idiots.

I need to get this off my chest...Let me just say, I am studying abroad with approximately 500 complete and total idiots. Why my words of hostility? Let me explain. About two weeks ago we had a project/presentation due for Psych. It involved you and your group members writing things called "Critical Incidents", assembling them all into a catalog, and presenting them to the class. Not a huge deal. Most groups had 6 people in there group which worked out nicely because you needed 6 critical incidents complete. My group had 5 members so I offered to be the person in the group to do two. They were due/we had to present them on February 19th. My group didn't really know how to format their critical incidents, not to mention our teacher is a tough grader, so I decided to get my critical incidents done in the beginning of February to have my teacher look over them. I figured if I had them done early she'd look them over, I could make any changes she suggested, and then send it as a rough guide for the rest of my group members. So about 3 weeks before the due date, I wrote both of my critical incidents. It probably took about an hour max. Really easy assignment. A few days later, I sent them to our teacher to have her look over them, she gave me a feedback, and I sent them to the rest of my group members. I made the catalog when all of my group members e-mailed me their critical incidents and then I made a powerpoint for our presentation. We presented everything the next day and I was pretty excited because I thought it went really well. I felt like she liked it. Wooo! Done with this project...no more stress. Or so I thought...

There are 3 different sessions of this Psych class I'm taking. Mine is on T/TH's and the other two are on M/W's. ALL of them are taught by the same teacher. Carly, who is in a different section of the class, had her critical incidents presentation the Monday after my Thursday presentation. CEA is really strict about having phones go off in class, so mine is almost always off. I was walking to my Macro class, during the time of Carly's Psych class, and decided to turn on my phone quick to see if I had any missed calls or texts. As I'm walking into my Macro class, I see I had gotten a text from Carly that said, "OMG Hannah. Someone copied and is presenting your critical incident word for word." AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I proceeded to pretty much have a panic attack. That Macro class was the longest hour and a half of my life. All I could think about is how strict this teacher is and how she can't stand the majority of the CEA students. It would make her DAY to fail someone for plagiarism. After class, I sprinted back to my room to talk to Carly. A girl had my same critical incident, word for word, with only the name of the character and the nummerical order of my answers changed. SERIOUSLY?! I'd like to know this girl's train of thought. I assume it's something along the lines of..."Wow, I put this project off til the last second. What am I going to do? Ahhh yes, let's copy a fellow Psych student's project. Even though I know we will both be handing it in to the same teacher." In the words of SNL....I mean, REALLY?!?!?!?!

You have to be a complete moron to think you are going to get away with that. How do I think this happened? I have my theories. I had my critical incidents done well before the due date and mailed them to my other group members. I know that the girl who copied me lives with one of my group members. This means that the copier had access to my example I sent my group members (the same exact one that just so happened to be copied). So two possible things happened. My group member knowingly gave her friend the critical incident to copy. The girl procrastinated...maybe it was a help-a-sister-out-type-deal. However, that doesn't seem all that logical to me. Why would my group member help her friend plagiarize with something from her own group? If she was caught, not only would this girl be in trouble, that means our group would be penalized too. It is far easier to track down who helped this girl plagiarize if the work comes from the "helper's" own group. Giving her other material, from say the internet, would have had my group member likely in the clear. You can't really trace it back to anyone specific, so just the plagiarizer would be in trouble. So why someone would help someone plagiarize with there own material, is beyond me. Second scenario I've come up with, the one I like to believe is true, is that my group member gave her friend my critical incident for the same reason I sent it to my group; to have an example to work off of. Then I think the girl must have gotten lazy and went behind my group members back and just copied the whole thing, with some minor changes of course. Either way...I'm not a happy camper.

I don't really need this added stress in my life right now. The teacher did notice the plagiarism, as well as others cases in the other classes. She right off the bat knew that I wasn't involved because of how early I had mine done. So thankfully, shes on my side. I also have old emails, Word document dates saved, and drafts that I can use as evidence if it comes to that. Hopefully this girl just fesses up, because if not I'll probably get dragged into the Dean's Office to defend myself. Which I have no problem doing, but I really have better ways to spend my time than sitting and figuring this all out with the dean, my teacher, and this girl. If it comes to that, I already know what I will be saying. I'll start by asking her what my name is. I have no idea who this girl is, I have never seen her in my life, bottomline, we don't know eachother. She probably won't know my name. Why exactly would I help someone I don't even know, someone who doesn't even know my name, plagiarize? I also have to prepare for the possibility that she has seen my name on Facebook. That works just fine as well. I'll still ask her my name...you can bet money she won't pronounce it right. Again, you think if I helped someone plagiarize they would at least know how to say my name. I think that right there might put her in a little hole. Hopefully, if she hasn't already, she'll just fess up and get this over with.

Thankfully, I have other things up my sleeve to defend myself with if the simple doesn't work. I also have the teacher in my corner which helps ALOT. I just hope this ordeal doesn't affect my grade at all. It's been about a week and a half since this all transpired and we get back our grades for it tomorrow. So I guess we'll be seeing how things work out. Worst comes to worst, I have to go defend myself at the Dean's. I'm confident I'll be fine. Until this is all behind me, I am stressed out like nobody's business. Oh well.

In other academic news...I got a 96 on my first Spanish Test (pure luck...I really don't know what I'm doing), a B+ on my Sport and Culture Mid-Term (I plan on trying to argue up to an A- because I don't think I should have been docked on one of my short answers), and I took my Macro mid-term today. Let's just say, no exaggerations, I probably did something that rhymes with SCHMAILED :)

Other than the huge test I have to study for tomorrow, the 1,9635 pages of reading I have to do, and the fact I think I'm getting a sinus infection, I'm doing real well!!! I'll be sureeeeee to let everyone know how this all ends up. Love and miss you all! <3