!Estoy furiosa!

Can't do the upsidedown exclamation point ...

I am so muy, muy ticked off!

I have been looking forward to taking Spanish 201 for several months -- if you don't count the three years since I took 102 and couldn't immediately continue. My company approved paying for tuition, and I have been reviewing heavily for a couple months, very excited about learning another language and a bit alarmed at what I'd forgotten. Today was the first day of classes at Winthrop (so mad, I don't want to link), and I was as giddy as a kindergartner. I'd even bought a special new tote bag for the occasion. All I was lacking were bows in my hair and a new lunchbox.

I asked alumni coworkers for the best place to park, zoomed right in on my dinner break, settled into my chair-and-desk-in-one, and anxiously looked around at the young'uns in my class. The teacher -- I refuse to call her professor -- started class, and at first I was just annoyed that she was a soft speaker and there was a roaring ventilation system. Then I could hear what she was saying ...

The woman was misconjugating me llamo, the most basic saying that even people who've never had a Spanish class know. She then proceeded to botch the language so severely, from a thick Southern accent to noun-adjective agreement to everything else, that students were correcting her. People were practically laughing at her. And her "teaching" style consisted of reading to us from a worksheet, having us then read back exactly what she'd said (including blanks and the words you were supposed to change), writing that on the board, then writing the actual answers -- again in full sentences -- on the board. Three sentences took 5 minutes at least. I was about to go out of my mind. I'm not conveying it fully, but it was horrible. A girl had spent the summer in the Dominican Republic, and she was in disbelief at what the woman was saying. I have no idea what the woman's credentials are, but they were sorely inadequate. I heard at least a few people saying they were going to drop -- including myself!

I was fuming! What a colossal waste of money and time! I KNOW I can teach myself better from my old Spanish book, then take the CLEP test, get credit for 201 and start with a REAL professor in a higher course in the spring. The class was more than $1,000, the book more than $160, and don't forget my registration fees and immunizations!

I have never been in such a horrible college class. The only class at Clemson that I thought was really bad was my English 203 class, where the teacher brought in a recording -- as in vinyl -- of "King Lear" and proceeded to play it for three days. As a result, I skipped my first ever class. I had no other classes where I just could not stand to sit through them over the rest of my four years (though I did skip occasionally after that). I feel so incredibly bad for the kids that need this Spanish credit specifically this semester and can't drop. But it would be absolutely absurd for me, a professional who already has a degree, to waste even one more hour in that class.

So I came back to work, complained to my coworkers, who had seen me glowing with excitement, and DROPPED THE DAMN COURSE.

I was so frustrated and mad I wanted to cry. I am so disappointed. Brad says I shouldn't drop but should e-mail the department head and demand a better teacher. I don't know if they could/would actually do that, but I am going to write the e-mail, whether I add the class back or not. Dear God, it was horrible.