Some thoughts on the course

It was the end of summer when I was actually excited for signing up for classes, meeting new people, having a class with my friend, and having new teachers. I was still caught up with the whole summer deal that I forgot to do the early sign ups. I kept on delaying sign-ups, not deliberately. Being as cautious as I am, I tend to first visit Ratemyprofessors.com and look up any teachers I have in mind to choose to teach me something new for the next sixteen weeks. I sat in the waiting room and waited for my name to be called by the counselor that’s next on the list. I wanted to ask the counselor what classes he/she recommends I take. Before my name was called, my friend, Erin, showed up and suggested we should take the same English course since we are on the same level. I agree with this idea, thinking it would be better to have a class with one of my friends. She picked a good time that fitted in our schedules, and did not even worry about what the teacher was like. We both enrolled in English 111-Paul Gasparo.
When I went home, I looked up the site, Ratemyprofessors.com. When I looked up Paul Gasparo, I was not all the way pleased. I noticed many “tough teacher” comments. So a tough teacher isn’t that bad but I did not feel like working extremely hard. The first day of his class was an interesting one. It was hard for me to understand him at first as he talked very quickly. As the course went on, it was a lot easier for me to understand him. I just knew this class was not going to be an easy one like the others before this English were.
Right from the start, we have an assignment. This course being a writing class, I was a bit nervous on how my writing skills were. We had to choose one of the topics for the Diagnostic Essay that we would like to write about. I thought that choosing from some choices was a good idea because when a student has a little bit of power of what they want to write, their writings improve. I liked writing about my favorite vacation. Everyone likes to talk about vacation so putting all the talk on paper isn’t all that challenging.
Gasparo then wanted us to set up a blog that included our first paper and anything else we would like to post in there and other writings at the end as well. I thought it was a good idea to put them on a blog for easy access to look at all writings. Although, after this course, I don’t believe I will ever visit that site again, it’s a good idea for students who love to write and want to post blogs about it.
My favorite writing was probably the Revised Diagnostic Essay. Taking an essay we wrote in the beginning and revising it was actually enjoyable, while showing everything we learned at the same time. My least favorite was writing Argument Essay. It was something that we had to learn as students to argue on a topic but it was tough for me to do so. I believe Gasparo gave us enough time to work on the essay, obtaining tons of information on our topic. What I liked most about this course was when we had to peer critique other classmates’ papers. I liked the criticism I would receive and would use the feedback in my paper.
Gasparo is a difficult teacher and challenges his students. He really makes you work hard, think about your papers, and makes sure you know to not delay on starting any papers he has assigned. However, I did procrastinate a few of my papers till the day before. Do not do this! You will end up staying up pretty late trying to put it as much information as you can. I realized when you start a little earlier; these papers are not that intense. I didn’t like how once you were completed with one paper, you didn’t have time to breath; it was time to start a whole different assignment. Many students stopped attending his class, maybe because they did not want to show effort, (bad work ethic). Over all, I think Professor Gasparo is a rather fine teacher, having his own strong opinions on certain subjects and always lets us know we can ask questions, although you may not receive the answer you wanted or thought you would find.

Picture source

Ratemyprofessors.com

The Outer Banks From Within

Vacation is a time to get away and not worry about your day to day life. It is a time to relax and enjoy your families company. Here is a vacation that my family and I take regularly to get away from our stressful life. The most recent vacation my family and I went on, this past summer was to the beautiful state of North Carolina. Even though we go to many places throughout the world, going to North Carolina is the most memorable. Although North Carolina isn’t very far from Virginia Beach, once we are there it seems like we are miles and miles away from home. It has been a tradition every summer that my family and I go to North Carolina since I was a little girl.
Many memories are included in this relaxing vacation. Each year we rent a different beach house online. We never know exactly what the house will look like inside until we get there. As a kid, I have always loved to be the first one to run in the house and look at everything inside, have my own little personal tour. I liked to see how each room had a different theme because it was like walking into a different part of the world. Often times there would be two main themes in the rooms. There would be a room centered around the beach, having seagulls, lounge chairs painted on the walls, shells in little baskets, beach balls, and such. The second theme would be based on the aquatic life, having murals of dolphins, bright colored, tropical looking fish, sea turtles, stingrays, and coral reef throughout the room. Occasionally there was a room centered on safaris having giraffes, lions, tigers, hippos, fake trees in the corners. My brother always ended up with the room like that.
In the Outer Banks, where we stayed, there is this beach where you can drive on with four-wheel drive vehicles. We would always bring my dads’ monster truck so we would be able to drive on the beach with ease and not get stuck like other low to the ground vehicles. My dad would pick a satisfying spot to relax at, far away from other beachcombers. We wanted to have our own spot to ourselves, but sometimes when people came and parked around us, we wanted them to get the hint to leave so my dad would blast Michael Jackson, “Just Beat It.”
Sometimes, in the dunes, we would find wild horses roaming the sandy hills. This past summer, something amazing happened but at the same time it was scary to me. My family and I were driving throughout the dunes and my dad stopped abruptly. My brother and I looked around to see what happened and we saw a baby horse lying in front of my dads’ truck. The baby horse looked sick so my dad thought to give the horse some water. My brother and I jumped out of the truck to look at the baby horse and my mother stayed in the truck. All of the sudden the mother horse and father horse were bolting towards us, to protect their baby, I assume. I screamed on the top of my lungs, my brother hopped into the bed of the truck, while my dad nearly got trampled on. It was terrifying but in the end we made it out alive and looking back at it now, we all laugh about it.
When it would get dark outside, we would take our flashlights to the beach and hunt for white crabs, which we would call “ghost crabs.” It doesn’t sound like it would be much fun, but it was a blast when we were younger. My mom would make up stories all the time to entertain us when we were younger. One of the stories that I remember was about a little girl named Penny and she was kidnapped by a tribe of Native Americans on a gigantic hill within the dunes but finally she escaped in the dead of the night. And so the hill is called Penny Hill. I don’t know the true story of how the name became but I’d like to think that’s the real reason as it was an enchanting story.
Although it is a tradition to go to North Carolina every summer, we have skipped our Outer Banks getaway to go to different places. We have gone to Cancun, Costa Rica, and even a cruise to Cozumel, Belize, and Key West. Even though all these places are fun, extraordinary, and beautiful with their beaches, I will always enjoy my childhood memories of North Carolina and the stories we created.

Picture source

Beach House Rentals