Mag 39 - Fowl Language

I made it into this class barely under the wire. My campus and personal life exploded last term and the
way I finessed it all was sheer genius. I'm here to learn as much and more than any other student and I
may have been wide-eyed when I arrived last year but now I see most everything in wide-screen. My
mind is wide open to all the wisdom they can pour into my brain. I feel wide awake. When I am awake
my arms are wide open to the world, when I am in bed my legs are wide open to experience, and when I
am asleep my experiences are woven into the wide-cut fabric of all that I know and knew and may know, and I am and was and will be, and who I know and who I knew and who I may yet know, and what I am doing and what I did and what I may do in the years to come.

So I am juggling a lot, as you can tell, but I was still surprised as hell when I looked at my online
courses layout and found that I need four additional credits in foreign language and three in laboratory
science to stay on track. My dad said he can get me into a practicum at Oregon Health Sciences
University where he works (there goes summer break) and that will take care of the LabSci units.
Addressing the deficiency in foreign language credits proved to be a real stressor. All the Advanced
French classes were full by the time I discovered this mess and I realized I would have to take another
language at Beginner Level and it didn't matter which language as long as I found one still open. I tried
for Italian and Chinese but they were full because everyone is taking Italian after reading Eat, Pray, Love
and everyone is taking Chinese because, well, you know why.....but there was one that appeared to be written in an Asian language in the course description, or maybe it was written in Persian, and when I clicked on it the registration form popped up onscreen instead of that dreaded CLOSED sign stamped across the screen and I signed up immediately. 

There are no texts for this class. I figure that a TA will come into class before the professor arrives to
advise us either where to purchase books for this language class or (hopefully) to tell us all the
coursework will be online, with class time being more like an interactive language lab. That would be good. The front wall in this room is peculiar. It looks like a smooth concrete wall that has been carelessly scored and scratched with what looks like artful graffiti. The markings look like the figures in the course description for this class. Now I don't think it's Persian. Maybe it is Sanskrit. Could be Japanese -- no, the Japanese course was full so it can't be that. The figures are too thin and random to be Russian.

The professor must be one of those who experiments with room lighting as a learning tool (I'll have to tell
you sometime about the strobe lights that my sophomore year Psychology teacher tortured us with for
one week and one week only...). The lighting in here has a quiet cool illumination that seems to attract
shadows. I want to make shadow puppets on that wall..... Oh, wait, everyone in front is stretching in their seats to look at something on the floor. I can't see what they are looking at yet. Some of them seem shocked
but most are looking at each other in a really satisfied way like they know they are in the best class on
campus. Lucky us. This is going to be great.

What a riot! The professor is playing chicken sounds in the sound system. What a great sense of humor because that is what a new language sounds like when you first hear it, so this is to make us feel at ease and get into the spirit of trying new sounds. Really authentic cackling! I am impressed...... Oh, wait, I just noticed that there is a wooden ramp -- it's not very big -- that is connected to the podium.....and all the dudes in front are looking in that direction now. And....uh, um....ahh, aw! Awesome! The professor is this striking-looking big burgundy-colored chicken with rosey-red wattles and something that looks like an old-fashioned Victorian ladies hat on top of its head.

Oh my God, this is amazing; the teacher is a chicken! In this class we are going to learn how to read chicken scratching and cackle and cluck our way into a wider understanding of this fowl world.

MLydiaM ~ November 2010

Read what other writers saw in this week's fantastic photo prompt at Magpie Tales.



Clipart via Webweaver




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