First Year Blog

Today I woke up at the crack o’ dawn (a.k.a 6:40 a.m., which is earlier than I’ve woken up in a very long time) to enroll in classes for next semester. I woke up super early, and the first thought that came into my mind was that I could go shower…but as I was putting on my flip flops, Kristy, my roommate, said sleepily from her bed, “ten minutes…” which brought me back to why I had woken up obscenely early to begin with.  Enrollment started at 7:00 A.M. for all freshmen, so I pretty much sat for ten minutes staring at my computer screen with all my first choice classes checked off on my Backpack and hoping that my roommate would get up and start her computer soon.

It was pretty intense. As soon as my computer clock changed from 6:59 to 7:00, I clicked on ‘enroll’ and waited for the magic to happen. Instead, I got an error screen saying that that I did not have an enrollment appointment. In a little panic, I went back and clicked ‘enroll’ again and it worked. Score! I got all my first choice classes. I’m now in Intro to Bio 2, Organic Chemistry 1, CRAW poetry, and my Montserrat, which has been upgraded from Truth and Realism to Truth and Abstraction. I went back a minute later to check on how many open spots were left in the classes I had picked, and was surprised to see that my CRAW was already full. Multivariable calculus, on the other hand, is still open…so I might need to have someone keep an eye on me, because I’m still thinking about wavering back to the dark side…

In further news, tonight Kimball is serving Thanksgiving food, and the line is supposed to be MASSIVE. However, Thursday nights are nights that I go to eat straight out of chem lab, so hopefully my early timing will counteract any chances of a long line. But anyways, yay, Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

p.s. - I shall now abuse my usage of this blog to give a little shout out to Taylor and Debbie. Happy birthday guys!

Office hours are a blessing that every student should take advantage of. Today, during office hours, my bio lab professor gave me two of the most useful things I could ask for. Those things being:
a) a cup of dirt, and b) some solid advice.

And yes, the cup of dirt was very important.

See, I have a cactus in my room that I got from the Natural Highs Fair (sponsored by the SRCs) way back in the beginning of semester. Since then, my dear cactus (who I have lovingly named Cactus) has flourished under my care. That is, until yesterday, when I was reaching for some cookies and the package happened to knock poor Cactus onto my bed. I put Cactus onto some intensive care, but alas, I would be unable to do a thing if it weren’t for Professor Lemay letting me have a cup full of dirt to take back to my room.

Never fear, Cactus should be right as rain in no time.

Beyond that, Professor Lemay offered me some sound advice. I had originally gone to see him with a question about our lab reports, which soon evolved into a little talk about my lack of organization. In case it hasn’t been made clear, I am really, really disorganized. Which is bad, especially with schoolwork. I homework hop. I start off working on one assignment before changing my mind and going to something else, and something else…

All in all, things don’t always get done when I do that. Professor Lemay offered me some helpful tips, such as working in study groups and setting specific times to do certain assignments. It’s all things I’ve heard before, but perhaps this time it’ll finally sink in.

Oh well. Moral of the entry: here on the Hill, dirt is gold…and sometimes professors can say smart things…

In the time I have had a lull in blog posts, we’ve elected a
new president, celebrated Halloween, and I have survived both my advising
appointments with all appendages still attached.

First thing I’m going to ramble about is the election. On
Tuesday night the college republicans and democrats hosted a party at
Crossroads to watch the election on a projector. Me and my friend Gordon went
down there for two minutes, namely so I could get fries. Anyways, that place
was packed. It was so loud, and honestly, I don’t think anyone was listening to
the poor performer playing his guitar next to the projector screen. After
getting my fries (I think I’m getting the freshman fifteen…but oh well), the
two of us went down to Mulledy to watch the election with a mutual friend. Fun
fact, but Mulledy is the largest dorm on campus. So obviously, when it turned
out that Obama won the election (yay!), the hallway got pretty loud. It was
exciting. Whoo hoo!

And here’s my ramble about advising appointments. The first
one wasn’t actually with my advisor, but with my

Montserrat

professor. She wanted to meet with everyone in the class individually. As it
turns out, I scheduled my appointment for a Thursday, which was not a very good
idea at all, considering that Thursday is my errand day. I was in the middle of
doing laundry, when it suddenly occurred to me that I had to meet Professor
Ziegler in a few minutes. Panicked, I left the laundry room and began running
to Fenwick. I was still a little late, but oh well. She mentioned that I should
have brought a pen and paper to take notes, but I remembered most of what she
said anyways. From what I got out of it, she said that the class as a whole
should try and see what she’s thinking about teaching us, that we should all be
looking for internal growth, and that while I’m smart, I need to stop acting
like I don’t know what I’m doing. It was fair advice, and I’m glad I went.

My advising appointment with my advisor went in a similar
fashion. I didn’t really panic this time though. Professor Levandosky
helped me count out the core requirements and figured out if I’d be able to
have the time to take the elective that I want next semester. See, I’m starting
to doubt my sanity right about now, considering that with my one free spot not
taken up by requirements for my major, I want to take multivariable calculus. I
used to tell my high school calculus teacher that I hated calculus everyday.
And now…when I don’t really need it at all, I want to keep taking it. Do you
understand why? No? Good, because I have no idea why either.

Halloween was nice, and I saw some pretty creative costumes
walking around. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I couldn’t seem to find
my camera anywhere. Oh well, I’ll run into it eventually.

Happy November, and good luck to you guys applying early!