My classes
Now that my time as an au pair is coming to an end I think I should tell you guys more about the classes I have taken. Some have been fun, some have not. Either way I hope that this blog post will help those who are looking into signing up for anyone of them! As au pairs we need to earn 6 credits/year or 72 hours and I thought it was easiest to count the hours. I think I remembered everything these are all of the classes I took :)
Class: San Francisco History and Architecture Tour
School: Sojourner Douglass College Weekend Program (right now they don't have classes for au pairs unfortunately)
Date: 21-22 March, 2015
Date: 21-22 March, 2015
Teacher: A San Francisco tour guide showed us around and someone from Cultural Care checked our names off the list at the beginning and at the end of both days.
Cost: Early registration fee was 375 dollars.
Credits: 3 credits / 40 hours
About the class: Before the weekend I had to do homework. I can't say it was very hard but it took a while. This was a walking tour and in total we walked 6 hours per day. That does not include the 1½ hour lunch breaks or traveling back and forth to San Francisco from Mountain View where I live. My feet hurt a lot even though I wore sneakers. But the tour was so interesting that it was so worth it! On our first day we walked around in the city and on our second day we got a tour of neighborhods which meants more giant hills. It was warm and exhausting but the guide told us the most fascinating stories and I loved it. I saw more during this weekend than I would have by going to San Francisco by myself 20 times!!! It doesn't matter if you're not into history and art because this tour has something cool for everyone to enjoy. It really is a bummer that they don't seem to hold any classes this semester!
Class: Belly dancing/beginning
School: Adult and Community Education
Date: August 31 - October 26, 2015
Teacher: Tracy Abbott. Very sweet woman who always smiles and laughs a lot!
Cost: 90 dollars
Credits: 8 hours
About the class: Tracy is a great teacher who makes bellydancing fun. The beginners class is very simple thought so since I am already a dancer I think I would have gotten more out of the Advanced class. This class clashed with another one that I was signed up for so I missed a few lessons. But after the last lesson they had a dance performance but you only had to be a part of it if you wanted to.
About the class: Tracy is a great teacher who makes bellydancing fun. The beginners class is very simple thought so since I am already a dancer I think I would have gotten more out of the Advanced class. This class clashed with another one that I was signed up for so I missed a few lessons. But after the last lesson they had a dance performance but you only had to be a part of it if you wanted to.
Class: Self-defense tips for women going to college
School: Adult and Community Education
Date: April 2015, four meetings
Teacher: Brian Neeley. Amazing guy who has so much knowledge and is great at building up your confidence!
Cost: 55 dollars
Credits: 6 hours and 45 minutes
About the class: Total confidence booster that I recommend. This school has self-defense classes that aren't just for women so go ahead and sign up whoever you are!
Class: (now)Yoga
School: Mountain View Los Altos Adult Education
Date: January 15 - March 19, 2015
Teacher: Leslie Sims. Can't say I loved her. She had good intentions but often acted like she knew things that we didn't and therefore was slightly better than the rest of us. She came off as a bit arrogant.
Cost: 76 dollars + I had to buy a yoga mat
Credits: About 13 hours
About tohe class: A lot of old people are going to this class so the exercies weren't as advanced as I had hoped. It was mostly focused on breahting properly, which is important, but kind of boring to practice over and over again.
Class: Conv. Spanish Lev 1
School: Adult and Community Education
Date: January 20 - March 17
Date: January 20 - March 17
Teacher: Wanda Rothstein. She came off as a bit harsh first and like she didn't care about us students. But the more I got to know her, the more I loved her! She's actually a wonderful person with a great sense of humor. She just needs some time to warm up to new people I think. And she has a terrific way of teaching Spanish that most teachers don't.
Cost: 100 dollars + book + cd:s
Credits: 16 hours
About the class: I really enjoyed this class. You definitely have to practice during the week between classes and do homework. But it's worth it if you really want to learn the language. Plus, you'll always have the book and the tools she gives you in case you want to pick it up again later in life.
About the class: I really enjoyed this class. You definitely have to practice during the week between classes and do homework. But it's worth it if you really want to learn the language. Plus, you'll always have the book and the tools she gives you in case you want to pick it up again later in life.
Class: Yoga
School: Adult and Community Education
Date: September 17 - October 29, 2015
Teacher: Janice Wakimoto. This wonderful lady is so strong in both body and mind. She's such a sweetheart.
Cost: I think it was 80 dollars
Credits: 7 hours
About the class: This class was over far too soon. Every Thursday night was so relaxing and exactly what I needed during my busy life. Janice's classes are very popular and tends to get full during the early registration so you better bew quick!
Class: Chocolate truffle workshop
School: Adult Community Education
Date: December 3, 2015
Teacher: Suzanne Vandyck. A chef/baker with so much experience of all kinds of cooking and baking. She's an excellent teacher!
Cost: 40 dollars.15-20 dollar material fee was payed during the class.
Credits: 3,5 hours
About the class: The best thing about this class was the knowledge I received and that we got to make truffles ourselves, not just watch while she made them. If you're a chocaholic you need to take this class!
Class: Cream puff pastry and fillings
School: Adult Community Education
Date: November 14, 2015
Teacher: Junko (can't find her last name right now). A sweet lady who tries her hardest but she's so nervous that things goes wrong a lot.
Cost: 40 dollars.15-20 dollar material fee was payed during the class.
Credits: 3 hours
About the class: I loved learning how to make these treats because they were delicious and she showed us all different kinds of toppings and fillings. But we just sat there for three hours watching her which got really boring.
Class: Holiday baking
School: Adult Community Education
Date: December 5, 2015
Teacher: Junko (can't find her last name right now). In this class even more things went wrong. She didn't count how many people were in the class until at the end and realized she didn't have even close to enough cookies for everyone to bring home. And then she spent half an hour showing us how to wrap together presents in a nice way but it all kept falling apart and it didn't exactly look special in my eyes.
Cost: 40 dollars. 15-20 dollar material fee was payed during the class.
Credits: 3 hours
About the class: Total waste of my time! Once again we just sat there staring at her running around like a headless chicken. But worst of all was that the cookies tasted horrible. They were hard, dry, boring, tasteless and didn't have more than about 4 ingredients. I have a billion better recipes that I can use. Since she didn't make enough cookies for all of us she sent us home with some things to use when we wrap cookies as presents. What was it? A couple of plastic bags and a Christmas napkin. Yep, that was it. This class was such a waste of time.
Class: Roll up the rug
School: Mountain View Los Altos Adult Education
Date: October 12 - November 30, 2015
Teachers: Ellen Murray and Gene Esswein. Sweet people and very good instructors
Cost: 68 dollars
Credits: 12 hours
About the class: I expected this to be an advanced class so that I would get to dance around fast and and get a real workout. It turned out to be mostly basic steps and quite simple. I ended up enjoying it though! The teachers have been working together for many years and bicker a lot but all in all they're great. Lots of couples go to their classes to practice their wedding dances but it's totally fine to go there by yourself too. We did the waltz, tango, foxtrot and rumba and focused on each dance for two lessons at a time.