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Grad Student Blogging
Jan. 8th, 2013 07:50 pmSo, in an effort to keep people (hi Mom and Dad!) informed, I'm going to start trying to blog regularly again. We'll see how long this experiment lasts.
Class today started at 8AM. For those of you new to this whole Kaylin thing, I have strong feelings about 8AM classes, namely: no. I am not one of those morning people. But not much choice in the matter -- I hate the idea of not pursuing this degree more than I hate 8AM classes, and hopefully it'll just be for this one semester? Please?
Anyway, 8AM. I got up at 7 and had just enough time to hose off in the shower, throw on my clothes, and make PB&J on toast (because cereal was weirdly expensive at the local grocery? I still need to find out where the cheaper places are) before I headed out the door at 7:30AM to catch a bus. Turns out, the walk to the bus stop is exactly how long it takes me to eat PB&J on toast. Convenient!
Bus was standing-room only, and that just barely. Not fun, especially when I had a coughing fit. There's nowhere to put your face then! Got off the bus, trudged to class. Everyone else had arrived early today, it being the first day, so they all got seats on the special tiered seats on either side of the room. I sat in one of the desks in the middle, but there were a few other people so it wasn't weird.
My 502 professor, Aaron (we were told we could call our profs by their given names, since we're going to be their colleagues in about two years) grumbled with us about the 8AM-ness. Then he took roll for the only time this semester. He calls my name, I say "here", and he says "oh yeah, everyone should take a few seconds to tell us about who they are and what they're interested in in this field". He turns back to me, and my not-a-morning-person brain blanks completely.
Now, I've noticed something over the years I've been getting professional help to deal with my anxiety: the less anxious I get, the more I become a complete and total smart-ass. So, "take a few seconds to tell us about yourself" got a flat out "no" from sassy-pants not-a-morning-Kaylin. Fortunately, Aaron thought it was funny at let me off with that, though he did tell everyone else they couldn't use that answer since I already had. I introduced myself to him at the break we had an hour later, and I participated enthusiastically throughout the class, so hopefully he doesn't think I'm a jerk.
It was a fun class too; today's subject was information and what, exactly, that word means. We touched on documents too -- did you know that it can be argued that an antelope in a zoo is a document? I can elaborate in the comments if someone wants to hear about it.
Then we had our three hour break between classes, so I capered about getting fees paid and getting rained on. Also, there's a tasty hot food place in the basement of the Student Union Building (AKA the SUB). Om nom nom. Oh, and I went and talked with the people at Student Counseling. They're going to get me a list of people I might be able to see about therapy. The medical coverage I get through the school apparently covers $300 of therapy, yay. Let's see how far I can stretch that. Though it might be worth seeing if I can get by with just dropping by Student Counseling when I get stressed, just as a personal growth thing.
Second class was also fun. I like the teacher, and we're talking about how people interact with libraries in that class (IIRC. It's been a long day). It looks like tons of fun, and I'm excited about the homework assignments. Though the final project is a group one, with presentation on April second and a paper on the eighth. Not a problem normally, except I had to warn my potential partner that I was not going to be around the weekend before said presentation because I am going to NorWesCon. Being duly informed, we continued to talk about Stephanie Brown and Barbara Gordon and be comic-nerdy. Huzzah!
After class, I went to the book store to get a notebook for the readings, but then decided that 1) the bookstore was stupidly expensive, and 2) it could wait until after I set up my Canadian bank account, which I will be doing tomorrow. Yay! And then it rained on me a lot getting to the bus, but I got to sit on that one. And then I got home and changed into comfy pants and spent over an hour trying to shop for a friggin' textbook. Augh. But that's dealt with and tomorrow is another glorious day (that starts at 7AM so I can wash my hair and not feel rushed before an optional 9AM tutorial that I'm going to.)
To homework or not to homework, that IS the question...
Class today started at 8AM. For those of you new to this whole Kaylin thing, I have strong feelings about 8AM classes, namely: no. I am not one of those morning people. But not much choice in the matter -- I hate the idea of not pursuing this degree more than I hate 8AM classes, and hopefully it'll just be for this one semester? Please?
Anyway, 8AM. I got up at 7 and had just enough time to hose off in the shower, throw on my clothes, and make PB&J on toast (because cereal was weirdly expensive at the local grocery? I still need to find out where the cheaper places are) before I headed out the door at 7:30AM to catch a bus. Turns out, the walk to the bus stop is exactly how long it takes me to eat PB&J on toast. Convenient!
Bus was standing-room only, and that just barely. Not fun, especially when I had a coughing fit. There's nowhere to put your face then! Got off the bus, trudged to class. Everyone else had arrived early today, it being the first day, so they all got seats on the special tiered seats on either side of the room. I sat in one of the desks in the middle, but there were a few other people so it wasn't weird.
My 502 professor, Aaron (we were told we could call our profs by their given names, since we're going to be their colleagues in about two years) grumbled with us about the 8AM-ness. Then he took roll for the only time this semester. He calls my name, I say "here", and he says "oh yeah, everyone should take a few seconds to tell us about who they are and what they're interested in in this field". He turns back to me, and my not-a-morning-person brain blanks completely.
Now, I've noticed something over the years I've been getting professional help to deal with my anxiety: the less anxious I get, the more I become a complete and total smart-ass. So, "take a few seconds to tell us about yourself" got a flat out "no" from sassy-pants not-a-morning-Kaylin. Fortunately, Aaron thought it was funny at let me off with that, though he did tell everyone else they couldn't use that answer since I already had. I introduced myself to him at the break we had an hour later, and I participated enthusiastically throughout the class, so hopefully he doesn't think I'm a jerk.
It was a fun class too; today's subject was information and what, exactly, that word means. We touched on documents too -- did you know that it can be argued that an antelope in a zoo is a document? I can elaborate in the comments if someone wants to hear about it.
Then we had our three hour break between classes, so I capered about getting fees paid and getting rained on. Also, there's a tasty hot food place in the basement of the Student Union Building (AKA the SUB). Om nom nom. Oh, and I went and talked with the people at Student Counseling. They're going to get me a list of people I might be able to see about therapy. The medical coverage I get through the school apparently covers $300 of therapy, yay. Let's see how far I can stretch that. Though it might be worth seeing if I can get by with just dropping by Student Counseling when I get stressed, just as a personal growth thing.
Second class was also fun. I like the teacher, and we're talking about how people interact with libraries in that class (IIRC. It's been a long day). It looks like tons of fun, and I'm excited about the homework assignments. Though the final project is a group one, with presentation on April second and a paper on the eighth. Not a problem normally, except I had to warn my potential partner that I was not going to be around the weekend before said presentation because I am going to NorWesCon. Being duly informed, we continued to talk about Stephanie Brown and Barbara Gordon and be comic-nerdy. Huzzah!
After class, I went to the book store to get a notebook for the readings, but then decided that 1) the bookstore was stupidly expensive, and 2) it could wait until after I set up my Canadian bank account, which I will be doing tomorrow. Yay! And then it rained on me a lot getting to the bus, but I got to sit on that one. And then I got home and changed into comfy pants and spent over an hour trying to shop for a friggin' textbook. Augh. But that's dealt with and tomorrow is another glorious day (that starts at 7AM so I can wash my hair and not feel rushed before an optional 9AM tutorial that I'm going to.)
To homework or not to homework, that IS the question...
