s office to book a tutorial at about 1:30 pm. And it was only enough to book the earliest tutorial of the week: Monday 9:00 am. I won’t have the opportunity to check my draft beforehand so I guess the tutorial will not be efficient enough for me. But it was my mistake not to go there earlier so I will bear the consequences. But I will have a whole week and I think I will be able to do a good job.

This week was a difficult one but it also gave me the ambition to work hard. And from now on I will study regularly. For the next Tuesday we will read another article from our course book and I will do it on Saturday because I will revise for the Hist. 245 midterm later. That’s all for now, see you...

Week 6

This week in both classes, we talked about first draft of our first essay. Mr. O'Regan comprehensively told us everything about how we would write our essays. And he warned us about what we shouldn't do in our essays like using "mention" in a wrong meaning. He also tried to remind us not to leave our essays to the last minute. But it seems impossible for a student to do something in advance so we generally have difficulties in completing our tasks.

On Friday I was planning to start my writing process on saturday and finish it until the saturday night. But just like my other task plans of my 13-year-long school life, it didn't work again. I was able to finish it on sunday night because for two days I was constantly distracted by any silly thing happened around me. And on monday I went to Mr. O'Regan to check my essay before the deadline so I would be able to change something wrong with it. I realized that I constructed a building but far from Mr. O'Regan wanted me to do. So I had to change my essay completely.

Now it is 3:30 am of tuesday and I just printed my essay and came back to write this post. I am realizing now that my conventional understanding of "studying" is just starting to make me sick. For upcoming days, I have to prepare my podcast until thursday, read a novel which I haven't started yet and write an essay about it for Turk. 100 until friday. By the way, I have to revise for my history quiz and computer midterm that I am going to take 6 hours later. So I have to go now, bye...

Week 5

On Tuesday, Mr. O'Regan checked our books to see whether we read the "Internet Paradox" or not. But I was really comfortable because I had read it well and annotated. After the control, he talked about our essay instructions. He emphasized that we should print out the instructions from his web page. There is a limited time till the deadline so I will print it just after writing this post and start to think deeply about my essay. In addition, we did another group discussion on tuesday again. It was really funny and useful.

Thursday was not a bright day for me because of the "Under Odeon" party the night before. All day I had a terrible headache and needed a good sleep. I had three classes that day and Comm. was the second one. I didn't feel up to speaking even a single word but the lesson was not very demanding fortunately. We investigated the Internet Paradox with our partners. I have to admit that I was not very useful but I tried my best under that condition.

This weekend I didn't go out and drink so I feel really healthy. I decided to pause for a while. :) Friday night I cooked a nice meal with my roommate and later we watched two great films. One of the films was "Seven" (Morgan Freeman,Brad Pitt) and I highly recommend it. And now I'm going to concentrate on my essay and podcast. After I finish all that stuff, I will be very satisfied. I have to study, bye...

Week 4

This was an interesting week that I realized my deficiency in effective reading. Mr. O’Regan gave a quiz on The Seductive Space reading which was our homework from the first week. And I could only get 50 out of 100 even though I read it well by annotating. It was also an open-book-quiz so it makes the situation more ironic. I learned that I had to read more carefully than I did before. I will be more concentrated on the next reading, Internet Paradox, because we will write our first essay about it. The deadline of the first draft was really distant when we started but as the time passed it got closer and I’m really getting worried about it. :)

When I think about the second lesson of the week, I remember the shameful condition in which I found myself as the “secretary” of our three-person-group. :) I was the secretary because of Mr. O’Regan’s rule that required males’ being secretaries. We investigated The Seductive Space again and answered the related questions that Mr. O’Regan delivered. Another important rule was about the language of discussions which made us speak no Turkish among us. It was really funny and useful to discuss in English as Turkish students because we rarely speak English among us in our daily life. The group activity was also very nice to increase communication among class members.

The fourth week is over but it was just like yesterday when Mr. O’Regan first entered the classroom. I wish I could hold the time and do all the tasks required for every class and then paint the town red. But it’s impossible so I have to sit down in the darkness of my room and work hard to prepare my podcast, do my reading and think about the first draft. At least it could be really relaxing if we were allowed to drink in our dorms. While I am studying in the evenings, a few beers could be my best friend to make me relaxed. Right now, I’m really in need of a good friend so I have to go out. :) See you…