It’s good to be back. Really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mean, the parking ticket really isn’t all that great. But it was just a warning. So I suppose that’s good. Turns out that when I purchased my Lot 1 permit it had asked me for up to two vehicles to use with it. So I put both in. And apparently I didn’t indicate that of the two vehicles I submitted I wanted my parking permit to cover both.<\/em> Such savagery…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyhow — went to DOTS (Department of Transportation Services) — they took care of it. Both cars are now on the parking pass. Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hardly could sleep last night! Woke up, left the house a little later than I wanted to (6:40 instead of 6:30) but got to College Park and Lot 1 by 7:30 (for my 8:00 class). A whole lot of empty spaces that early in the morning, so I think I’ll be fine. Walked to my first lecture in a building called “Edward St. John.” It’s a teaching center with lots of different learning environments in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our lecture hall for PSYC (research methods) is set up with about 20 round tables which seat six apiece. projection screens were all over the front wall, and the back was just glass — very fishbowl-ish. As I came in the teaching assistants were rushing about, putting down name cards for us to find — as well as table numbers in what seemed like a random order. It was somewhat similar to getting to a bar mitzvah party where you don’t know anyone and need to figure out what table you’re at, who will be at it, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The professor seems nice. Asked us to download Kahoot! — which I’m familiar with because I have a high schooler living with me. We went over the syllabus and then talked about random sampling and the best ways to learn in small groups. We moved around to different tables in order to demonstrate how best to randomly select group members. Eventually we ended up at a table with five others who we will be sitting with for at least the first part of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 9:30 I went downstairs to my Biology lecture. This is a more traditional lecture hall — but with long desks and comfortable swivel chairs attached. (FAR more comfortable than the big lectures from my first time around!) The teacher is about 20 years older than I am and has a very Dad sense of humor. He’s been teaching for 23 years and would try to insert a bit of the hip, woke language the children are using nowadays. It’s good to be back. Really. I mean, the parking ticket really isn’t all that great. But it was just a warning. So I suppose that’s good. Turns out that when I purchased my Lot 1 permit it had asked me for up to two vehicles to use with it. So I put both in. And apparently I didn’t indicate that of the two vehicles I submitted I wanted my parking permit to cover both. Such savagery… Anyhow — went to DOTS (Department of Transportation Services) — they took care of it. Both cars are now on the parking pass. Good. Hardly could sleep last night! Woke up, left the house a little later than I wanted to (6:40 instead of 6:30) but got to College Park and Lot 1 by 7:30 (for my 8:00 class). A whole lot of empty spaces that early in the morning, so I think I’ll be fine. Walked to my first lecture in a building called “Edward St. John.” It’s a teaching center with lots of different learning environments in it. Our lecture hall for PSYC (research methods) is set up with about 20 round tables which seat six apiece. projection screens were all over the front wall, and the back was just glass — very fishbowl-ish. As I came in the teaching assistants were rushing about, putting down name cards for us to find — as well as table numbers in what seemed like a random order. It was somewhat similar to getting to a bar mitzvah party where you don’t know anyone and need to figure out what table you’re at, who will be at it, etc. The professor seems nice. Asked us to download Kahoot! — which I’m familiar with because I have a high schooler living with me. We went over the syllabus and then talked about random sampling and the best ways to learn in small groups. We moved around to different tables in order to demonstrate how best to randomly select group members. Eventually we ended up at a table with five others who we will be sitting with for at least the first part of the semester. At 9:30 I went downstairs to my Biology lecture. This is a more traditional lecture hall — but with long desks and comfortable swivel chairs attached. (FAR more comfortable than the big lectures from my first time around!) The teacher is about 20 years older than I am and has a very Dad sense of humor. He’s been teaching for 23 years and would try to insert a bit of the hip, woke language the children are using nowadays. “I never known if you guys are punking me or not!” Concerning burnout and someone giving up and likely drowning their sorrows by getting shitface drunk: “They’ll probably just decide to, um… go someplace to get snacks.” (?) And then a dig at his own age! “Last time I took a chemistry course was 1976. It was [skip a beat] a few years ago…” People lightly chuckled. Last time I took a chemistry course was 1991. Talked to him afterwards. He seems very nice. He wants everyone to succeed, and he’s given students to tools to do so. It likely would not work for me the first time around… I got a lab manual (that’s for 6:00 this evening!) at the bookstore. Looks relatively similar to how I remember it. And now? I’m in the STEM library (Math Building) with a whole bunch of others studying quietly. For the first hour or so I spent time lounging at the student union building, making a few phone calls and answering emails. Not having a social life on campus makes me far, far more productive. Up next: my Campaign Ethics seminar from 3:30 to 5! Then another hour of nothing! And then? My Bio lab. If that goes all the way to the end time of 8:50, I can be in my car by 9:05 and (hopefully) home by 9:40 or so. We’ll see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schuschein.com\/mike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
“I never known if you guys are punking me or not!”<\/em>
Concerning burnout and someone giving up and likely drowning their sorrows by getting shitface drunk: “They’ll probably just decide to, um… go someplace to get snacks.” <\/em>(?)
And then a dig at his own age! “Last time I took a chemistry course was 1976. It was <\/em>[skip a beat] a few years ago…” <\/em>People lightly chuckled.
Last time I took a chemistry course was 1991.
Talked to him afterwards. He seems very nice. He wants everyone to succeed, and he’s given students to tools to do so. It likely would not work for me the first time around…
I got a lab manual (that’s for 6:00 this evening!) at the bookstore. Looks relatively similar to how I remember it.
And now? I’m in the STEM library (Math Building) with a whole bunch of others studying quietly. For the first hour or so I spent time lounging at the student union building, making a few phone calls and answering emails.
Not having a social life on campus makes me far, far more productive.
Up next: my Campaign Ethics seminar from 3:30 to 5! Then another hour of nothing! And then? My Bio lab. If that goes all the way to the end time of 8:50, I can be in my car by 9:05 and (hopefully) home by 9:40 or so. We’ll see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"