Category Archives: Academia

Spring 2014 Semester Review

Wow, what a tough, rough semester. I am so thankful that I am done and that I am laying in bed at home in St. Louis writing this out!

Accounting 211

This class was a lot harder than it really should have been. My professor was pretty awful. It was a woman, which I was kind of more excited for because most of my professors in the business school are male, but she was a typical blonde: super ditzy, always flirting with the cute quys in the front row, super forgetful, and super unorganized.

Unorganization in an accounting class is pretty uncalled for. I mean, it’s accounting. That’s what they are known for. It was just frustrating having to deal with her. She would get super offended too when students said she was wrong about an answer to a problem or just differed in opinion on a subject.

We did a ridiculous amount of group projects in there, too, which were a complete waste of class time. For each chapter, we had an in-class activity (I felt like I was in elementary school, and not in a good way) and then we had two big group projects. Let me explain how stupid they were. For absorption costing (which is just a way that you can allocate your costs in a business) we made paper airplanes and wrote down what our costs were. What a waste of time.

But I’ll stop ranting about this stupid class now. Just hallelujah I don’t have to take any more accounting!

Credits: 3
Final Grade: A

Finance 325

This is the first finance class I have taken, and oh my gosh, my professor was such a hoot. He was just the craziest person I have ever met. Imagine him talking like Al Capone and you pretty much have his voice. He would go on side rants all the time about the importance of life (not money, family) which would be interesting, but not related to finance. So he wasted a lot of class time when it could have been used to better prepare for the midterm and final.

Which brings me to the sucky part of the class. Your grade is 50% midterm, 50% final. That’s it. So stressful. He was a good professor, but the way the class was set up made me stress so much. I’m not the best test taker – I tend to make stupid mistakes and get confused or not understand what the question is asking. So I got my first B in college in this class. :(

But honestly, I was super proud of that B. I only got an 85% on my midterm and I barely studied for the final (completely accidental). I was laying on the floor the night before studying and kept falling asleep so I thought, “I’m just going to get a really good night’s rest and wake up in the morning to study so it’s all fresh in my mind.” So I set my alarms for seven and went to sleep. I didn’t wake up until 15 minutes before the final started. I freaked out. I was crying on the way to the final and crying on the way home after the final. I was so sure I had just completely botched the final. But somehow I pulled a B so I’ll take it, a little grudgingly.

Credits: 3
Final Grade: B

Business Law

What a stupid class. It was so nitt-picky and over things I would never use in my life. My professor was a lawyer and just so weird. He would talk to international students like they just got off the plane yesterday, like they were just idiots to American ways and history. Heck, they probably know more about America than I do and I’m American!

Tests were what the class was made up of, and they were all ridiculously hard. A lot harder than they should have been. He thankfully gave like a 10% curve on each test, but even so, I only pulled an A-. :(

Credits: 3
Final Grade: A-

Communication Studies 110

I really tried to push this stupid class off as long as I could. I hate public speaking, but even more so being graded on it. It was as stupid and dumb as I thought it would be but thank goodness it’s done and out of the way now.

We did have to write a tribute speech, though, so I wrote one for my grandpa back here in St. Louis. When I finished, I formatted it so it would be easy for him to read, made him a cute little card that said I loved him, and sent it in the mail. My mom said that he read it and just bawled, that he couldn’t believe all the nice things that I had said about him and that no one had ever paid tribute to him like that. He called me and thanked me and said he really appreciated it. My sister said that he shows it to everyone now, that he loved it so much. :love: So there was that positive from that class.

Credits: 3
Final Grade: A

Business Statistics 309

The class from hell. Ugh, what a hard class. My professor wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t really good. He was just a “PowerPoint professor,” someone who stands in front of a PowerPoint and reads. Which I don’t know about you, but statistics is pretty hard to learn by a slide. There were a few days in the end of the semester where he taught just by his own notes and everything was so clear. Kind of disappointing that he limits himself and the students so much by it. But anyways, Done with statistics forever! Hallelujah!

