the girruh.

the gre (which janet and i affectionately call the girruh) has the potential to become the bane of my existence. i say potential because i still like studying for it. i've never been so intrigued by a standardized test that could determine an aspect of my future (namely, grad school). i got a gre study (text)book over the break. i was excited to take the diagnosis test to see if i actually knew anything and learned skills from my college classes. the good news is i knew stuff; the bad news is the book ended up being a worthy purchase, for i don't know/remember a lot of stuff.

for instance, vocabulary. i can't pronounce a lot of the words that show up on the gre, let alone know what they mean. looking through the master word list of 3,500, i will be studying straight up vocab for about two hours a week. we'll see how that goes. however, to make that aspect a bit more fun, janet (who is also preparing for the girruh) and i have resolved to make up songs with these words...mostly parodies of popular songs. today, we came up with songs for ejaculate (which also means "to exclaim," and we had a good time with that), promiscuity, and effeminate. we already knew the meanings of those words, but we made up songs anyway. some random guy even stopped to listen (unknown to us until i said, "i knew that one!" and heard him say, "you knew that one!"). it was hilarious because he stopped dead in his tracks to listen, and we were sitting on the floor, seemingly out of anyone's listening range. i love it.

in the midst of the gre, classes have begun again. they're good. i am taking four 1-credit classes and then three hard ones. i learned yesterday that my advanced family processes class is the highest level class the school has to offer. scary/cool/bring it on. my judaism class made me smile the entire hour, which means i'm gonna love it. piano hasn't started yet, but bless my sweet teacher, whoever she is, because she will be hearing me mess up...often. russian is going to get harder, but i'm so intrigued by the curriculum as it stands, and i'm determined to speak the language better (it still freaks me out to open my mouth sometimes). aaaand everything else looks like it'll be good. i have new school supplies, and, therefore, a new (brightly colored) attitude!