So...first day of classes, yay. Rant teims startiiiiiiiiing....now!



The good:

Our new Japanese teacher seems nice. I'm a little upset cause I'd heard such awesome things about Tanaka-sensei, but then she went and retired and I don't get to have her. The new teacher, Suzuki-sensei, is totally new to the bi-co, but like I said, seems nice. A little unaware of how little kanji we know (which means you cannot just type things in kanji without furigana and expect us to know it, really you cant we spent a good portion of class going ”あのう。。。先生。。。かんじは。。。”) but nice.


My bio class looks awesome. First of all, I have a friend in the class, second of all, the teachers are funny and wonderful and know what they're doing and post the note slides online I love it when teachers do that. Plus I took AP bio so it's mostly review.



The bad:

My orgo class is going to be hell. Not because of the material, though its difficult, or even because of the books (170 just for the text book and then there's the lab manual and lab notebook and gloves and auuuuugh) but because of the teacher. He mumbles, stutters, speaks very softly, does not follow any coherent vein when talking, and instead just jumps around the topic skipping little ahead and then way ahead (to the "oh but we'll talk about that much later in the semester) and then kind of back to what we're supposed to be learning, and he doesnt put up notes. No power points, no slides, no worksheets, nothing. He stands there and scribbles a little on the blackboard and talks.

My fourth class, Chinese Calligraphy as an art form, which I thought had not gone to lottery, I found out today in fact is going to lottery and the teacher is doing it in class. Now let me explains something. I am a pre-vet East asian studies major. This means, my schedule is very very carefully organized so that I can a)get all my pre-vet requirements in b)get all my east asian studies requirements in and c) can travel abroad. This semester, in order to do that, I need to take a 200-level east asian studies class. Now, because I am also taking intro to bio and organic chem, I am in class from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM on mondays and 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM on wednesdays because of labs. I cannot take another monday - wednesday class. So, in order to stay on track, I need a 200 level, east asian studies class, that meets on tuesdays or thursdays or both. The chinese calligraphy is, I think, one of two classes that does this.

I need to be in this class. And I may get lotteried out.




The irritating:

So, about how I'm trying to take a gym class, a dance class cause it would be lovely to have some time in my hectic schedule when I don't have to worry about a million and one things and plus I still need to finish my gym credits, so I poked around and found flamanco, which fits in my schedule and sounds like fun. So this morning, at 8:00 Am when registration opens, I turned on my computer and opened up the page for virtual bryn mawr.

and it didn't load.

So I tried again.

And it still didn't load.

I had an 8:30 class, which requires catching an 8:15 bus, so I tried a few more times, and after getting the same notice that the 'connection to the server was interrupted please try again" I decided, screw it, I need to get to class. When I came back not two hours later, when virtual bryn mawr was finally working, the class had already filled up.

I am showing up anyway cause damn it I was on my computer at 8:00 in the morning and the damn site wouldn't let me register.



In other news, I asked the mail room today if they were hiring students and they were ambivalent about me until I said I could work Saturdays. Then he seemed more eager, and told me to come back thursday. So I may (hopefully possibly pleasepleaseplease) have a job - now granted one that would require my working tuesday and thursdays before I go to japanese and possibly every saturday for the rest of the semester, but damn it it is a job and a paying one and I'm sure I could find a sub for the one time when I think I wont be here on a saturday which is katsucon.