Day 7

Today was the first day of my classes for the new year. I can say wholeheartedly that I am glad I bought all of my books ahead of time and actually did the readings for once, too. Considering that I was called on first thing and all. The professor for my Tuesday class, Communication Skills, apparently has a habit of putting the names of the entire class down on note cards. Rather than calling on raised hands when he asks questions, though, he will pull a card at random from the deck and call on that individual.

Participation is 25% of our overall grade. If you don't have an answer when he calls on you, half of your participation points are immediately forfeited. This means that if you don't know an answer, the highest grade you can get even with a perfect score is a B. If you don't know the answer when he calls on you the second time during the term then the highest score you can get is a C. In this program, more than one C in a year will get you kicked out. This means reading ahead of time is an absolute necessity and I am elated that for once I did it and my preparation paid off.

Class wasn't the entirety of my day, though. As a matter of fact, class didn't start until 5:30 at night. I had my language class at 10 in the morning and then was left to my own devices for the rest of the afternoon. I had bought a membership to the rock gym already, but wasn't quite ready to start going because I wanted to learn my schedule first. The gym is open from 10-12 in the morning and 4-8 at night. Unfortunately, I have class from 10-11:30 in the morning and 5:30-10 at night. I won't have a problem working out from 4-4:45, but I want to attend at least one session of each class first to make sure I will actually get a dinner break during our class meeting. It kills me to work out and then sit for almost 5 hours with no food. Literally.

So during the afternoon hours, I pulled up some carpet in a corner of the library and sat down to type. I continued to work on my time-magic fantasy story, but took a different direction with it. I had a rather disturbing dream last night that seemed to fit right in with that universe and needed to get it out of my head and onto paper. I'm a little wary to put the specifics here, but I'll at least give you a brief synopsis: Main character is driving to visit a friend. When he reaches his destination he realizes everything has changed - buildings, cars, landmarks, people, everything. After a few minutes he realizes that he, too, has changed into a completely different person with a different life, career, family, social circle, everything. The story follows his revelation about what has happened and his struggle to hold on as his new life begins to cloud memories of his old one and take over.

There, was that cryptic enough?

It was fun to sit in the library, but not nearly as serene as it had been the past few weeks. The regular course schedule was now back in line with my own and there were hordes of students on campus. The library was not its usual quiet and peaceful place but what a hubbub of activity with people meeting up, checking out books, returning books that had been borrowed over the break, and studying (yes, there were people studying on the first day of class!).

My little corner in the back was quiet enough, though, and I got a lot of work done before I made my way over to Subway for dinner. I'm trying to eat healthier as one of my new year's resolutions and Subway is a better option than McDonald's for a quick and easy bite before class. Then I found my classroom and took my usual seat in the second row towards the center. As I mentioned before, I was called on. It was early in the lecture, too, and I almost stumbled with the answer. The question had something to do with the percentages of people who are better visual versus auditory learners, but I can't remember for sure. My nervousness helped me find the answer in the cob-webbed catacombs of my brain and spit it out before I lost points.

Hopefully I'll be better prepared for Thursday's class. I only have language tomorrow.

Day 7 of 100 - Summary: Reading ahead almost always pays off.