Tuesday, January 3, 2012

First Day of Classes (Winter 2012 Edition)

As a student in a school that uses the quarter system, today was my first day of Winter Quarter. It did not start well, but then it got better.

I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night. Eventually though I awoke and discovered it was past 9 AM, the time when my alarm clock was supposed to go off. I was understandably concerned and asked my roommate if it had gone off. She informed me that it had not because I had forgotten to plug my iPod into it. Then I woke up for real and discovered that it was around 8:45 AM, my roommate was asleep and I had been dreaming. I went into the dozing state. After a little while I looked at my watch and discovered it was 9:05. My alarm really hadn't gone off. Then I remembered that I had changed my alarm from 9 to 9:15. I lay in bed, somewhat nervous, somewhat sleepy until my alarm went off at the correct time.

I then got up and went about my morning routine before heading to class. I got there just as the previous class was exiting, that is to say, 10 minutes early. Strangely, there were only about 6 of us in the room. Someone pulled out her phone and checked online. Apparently, the room had been changed. It was now 1 minute until class. Luckily, I got there on time and found a seat quickly.

This is where my day started to improve. I had not bought any textbooks yet, except for my chemistry book as it was also the book used last quarter in chemistry. I had looked online at some of my books and was prepared to buy them once the teacher confirmed that they were the right books. Sure enough my math teacher had a slide featuring the math book. He then went on to tell us that he didn't like it and that we really wouldn't need it, so there was no need to buy it.

My next class I went to I learned that I would need to buy it, and since this was the first year they were using a school specific version of the text, I would have to buy it new from the school bookstore. However, my teacher made it clear very quickly why he's a sought after professor so at least there's that.

Next class was chem where I already had the book. The teacher was also very good and made a flying spaghetti monster reference, so yay.

Finally I had my last class. The bookstore website had listed 1 book for the class. During his introductory lecture to us, my professor told us we'd need three books. Then he let us know that they were available for free online and that he would have links to the relevant material.

Basically I only had to buy one textbook (though I did have to buy it new). So far this year is off to a great start.

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