perhaps you might have already guessed by that beautiful picture to the right, but i am sick.

not feeling well, i headed home from school wednesday evening with something decidedly like the flu, and have since been under the careful watch of doctor mom and two feline nurses.

i stumbled out of bed this afternoon to e-mail two of my professors because, besides the fact that i am currently near death, oklahoma has been engulfed by an unusual amount of snow and ice which might possibly keep me stranded in the city. of course, in a charming twist of fate, i have two huge, important exams this friday.

i heard back from my political science professor almost immediately. perhaps sensing the danger in having my germ-laden body anywhere in the vicinity of his classroom, he assured me that i would be able to make up the test later.

i love that man.

the rest of my day was spent in pilgrimage between bed and computer, waiting eagerly to hear back from my spanish professor.

no response.

not that i'm surprised. my spanish teacher is quite the interesting character.

i should have realized what i was in for sometime during the first week, but i chose to remain optimistic. i ignored the fact that he made us pass a single syllabus around the classroom because he didn't want to pay for the copies, chalking it up to the big budget cuts at OU lately. i couldn't really understand his spanish or english all that well, but i decided it was probably because my professor the semester before had been from a different country and had an extremely different accent.

as the weeks progressed, i became slightly more concerned. there was the time i had to make 20 copies of a huge spanish packet for our class which, though he expressed these papers were absolutely necessary for us to understand the chapter, he was still unwilling to pay for. then there was Leprechaun Week, when he wore the same green sweater and green pants monday, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. i became somewhat distressed this tuesday when he chose, rather than reviewing us for the exam, to instead show us a spanish movie full of nudity and bad language.

(though i do now know many interesting and useful spanish words, i must give him that.)

but i would say the real peak of my concern was wednesday, when he revealed to us that he only learned english last semester. which explains a lot, like why the only portion of our class that i understand is the part where he takes attendance. not to mention the fact that none of us seem to know what we supposedly have learned over the past four weeks.

at the point of this announcement, we all pretty much just gave up hope.

my fifty minutes of spanish each day are now spent huddled in the corner with my Spanish Class Friend. we bonded over the fact that we were both confused and disturbed that we were taking and paying for this course, and we have since resolved to do nothing in class but the crossword puzzles in the university newspaper.

anyway, since i still haven't heard from my lovely spanish professor, look for me sliding down the interstate tomorrow, only to fail an exam in the World's Worst College Class Ever.

and feel free to send all your bowls of chicken noodle soup, miracle drugs, and kleenex to kristin@madpony.com.