Experiences in English 111

I decided to take the English 111, just so I can say in Europe, that I have been in an American college. The English itself came as a bonus. From the first day, when I realized the diversity and the atmosphere in the class were high, I was hooked in. It was nice to see I wasn't the only foreigner around. After few days had gone, and the introductions, course overview, and the interviews were behind us, the reading came along. Informing articles on politics, writing, and history were some of the topics. It was really pleasing to notice the timeliness of these readings. I hate read old text, and I was almost saved from it, untill Mr. Kafka's writing came along.
The first larger scale project, a presentation with an excellent partner, Jason, was really worthwhile. During the making of it I learned to schedule time, both, for the needed work together and for the individual work. Having a partner made me realize, what an ease it is to ask from the peers that surrounded me in class. They helped me drastically in my process of becoming a better writer. Whether it was revision, editing, or just asking about due dates, someone was always reachable. And if someone else needed help, I tried my best to be helpful. Filling the peer review forms and the movie sheets, were both educationally rewarding, but the open discussion with others and the open sharing of everyones views made the experience even deeper.
As the course progressed, it came clear to many of us, that the 8 weeks of work will mostly be based on the last 3 weeks, with thanksgiving and some out-of-topic conversation pushing the calendar schedule forward. One of the main lessons in I learned in the first few weeks, was the identification of rhetorical appeals, pathos, ethos, and logos. Even though I thought they were more a part of a psychology class, than an English class, the use of rhetorical appeals made me think of their use in my own papers, or the lack of it at the moment.
Things I certainly will remember about this class are most definitely the never-ending afterhours, writing papers the night before the due date. Luckily I had for the first time learned to do "shitty" first drafts, and always got my ideas somewhat organized beforehand, for the peer review. I'm guessing this was normal and it would have been a totally different case in the 16-week course. I always had plans to go to the writing centre, but I was rather working on the next paper and reviewing my papers on my classmates through e-mail instead. When it comes to E-mail, I was astonished by the fact, how well the assignment and notification processes always worked nicely electrically via E-mail.
This class has given me some valuable knowledge on how to write academically, think critically, and speak sagely. I have never had problems speaking in front of a group of people, so it was fun to hear others present, as it was fun to present my own research presentation if front of my new friends. It felt like the couple weeks of research was just pouring out of my mouth. Now, as the course is over and it is time to move to the next thing in life, I can only hope it would be somewhat as educating and fun as this course has been.