Credits: 3
Final Grade: A

My overall semester GPA was a 3.74 which brought my cumulative GPA to 3.914. Not to shabby. I wish I would have done a little better, but I did the best that I could and that’s all I can do.

This was my hardest semester so far, which is why I was practically nonexistent the last four months or so. I just never had any time. It was hard, too, because I really hated all of my classes. They didn’t interest me, in fact, it was things I didn’t like. It made me really wonder if studying business and finance was really what I wanted to do with my life.

I thought about transferring to the school of education for elementary education, but ultimately I decided that that wasn’t really right for me either. I think I just had to get through these courses, and I just happened to take them all at the same time. I think that maybe the next semester will be kinder to me. :)

Simple and Sweet, You Make my Life Complete

I had to work on Valentine’s day this year, so me and Andrew celebrated on Thursday instead. There’s this amazing barbeque joint called Oklahoma Joe’s about ten minutes from us that is built into an old gas station. Every time we go, it is always so busy; there’s a line almost to the door. Last year we had gone there for lunch on Valentine’s day and it wasn’t busy at all. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be too busy for dinner but it still was. :P It didn’t take too long for us to order and get our food though. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and Andrew got their “Z-Man” which has brisket, cheese, and onion rings on it. Their fries are to die for – they’re probably my favorite fries ever, and they give you this huge bag of them.

It was all very delicious.

I wanted to keep it simple this year. Okay Joe’s (what we call it for short) is pretty inexpensive but it’s something that we both really enjoy. I didn’t want Andrew to get me anything because he is always spending money on me and I just wanted him to pay for dinner and that would be his gift. He grudgingly agreed. He had already gotten me a gift as a joke before we had decided this, so he gave me that anyways. He warned me before I opened it that I wouldn’t like it and it was just to be funny, so I was wary as I took it out of the package.

It was Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. -_- My last name is Gray, so he thought that would be hilarious, and apparently my reaction was worth it. l flipped open to a random page and started reading and couldn’t keep from laughing. I flipped to another to do the same thing and Andrew about fell off the bed at the face I made.

He’s such a little turd.

Andrew loves the show Adventure Time, so I bought him these custom made Adventure Time shot glasses off of eBay and he really liked them. We don’t drink often but when we did, it was always straight from the bottle or in plastic cups, so I thought they would have dual purpose. I was very proud of my gift for him because he is so difficult to shop for!

After we had dinner, we rented two movies, Wolverine and Runner Runner. We got about three-fourths of the way through Wolverine before we both fell asleep. Andrew had already seen it but I was exhausted from that day (I had four classes) so I’m not sure how it ended, haha.

The search for a new apartment is on again. My roommate is moving back home, so my only option right now is to live with these two other girls. It’s been very frustrating. Valentine’s morning, I went to see an apartment about a ten minute drive from campus. They were beautiful apartments, were in our price range, had amazing amenities (swimming pool, tennis courts, movie theatre – I mean who has a movie theatre??), and had a unit available exactly when we were looking to move in.

We got applications and I had filled mine out. I was so excited to have found something so quick and something that was literally perfect to us and then the other girl couldn’t do it. She doesn’t have a car and it would apparently take her an hour and a half to get to campus so she wouldn’t be able to do it.

I was really disappointed. I understand she couldn’t do it, but it just makes the search extremely difficult since we pretty much can’t get an apartment more than two miles from campus. It’s been frustrating on top of school and work and I feel like I’m doing all of the work. I’m not even very excited to live with them; it’s just really my only option besides living by myself, which I can’t afford.

I keep joking with Andrew that we just need to find an apartment together. He actually wouldn’t mind, but I really want to wait until we’re married to live together. Le sigh. Sometimes I hate having morals. :(

So there we are. School and work are both killing me. I skipped church this morning so I could study for a test and here I am blogging instead. But I needed Thursday, just to spend time with Andrew which I don’t get enough. A little ray of sunshine through all the work work work.