Day is done, gone the sun...

Right, first day of the semester finished. It was fun, if somewhat overwhelming; five straight classes didn't leave a whole lot of time to digest information. Still, everything went smoothly.

Human Geography was first. The teacher was very upset with people who mispronounced their French surnames. ("No, are you sure that's the way you say it? I'm pretty sure that's wrong...") As he went through the roster, he asked everyone where they were from (I said San Jose, just to make things easier on everyone) and put markers up on a google map he had pulled up on the screen. One of the girls was from Hemet; when asked "What you got down there in Hemet?" she immediately, unhesitatingly replied, "Old people. Lots of old people." After everyone had a little marker for there point of origin up on the map, he gave us our first hw assignment (answer some questions from GG&S and some about ourselves) and sent us on our merry way. Very friendly bloke. Kinda stoned-seeming. Never mind.

Next was macro (conveniently, just down the hall). He went over the syllabus, explained to us that textbooks are very expensive (thanks dude), and that we could actually buy used off the internet either of the two previous editions of the text instead of the $143 new one from the student bookstore, since apparently all they'd changed was the cover and the order of two of the chapters. To which I said, "Okay!" and bought off amazon for 20 bucks once I got home. I still have the new one from the bookstore, but as soon as the old one arrives in the post, I'll just return it for the full refund.

Prof then carried on to explain why the economy had tanked. That was fun. He drew really good line graphs up on the board. I think that math profs could take lessons in accurate-graph-drawing-theory-and-practice from this guy. Crowded classroom, but that'll work it self out in the next couple of weeks.

Then there was back-to-back math classes. Things had been changed since I'd last printed out my schedule, so instead of changing rooms, I got to stay in the same room with the same prof for DFQs and algebra. Prof seems like a nice guy. Quite funny. Accent, though very notably Russian, is comprehensible. No homework collected for either class, though it will be assigned; in fact, he handed out a algebra/trig review sheet so that we could all dredge ln and exponent rules out of the far corners of our brains. All of his tests (though not his quizzes) are entirely open book/notes/calculator. Which worries me a little, about how hard the problems will be, but I think (hope) it's more set up that way so as to not stress memorization, which was a problem I had in calc (stupid formulas for stupid shell/washer/disk methods...).

The DFQs class was totally full (about 40 people), with 2 people waiting to get in. However, later talking to a friend of mine in a different prof's section of DFQs, I learned that there are twenty-two people on the waiting list for that section. Dunno why. Pretty nuts, though.

Algebra is a smaller class, mainly because it's not required by as many (if any at all, I'm a little confused on this point) of the engineering majors; I think there are about 26-28 people in there. The male to female ratio in there is a lot more skewed than in DFQs too, at about 4/1 (this is not, it should be noted at least, as bad as physics last semester). There was no homework at all assigned for this class, mainly because very few people have the book yet; apparently the bookstore only ordered 25 copies for two sections of at least 25 each. So yeah, I'm glad I bought mine online, and even more glad that it came today. I was very excited. It's a very pretty book. Especially when I got it for $50 dollars instead of $114. *Teddy grins*

Last up was micro. Another full classroom, another syllabus. He spent most of the time talking about how useful the class/economics in general would be. As Dad pointed out later, we were already in the class; he didn't really need to keep trying to sell us on it. Ah well; he at least had a really nice calendar in the syllabus, with all of readings and tests/quizzes lined up. I approve.

A free hour followed micro, during which I started copying all the important dates into my planner, and then dance. Or really, the first-day-calling-of-the-roll, and then she let us go with instructions to read the syllabus online. So, that was that. I tihnk it'll be a good time.

But now, bed for me. First (only!) class tomorrow is History of American Music at 9:30, but I'm headed to the library afterwards to get the DFQ and geography homework done. Mmm, library...

It's the (hopefully not) final countdown...

And...we're back. Finals did end, Christmas break was had and enjoyed by all, and now it's just about back to the old grind. But with all new classes for our (whereby I mean my) tagging pleasure!

Right. So. Two more days. I'm really hoping my linear algebra book comes today, though at this point, it's not looking good. Dang it. That's the only one I ordered online (saving 60 dollars!) and it would be depressing to have to start out the semester a book short. Worse case scenario, I go buy a copy from the bookstore, and then return it when mine comes. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Fortunately, I know people in the class who'll (probably) be willing to share until mine arrives, for homework purposes.

In addition to linear algebra, I'm also taking Elementary Differential Equations (shortened to Mom's favorite acronym, DFQs, pronounced diffy-cues), History of American Music, Human Geography (for which we're reading the book Guns, Germs, and Steel), intro microeconomics, intro macroeconomics, and aerobic dance. Six classes (plus dance, which doesn't really count), 20 units, and...no more GE! After this semester, I mean. Except my required upper division theme, but that's only three classes, and I think I can meld most of it into requirements for either the math or econ major.

Hey, you like the new colourscheme? I decided the pink was getting just a bit...pink. I quite like this blue, and the new header is cool.

In other news. Spencer's computer decided to stop making sounds for him this afternoon. Headphones still work, so he's determined it's the speakers that are built into the monitor. As such, he's wandered off to K Mart to buy some external (and hopefully cheap) speakers. I offered to unhook my speaker to let him test his hypothesis, but he declined. Ah well: his time and money, I suppose.

Ack, and now Mom's distracted me into playing on myreads. Dang it. Well, that's all from me, then.