I've been at university for a week now, and my experiences have been varied. Going into this I thought I would love my classes and not really get along with my suite-mates. I thought my classes would be fun and I would learn new things and my suite-mates would be partiers that stayed up late and never cleaned. I was wrong. My suite-mates are great! Although sometimes they don't recycle things properly (and they habitually shop at walmart), they keep things tidy and don't make too much noise. Sometimes they even make me feel like a slacker when they end up studying and taking notes all day while I sit in my room and watch youtube! The only real down-side (because I have to find faults with everything) is that they constantly make immature and inappropriate jokes. This is mainly because they are young and immature but for the most part they are awesome and definitely not what I expected.
My classes are also not what I expected. I'm taking two 100-level courses: chem, calculus, and three 200-level courses: genetics, ecology and plant biology. Since I am a transfer student I have to go back and take some of these "easier" courses purely because either my previous school didn't require them for my program or because the credits don't transfer over. For example, chem was not required for my previous program so I have to take it now but I have taken a plant id course but for some reason those credits are not transferrable to a plant biology course ... So some of it is a little frustrating as I'll be re-learning things I have already learned before. It is also frustrating because they're not hands-on courses and I won't be outside that often, which is ultimately where I want to be.
Ok, so more specifics about the first week of school. I moved into my dorm on Sunday evening. My parents helped out and I met my suite-mate etc., etc. My room is miniature, and there's not even enough room to use the floorspace for push-ups.
The closet is tiny and I can barely fit all of my clothes in it. What you can't see from this photo is the three drawers below the bed (the only storage other than the closet that is provided). Included in the closet space is a shelf above, which I use to store extra sheets, fishing gear, hats and a couple other things.
Because I have so little storage space, I had to resort to storing things that I don't use too often, like extra towels etc., in a storage box I keep next to my desk, which also doubles as my shoe rack :) The desk is actually a good size and the shelving above it give me lots of space for my books and other odds-and-ends. The only problem in this corner of the room is that there is not enough space to pull my chair out straight as it will hit the bed frame. Because of this I have to sit at a slight angle. The desk is definitely the best feature of this room.
I am also disappointed with the view I have out my window.
My window faces east so although I get a beautiful sunrise each morning I have to look straight at the other dorm residence building and the parking lot in between. There is constant traffic of pizza delivery cars and the other building's fire alarm goes off constantly. I guess the main reason I'm discontent is because the west rooms get a beautiful view of the forest just behind the campus. I would much rather stare at trees all day than people, my suite-mates disagree.
I will be further decorating my walls with posters when I find time to buy sticky-tack. It looks a little sad and barren right now I know.
Another thing you part in during the first week of school is orientation. I, being an extremely anti-social person, dreaded this. I do not like meeting people, playing groups games like duck-duck-goose, and being filled with this so-called "team spirit". What I consider to be a good time is to go for a lonesome walk in the woods, maybe find a place to sit and read a book. Sadly orientation was pretty much what I expected. BUT, it did end (after two days of pre-orientation and regular orientation) and I made it to wednesday.
On wednesday I went to my classes and they basically just handed out the syllabus and that was it. My parents left early wednesday and I was really sad to see them go but I've been calling them regularly because I'm a dependent and obviously can't live without them. Thursday I didn't have class because there were not labs during the first week. Friday I went to class again. Saturday I walked around in the forest, checked out a nearby lake, made some food, etc. Sunday I went to church, saw the local orchestra play in the park, went for another walk in the woods, saw some moose, went home, blah, blah, blah.
So that was my first week. I can't wait for things to slow down a bit and get into a regular routine, but for now I'm just going to have to deal with the stress :)
peace
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