Yeah, I know what you mean. I also hate writing papers, but in the same way that I hate a lot of chores: it's boring, it takes forever, it's really difficult to stop procrastinating, I'll just have to do it again in a little while, etc. On the other hand, years of writing fanfiction (and even LJ posts) means that once I have finally forced myself to sit down and do it, it's not all that hard. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I do seem to struggle a lot less with things like grammar, vocabulary, and basic fluidity of writing than the people around me. I really do think it's just a matter of how much practice actually writing a person has. Or so I tell myself to justify time spent on LJ.

I was told several times as an undergrad that the purpose of so many oral presentations was to get people over their fear of public speaking. I don't know if that's actually true, though, or if it's a matter of being quicker to grade than papers and/or providing the professor a break from lecturing. Or who knows, maybe it is a reluctance to give low grades.

Ha, well, if you're in NYC in July or August, feel free to come to a class. But it probably won't be as much fun as you expect; the course has to be such a broad overview there probably won't be much new information for you.