Aaargh!!! Group Work!!!!!!!!!! (insert more exclamation marks here)

" Title
The origin and early development of the intrinsic innervation in the foetal mouse lung / by Cecilia Jenny Tollet."
??? What on Earth is that article doing in the MusicAustralia online site???

(I am getting sidetracked before I've started. Possibly not a good sign.)

I have just started what should be my final semester of uni. (The final semester of my degree, anyway, I plan on doing postgraduate studies in the future.)

" Title
Quantum chaos : spectral analysis of floquet operators / James Matthew McCaw."

Once again: it sounds fascinating, but what in God's name does it have to do with music?

(Back on track.)

On Sunday night, I was reading through the course outlines to see what sort of an assessment load I would be faced with. It is a heavy workload (as expected: I have taken on the maximum permitted credit load)and to make things A LOT more difficult, three out of five of the subjects will involve group work. If I have interpreted the course outlines correctly, one subject's assessment will be based almost entirely on work done in small groups.
This is a problem.

1. I don't know how to get into groups. I don't know how to approach people to ask if I can be in their group, and I don't know how to steer a conversation towards finding out if anyone is interested in working on the same topics as I am.

2. Well, why can't I just ask my friends in the class?
Because in most of my classes, I don't HAVE any friends. I could ask for the lecturers' help, but it feels rather stupid to say what amounts to
"I am 23 years old, supposedly highly intelligent, well-educated, and, yes, I was just having a good conversation with you 5 minutes ago, but I'm not sure of how to make and keep friends."

3. Ok, so I have managed to join a group. Because of face processing troubles, it takes me all semester to be able to recognise members of my group. And that is only when they are in the class; it takes even longer to be able to recognise people outside of their normal context.

4. In groups, you are required to participate. This brings up a couple of problems. The first is of not knowing how to break into a conversation. Bev at Asperger Square 8 made a good post about this issue I can, if I concentrate, read the body language that non-autistics use to keep a group conversation flowing. I have never been able to successfully utilise this body language to help me participate.
Secondly, it takes time for me to be able to form words and to get them coming out of my mouth in the right order. By the time I have a sentence formed and guaranteed to sound coherent, the conversation has moved on.

My initial reaction to these difficulties was to beat my head against the desk (just once, and there were no iron bars in sight...) and contemplate who I should kill first.

My second reaction was more rational, as my second reactions to stressors tend to be. I decided to find solutions to these problems.

1 and 2. Just SPEAK to the lecturer if you are having problems. Most of them don't bite. STOP anticipating the worst.

3. Explain this difficulty to someone in the group, and ask if they would get me to come over to the group in subsequent classes if I do not automatically join them. Most people at the Conservatorium are very accomodating and would gladly do this.

4. Get the email addresses of the group members. Explain the difficulties I have, and ask if I can email my ideas to someone.

I will post an update on how the group work goes when I have tested my ideas.