First Day Down!

So, I had my first day of classes today. Ask me how that went, go on. BLAH! Between "waking up" at 7:22 am (and finding my cat had tipped my crappy IKEA dresser over and spilled clothes everywhere), almost forgetting to brush my teeth, and putting my socks on upside down, I also managed to bring a dirty sock with me to the bus stop. I shoved that in my backpack.

I ALSO found out last night, much to my dismay, that a week and a half ago, I left a bag of edamame in my backpack. Yummy. They rotted and made the whole bag smell like death. So I did the reasonable thing and emptied it, and sprayed it full of body spray. I'll wash it tomorrow or something.

Anyway, so, I got to school about 10 minutes later than anticipated, but it was fine because I was still early. I got to my first class, Calculus, and the teacher is a kind of skinny, long-haired lunatic. Seriously, he's skinny, and dresses like an 80's meth dealer (or something, I'm not sure). But, he's energetic, and he seems to be pretty nice. He explains things. I wish I was awake enough to GET it.

Met up with my Calculus homie, and we hung out for a while -she bought me ice tea. We ran into my other friend, and went to the bookstore. What a mistake, going to the bookstore on the first day!!! ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS go the week or two before classes start!!! It's SO crowded the first day. But we endured it, and then just hung out in the Park Blocks. Met up with my other friend. They went to classes. I grabbed a salad for lunch (salad bar FTW).

My second class was my senior project, where in my case I'll be mentoring K-12 kids at a non-profit outdoor science inquiry program based near Mt. Hood. I'm excited; since I already basically teach, I am at ease with kids. Of course I'm always nervous the first day when I don't know what to expect, but I am really looking forward to this class. My biggest concern is transportation, since I'll be carpooling with the program manager and will have to wake up at like 4:30 or 5 am once a week. Knowing ME early in the morning...ehhhhhh.

Anyway, and then I killed some time in the coffee/bagel/bubble tea shop. I have an addiction to "seed" bagels -sesame and poppy, ohh yeah. I also drank some decaf tea. Next time, let's make it CAF! I read the free paper and found out M.I.A. (one of my current favorite artists) is playing here 10/18, but I probably won't go...(sad day) I also eavesdropped on the people around me.

Some dude and chick were talking about anime, and I was all "pssh, OTAKUS, losers" even though I really like manga -I just don't like much TV! But they were adults, and whatever. I also eavesdropped on these kids, and I laughed at them inside. The boy was your stereotypical gay boy, and he was all dressed up like a skater. The girls were so cute with their fancy makeup, fashionably uncomfortable clothes, styled hair, jewelery, etc. It was very elaborate, and I knew right away they were freshmen (you can always tell, especially the first day). Very few college people put much effort into their appearance, at least at my school, because we are all too damn busy to worry about what we look like. Anyway, the funniest thing, though, was that the boy had taken Japanese. OH HOW I LAUGHED. I took Japanese all 4 years of high school, and the first 2 terms of college. Let me say this: the Japanese program here, JSL, fucking BLOWS. If I tried, I could come up with, at maximum, 3 positive things to say about it. And that's if I REALLY tried. I feel like I should've warned the kid about that. Or at least given him the student counseling card. He'll need it if he's gonna stick with that.

After CC, I went to the Student Building, and hung out, and later met up with my friend. It was ridiculously hot and humid today, so we hung out in her dorm, just laying there, melting. I feel so gross, I can't even describe it. YUCK. It was nice to just cool off by laying still with my stupidly heavy backpack tossed aside and my shoes off.

Then it was time for the stupidest class ever -Intro to Film. I'm sorry, but I have an ingrained prejudice against indie-hipster white people. And this room was FULL of NOTHING but whities! Ok, I lie, there were 2 African dudes and 1 Chinese girl. But out of like 45 people, come on! And, most of them were quiet. But some of them weren't! THEY ANNOYED ME! All using their big, fancy, stuck-up words to make their stupid, mundane ideas seem smart.

Basically, I despise pretense, and these fuckers were pretentious hipsters all into their high-class film knowledge, I'm over it. Stop showing off how much you know about film, nobody cares but you tools. Films are fun to watch and can show important things about a society, tell messages, be beautiful, etc. BUT COME ON. They are NOT essential to mankind.

You know what's essential to mankind? Food, water, air, space, nature, and freedom. We can live without films. I guess what I'm trying to describe is how FRIVOLOUS movies are. I know I'm going to dread this class. Particularly since it's almost FOUR hours long, and gets out at 9:10. Meaning I'll have been on-campus more than 12 hours.

My attention span is just not going to be able to handle this shit. But, that's that for the "first day" report. Now I'm dead freaking tired, and gonna go PTFO!

School is a Hot, Hot Mess

It's been a while! Excuses, excuses. I've been busy, etc. But, no, really, I have. In early September, my dad came to visit me and we had fun going to Depoe Bay and all that stuff. I'll post pictures when I can figure out how. I saw a whale (a real, live California Grey Whale!) and it rocked my socks. We also went fishing and I got splashed, head to toe, by a huge wave gunning for me. We went to Oregon City and I swam in the Clackamette River, jumping off a log. Boy, was that cold!!!

Then, right after Labor Day, I had my Calculus Head-Start course to prep me for the Calculus classes I am inevitably going to suffer and die through. I actually did better than I thought I would, and it was a given 4 credit A. Yay! My current GPA is 3.21! Yay! Let's watch that get wrecked like a train in the next 6 months (FML).

Anyway, classes for Fall 2010 term resume on Monday...le Sigh. I am NOT looking forward to Calculus after all. I suck at math so hard. I can do this, but I'm terrified (mostly for the amount of studying and stress I'm going to have to dedicate to this). Really looking forward to my Senior Capstone, though, where I am going to be working for Wolftree, Inc., a local nonprofit that teaches kids about the outdoors through science inquiry. And, I'm taking a film studies class. Judging by the stupidly expensive textbook they're expecting me to buy, I already hate it.

I'm actually at ease about my financial situation for the time being. You know, before I realize how much debt I've thrown myself into. This summer was one big cluster#@$%! of mess. First, in Spring 2010 term, I decided to go back to being a full-time student after 2 terms of PTing it. SO, I had to get more loans, and decided, eh, what the heck, let's combine Spring and Summer.

Halfway through Spring term, my loans still hadn't disbursed. I talked to the (UTTERLY USELESS) PSU Financial Aid office, and they told me something about blah blah blah, and also that I had to make sure I raised my cost of attendance for summer by changing it online. So, I did. And halfway into the Summer term, my loans didn't disperse again. WTF?!

I talked to FinAid, and the douchebag at the desk told me I hadn't raised my CoA. "YES I HAVE," I said. And he checked, and sure enough, I HAD, and they had ignored it. So, my loan had fully disbursed, and I had to reapply for a new one. This involved calling WellsFargo a couple times, and being FIRST told that I could get the rest of what I applied for, and a month later finding out, No I can't.

And then, the icing on the cake was that after I had applied for a new loan and sent in all my paperwork and whatever, WellsFargo decided to screw it up and not process it. Ultimately, I called and got it all sorted out. Then, PSU FinAid had fun screwing with my account balance. I eventually wound up with money back for rent and life -yay!

Now, remember when I said I was frugal? Student loans are in, and I've been blowing money like I've got no time left. NOT SMART. It's time to tighten the pursestrings and live impoverished again. Schools going to start and I won't have time or energy to enjoy my life.

Sigh. Here we go again....