'14 ILC at Vanderbilt: Poker in Class?

Today in class, we had an unusual that we went over. We learned how to play poker. I learned about the different hands a player can have and which hands were the better ones to have. Now it my sound a bit odd, but in context in makes sense.

We were learning a challenging subject about probability using combinatorics. We all received a worksheet that asked us to find the probability of a certain hands of happening in a deck of cards. It was struggling for me to solve it but my group and Mr.Gray helped me to understand everything. Near the end it was making sense. After finishing the problems, our group thought we were done but then, he asked us what would the probability of having a second deck of card. Instead of the regular 52 card, we would have to find the possibility of each hand with 104 cars. Students would think just multiplying everything by two would be it but there is a whole logistic way of finding the correct percentage of the possibilities. I thought it was particularly odd I was learning poker but it was a little fun. I couldn't remember half of the hands that were there, like full house, flush, straight flush, etc., therefore I'm positive that I will never be good at poker.

During study hall, Mr.Gray looked over my presentation. He asked to see it yesterday and I was afraid he wouldn't like it. I had a half of it done and so far he liked it. I also asked the TA, Mara, for a second opinion. She said that I did well in breaking everything down. Since I had the topic of exponents, Mr.Gray told me to make sure that I teach the topic like I was teaching students in Algebra I, who have never learned about it. It was reassuring that Mr.Gray and TA looked over it. But something that was troubling was that during class, he said he would assign people to be "trouble maker" during the presentations, hopefully with more guidance I'll do a great job on Monday, when I do my presentation.

For my arete, Pitch Perfect, we had our last rehearsal before the showcase tomorrow. Although I think its absolutely dreadful being in the class, I will miss my class. I wont miss it because of the singing hence I can not sing, but I will miss my classmates and some of the great times we had together. As we were running our last rehearsal, I enjoyed it just a bit. I will admit it was fun. I realized that even in the most awkward and dreadful activities, finding joy in them isn't that hard. This goes along with trying new things. I learned it's important to try new things because in the end its really not going to be as bad.

Today, VSA held another SOFT(sign out free time) night. This was the best one so far. My friend, Abigail, Chiamaka, and Stephanie, and I spent SOFT night with each other. Stephanie suggested to go to a near-by chicken place called McDougal's to eat. We all agreed to go. McDougal's by far is one of the best chicken places I have gone to. McDougals was decorated in this really old stylish, family-like way. The walls were bombarded with pictures of people and dollar bills sighed by people, who been there before. This gave it a familiar homelike vibe. In addition during the meal I remember some of the Vanderbilt alumni talking about it during the dinner we had with the a while ago in San Francisco. It was very cool. They had delicious chicken and gave out free soft serve ice cream. What gets better than that? After that we went to get Hot&Cold for some more ice cream. It was different because their ice creams and popsicle are homemade. It was also very good. I had so much fun tonight because these young, great, and amazing ladies were accompany me. I hope next time we can all hang out again.