Saturday, I finally got my boxes from the post office, which makes me extremely happy. Really I should have written something right away so that I could capture the moment. However, I thought my time might have been better spent, doing some of my reading hmk. With the overwhelming volume of grad-level reading that is assigned, I can't read at my usual pace, extreme ramping-up is required. I think I may have mentioned... or did I? Anyway so I spent a morning researching HOW to read for graduate school. (This was after a weekend where I barely got two articles read... each took 4+ hrs to get thru... yeah, that can't happen anymore.)
So the websites (some of which are excellent, email me if you want the links) gave some excellent tips on reading, which, in a nutshell, are: read faster (scan) not slower, don't re-read, you probly don't really need the details to get the main points of the article. There's other stuff... but one step at a time... I've been trying to do the speed reading (which still takes me 20 minutes per article... x10-20 a week) and writing down the main point, so I at least have *looked* at each article, if not actually read them thoroughly. I just can't imagine reading sufficiently to my satisfaction. :-/
Friday was pretty cool, I bought a few plants, a golden pothos and a couple of small thingies, a strawberry and an aloe plant, they all probably want re-potting soonish. Also Friday was the end of Ramadan, which marks the end of the month of fasting. My roommate is Muslim so she cooked a huge dinner (it literally took her all night. She started at 1am and finished like 5am ish.) All us roommates were there, and even the guys who lived in the apartment on the first floor were represented. (I live in a house that's divided into two apartments, which seems to be extremely typical here in this city. I'm on the third floor, where the common living room, and this party, took place. I do have really great roommates, I have to say.
So then Friday, as I said, I picked up my boxes of books from the post office. I took the bus to the Mall, and then a second bus to the post office. The Mall, btw, is neat. A typical though tiny mall. A sporting goods store. I saw snow/rain shoe types for $40. Is that typical? I thought I'd have to fork out $100 for a pair. Most of the place wasn't open though. Got my boxes, missed the bus on its way back. Fortunately a very friendly postgrad took pity on me and gave me a lift home. Then I opened all the boxes (by the way if you do media mail be sure to have sturdy boxes. My 50-lb boxes of books made it. Just. Barely. So add on the packing tape, guys! I opened the boxes and put them all on my little bookshelf, and breathed a sigh of relief... my room just didn't feel normal without a full bookshelf.
Sunday, cooked some of the food that was in the house, some meat, trying to eat some veg, mushrooms, pretty neat... tried out the couscous, though it wasn't very special. There was enough rice and other stuff leftover for dinner today though.
What else? Oh, school. I'll speak a bit about the frustrating parts. Then one neat thing.
So, my school allows you to add classes and drop classes until the third week, (this next week,) so I'm still fuzzy about choices. grr. But, meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out my plan for the next four semesters.
So what is more important? I have a time conflict. One is Chinese language class, which I have been taking, its MWF afternoons. I am hoping to continue my Chinese class for all four semesters. Now, this conflicts with (econ) Growth in India/China... which I had been assured I was NOT getting into.... well guess what, I'm in it. :-/
So now what, language, or Econ???
among other things that frustrate me completely about this whole thing
it's SO disorganized. Is the class there, isn't the class there, is it this number is it that number. Is it even a course still or did it go away TWO YEARS AGO frustration.
plus, I keep hitting back when i'm in the student enrollment center which doesn't like you to hit that button, it gives you an error message and takes like three clicks to get back on track.
HOW are you supposed to make a decision on classes without knowing the desc of the class??? AND. How are you supposed to FIND THE stupid Description!?!?!?
when you search for classes
1. they are often not there. or not under that number.
1a. if it is there, it is sometimes DESCRIBED under a dif number (rather than just copying on the soft copy... I understand for the hard copy)
In the course descriptions, sometimes there are pre-requisites. The prereqs are usually also listed by number. Then, See #1 above.
The descriptions are ALL OVER THE place.
1. Like, it might be under the course descriptions in the big course guide.
2. They might be under whatever the heck VIVO is.
3. Very likely, they are under the dept in question's website's Courses.
4. Sometimes, there is even a syllabus under the teacher's website.
5. or on Blackboard.
Is it any wonder we are often reduced to sending annoying emails to the instructor when all the information is actually out there... SOMEwhere... online???
Last but not least. Since I am doing a ton of work on my computer, and also a lot of reading, I've downloaded the software WorkRave onto my laptop, and every ten minutes it prompts me to look away form the screen and to somewhere far away, and every 55 minutes it walks me thru a few stretch exercises. Pretty cool to try and keep rsi away... now if only I could stop hitting the "postpone" button! Anyway, I STRONGLY recommend this for anyone who works at a computer. It comes high recommended in other sources too. And it has a sheep on it.
Okay it's late, and I'm off to bed. More exciting things will happen on the morrow!
Miss you lot tons.
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