Tough Decision

◊ Today I decided to drop Circuit Theory II from my schedule this semester. It meets on Wednesdays and Fridays. First of all, the Wednesday lecture session conflicts with Systems for Use of Solar Energy which I think sounds very interesting. Not crucial to my advancement at K-State like Circuits, but I still want to take it. Second, the Friday class is a problem. That is the class 'exercise period' where we work problems. The lecture is not mandatory attendance, but this is. It is at 2:30 Friday afternoon. I am the only exchange student I have heard of who has a Friday class. This means that I would never be able to find anyone to travel with, as most people want to leave Thursday evening. And even if I had the inclination to travel on my own (which I do not) my trips would be limited to just the weekend. That is unacceptable to me. Yes I am here to be a student, but I am also here to be a tourist and it is not fair to me that I should have to forfeit my entire semester's opportunities for one class that I can take back home. So I am dropping it.
◊ Those were my reasons before going to the 'exercise period' today. Maybe I have been spoiled by a cushy education system or pure dumb luck, but I have never had such a hard-ass for a professor. Incompetent ones, yes. Unintelligible ones, definitely. But never plain mean. Don't get me wrong. He was noting but nice to me. The were 5 other students in that class, all permanent foreign students, and he just dug into them. They all took Circuit Theory I last semester in Czech and therefore did not learn much. I think most of them are Palestinians. One asked about me and so I asked about him and then almost committed a big social fau paux. A girl from my dorm, Tara, was once greeted by the hall president, Winston. All she replied with was "I am sorry to hear that's your name, Sir." It was kind of like that. Thankfully my brain worked marginally faster than my mouth for once and I was able to change my "I'm sorry to hear that" into an "Aye..." of acknowledgment. I don't know how he would have taken that statement, but I think I am better off not knowing.
◊ But I digress. From the material we covered in lecture, I thought that I was going to be so far behind the others that I would not be able to work. In the exercise we worked one problem that should not have been a problem for me. It involved converting complex power and impedances and applying Ohm's Law. Of course since it has been two and half months since I last studied how to do that, I couldn't remember how. With the prof's tips (my notes would have worked too if I had thought to bring them) it all came back eventually. By eventually I mean an hour and a half.
◊ For the other students it was not so easy. They apparently didn't have much luck with this material or professor the first time around. Granted, they are all first year students and I have covered this all in Circuits and Eng. Phys II, but one of them did not know how to run a Pythagorean equation on his scientific calculator. But I am sure it didn't help having the prof over their shoulders almost shouting about their mistakes. When I was stuck or made a mistake, he helpfully pointed it out and moved along. I began to hope no one else was noticing this. I had left my calculator in my dorm, and so he went to go grab me one. "Geez" I said, "He is just snapping at everybody isn't he?" One of the others replied," Your lucky, he likes you."
◊ Damn. They did notice. But they were not being mean about it. It was just a simple statement of fact. I think it was because I am an American and he taught in America for a couple of years. I got the impression that he is always looking to improve his American English as opposed to the British English that most people speak by the way he kept asking how things would be worded in America. Also, It could be the fact that he has already had to deal with the others and is fed up with them. Who knows. I always enjoy having a teacher's mutual respect, but always have avoided the unenviable title of "teacher's pet". Not this time.
◊ I am so unused to the situation of being the only person in the class who understand best what we are doing. In three years of college there has always been somebody smarter or more qualified. Once I got an A+ in a C programming class, and helped many people with their final projects because for some reason I understood it. It made me feel very good about myself, but there were still other people in that class who got superior grades without nearly my dedication of time and effort. Somehow this felt different. I felt I was really was at the top of the class and even if it had more to do with my extra experience that didn't change how I felt.
◊ After class I told the prof that I would be dropping his class in favor of the solar energy class. I didn't mention my desire for travel time. He tried to persuade me to stay but I wansn't about to change my mind even though it means that I will have to take the class at K-State on my own dime. I would however like to learn the material to give me a head start when I do have to take it so I got his permission to sit in on class whenever I had the opportunity. Most likely I will just be lost, but I figure it will be better than nothing. I also have my text book and two books of examples that I bought before making this decision. They will give me something to read and study in my spare time which I think I will be having plenty of in the coming months.