I haven’t written in such a long time…

I’m off of winter break now and the first week of school is over. I’m taking 19 units this quarter so it’s a big load for me, and a new challenge for me personally. I’ve been keeping up with all of the readings and homeworks so right now I guess you could say I’m “caught up.” I’m pretty proud about that because I remember thinking after the first week last quarter, “Crap, I’m behind already.” 1) I definitely learned my lesson and 2) I think because now that my dorm hall is now familiar, everyone has calmed down and is starting to get cracking with the books.

It’s kind of sad, really. With my 19 unit load I feel like I’m never done. I’ve been keeping up everyday but it’s a constant effort to study many many hours each day and night. So basically I haven’t really socialized nor have I done anything that fun since I’ve come to school. It kind of feels like I’m losing touch with my dormmates and friends, but I guess it’s the sacrifice I have to make to boost my grades and GPA this quarter.

The professors are alright. I don’t have any particular complaints about anyone. My writing teacher is more of the wacky, really liberal and outspoken kind of person (and she’s hilarious in that way). She seems like a hard grader, but I’m willing to put in the work.

My chem professor has an Asian accent, but I personally don’t think it’s bad at all. I can understand her perfectly. I’ve heard horror stories about professors with terrible accents, preventing anyone from understanding the lectures.

My consciousness professor seems like a very sweet woman, although the only thing that bugs me about her is her voice might be a little *too* soft. It’s kind of easy for me to have a sleepy spell in that class. We’re apparently focusing a lot on Freud and two novels he has written…I personally think he’s a crackpot and a sex-addict. But after reading some of one novel, I can appreciate his very well-written arguments, despite their craziness. haha. Maybe by the end of this course I’ll appreciate him more.

Next up, biology. I’ve had things about the other professor (no lecture notes posted online) that make me thankful for my professors. However, there are a few tidbits that bother me about her. One is her voice…it gets annoying because she has an “old lady voice.” You know what I’m talking about: high-pitched, shaky. Another thing is her lecture notes online always different from her actual lecture notes in class, so I always get confused when I’m writing up notes in class.

And finally, my chemistry lab. I totally dread it, but I worked with three other people today and they seemed extremely nice so I’m really thankful. Stuck with a lab on Friday night, of all nights. Nevertheless, at least the lab T.A. seems very helpful and friendly. Speaking of professors with bad accents, I’ve had about T.A.’s with even worse accents, making lab a confusing, living hell. Not the case for my lab this quarter at least, yay. Two of the people I worked with today were from Middle Earth as well so I won’t have to walk back alone at night!

My schedule only has a gap for lunch at 1 PM, but everyone has usually eaten by then so I ate alone for almost the entire week, except for today. It’s okay, I’ve gotten used to it and at least I haven’t been eating alone for dinner since we’re all done with classes by then. One thing about being a freshman dorming at college is eating: you get accustomed to eating in a group or with at least one other person, and almost everyone else around you is too, so it feels awkward eating alone for the first time after a while. The one plus I find from eating alone is that I don’t have to feel bad about my eating speed since I eat really slow and people usually end up waiting for me, haha.

So overall, I guess things are working out okay, despite the craziness. I enrolled in LARC (paid tutoring). Last quarter my parents told me to sign up but I refused because I didn’t think I needed it, but now I realize I definitely need it. Even if I didn’t, I’m sure it would make a difference in getting that “A.”

On another note (after going on and on about academics), I gave out most of my late-Christmas gifts. Some people were really happy and I was really glad to see that because I tried to be thoughtful and tailor most of the gifts to the person.