Poetry of German Lieder

I think that I must be a masochist. There is one class that I hadn't mentioned yet, called "The Poetry of German Lieder," which I was at one time very excited about. But the teacher is an impossibly mean individual. I was very intimidated by him (along with everyone else in the class), but I tried to participate nonetheless. However, he shot down everything that I said, and I really had a hard time comprehending how he wanted us to go about reading and understanding the text.

So what did I do? I set up an individual time to work thorough one of my poems with him - this was at 7:30 yesterday morning, during which time he made me cry. I am embarrassed to admit it, but that is how his teaching method is.

Well, today not even 1/4 of the class came back to the class. But I was there. And if I didn't feel stupid enough already about my individual lesson with him, he proceeded to give examples of things that I did wrong. He didn't mention names, but I was there, and he knew that I had a rough time of it anyways. Why did he want to criticize me again, when I at least had the initiative to try in the first place?

I don't know why I am determined to put myself through that kind of abuse and keep going to the class. But I will, no matter how much I hate it. And I really hate that class.

On another topic, the "ball" last night was not at all what I imagined. There was no dancing, just a fancy social gathering with food and wine. And there were no seats, so all the girls were standing in heels for 2 hours. And in the heat and humidity. Well, at least we were fed.