The Past Month

Okay, so it's been about a month since I last updated this blog, as a couple people have astutely pointed out to me. I apologize for the lack of updates, I've just been busy trying to get a foothold here, both socially and academically, so blogging has been fairly low on my priorities list.

I'm only taking three classes this semester, for a variety of a reasons. Mostly, I was vying for a Social Psychology course and by the time the professor got back to me on whether I was in it, or not, I wasn't interested in any of the other class that fit into my schedule. It works out fairly well though because it means my workload isn't insanely heavy and I won't spend my first semester here being a giant ball of stress.

Currently, my classes are as follows: Ancient Political Thought, Latin, and intro to programming with Python. The workload has just now started getting heavy enough to really be stressful, but with a bit of effort I ought to be able to keep up. Ancient Political Thought is probably the class I have the hardest time with because it touches on two subject I don't much care for: philosophy and politics. I've determined that the reason I don't like philosophy is that I'm inclined towards philosophical thought myself and find a 50+ page dialog defining justice rather irritating when I've already come up with my own personal definition of justice that suits me fine. I'd rather have a philosophy class that asked me to define justice rather than a politics class that forces me to read the definition someone else came up with 2000+ years ago.

Politics, on the other hand, isn't so annoying in itself as it is when people talk about it. I could go on and on about the things that annoy me about political science and politics in general (without mentioning a single candidate or politician, I might add), but I won't because that's not the point of this blog.

Apart from classes, it's been an interesting month. People here are pretty interesting, though to be honest it's pretty much the same demographic that was present in my high school. I haven't made any really meaningful social connections quite yet, but I have met plenty of people and by now a good percentage of people on campus know my name.

It's turning out to be a very beautiful Fall up here. It hasn't been terribly wet and rainy, so I've been able to enjoy mild weather and the changing of the leaves, which is starting to be fairly spectacular. I took a bunch of pictures the first couple of weeks I was here, but has neglected moving them to my computer due to some computer troubles that have yet to be fully dealt with. I'll try to post pictures within the next couple of posts, which will be within the next couple of weeks as opposed to month.

Anyways, that's all I've got for now. Be back soon.

Quick update

Well, I went caving, which was a blast. I went through several tight pinches, swam across a lake and managed to navigate the Gun Barrel (just imagine an underground gun barrel made of rock). My group was pretty interesting, though I can't say I bonded with them a whole lot. Also, we started out the trip by stealing the bust of a former (and unpopular) college president that went by the moniker of "Prez Paul." We returned him in good shape by the end of the trip, but just imagine that's how the trip started.

After getting back, I was pretty much busy non-stop. I've had so much to do recently and when I don't have stuff to do I just want to chill for a while without any obligations. I wish I'd had a chance to update this blog sooner, but I'm sure we'll all live. Anyways, we took some survey thing, which was really annoying, we took a writing placement exam, which was interesting, I met several new and interesting people (and also learned that my former host is now my half-RA).

I've spent a good deal of my time in the library, which has to be one of my favorite places in the world. I haven't actually picked a book to read or anything on account of the aforementioned lack of time, but I just enjoy seeing all the ones I want to read. It does get a tad uncomfortable in there for some reason though. You know when you're in a room alone with someone, but you are both engaged in separate activities and being so quiet that unless you see them, you senses shouldn't be able to tell you someone else is in the room, and yet you can still kind of sense them? Well, that's the feeling I get when I'm in that library, even when I know I'm totally alone. I've heard the library is haunted, but other than that feeling, and a cold spot in the periodicals room, I haven't seen any weird stuff going on.

I can't wait until classes start. Right now I feel like people are hard to talk to for some reason, even the ones I've gotten to know fairly well, and I think having classes will help with that. There will be tons of fun intellectual topics to discuss. And I'll be learning Latin (finally). That probably won't help with my social situation, but I think it will be really cool anyways.

I really enjoy the freedom to just wander where I want, when I want. My roommate and I joke about how little I'm actually in the room (usually when I see him in the dining hall). Most of my time is either in the library, or with some friends elsewhere on campus. However, now that my roommate bought some adapters, so I can plug my laptop computer into the sockets in my room, I may be spending more time in here.

Well, I'll get back to you later. It's about midnight now and due to a certain East facing window I'll probably be getting up around six. See you around.