I managed to drag myself out of bed at 7:00 am, which was quite a feat in and of itself, and I was plenty early for my first class of the day: Italian 101 at 8:30 am. I was surprised at how tiny the classroom was, but I was even more surprised when my teacher entered the classroom. She started speaking Italian at us immediately, which didn't really shock me, I know that some teachers do that as sort of a shock tactic, but then she asked us if this was the Italian 300 level class, at which point we all shook our heads and the looks of confusion on our faces changed to looks of bewilderment. She looked surprised and rushed out of the classroom only to come back two minutes later after realizing that it was the right class, she just had the level wrong. She did end up teaching most of the class in Italian, but it was in a very approachable way and I liked how rather than just telling us the definition of different phrases, such as mi ciamo, she acted them out. She closed by giving a basic overview of how classes would work, what our tests would be like, and how the homework was set up. I'm really excited to start learning Italian, even if it does mean going to the earliest class time available every day.
After Italian, I headed over to Odegaard Undergraduate Library because I had another hour before I needed to be at my next class. The outside of the building honestly looks pretty drab and unimpressive, so I was expecting the inside to be the same. Instead I walked into a space that was so high-tec and hip that I felt like I'd just walked into Apple headquarters or something. I say Apple because there were rows and rows of desktop Apple computers, it was sort of ridiculous. I came back here for a while after my second class of the day. I looked over the site that all of my Italian assignments would be done through and read some Brandon Sanderson.
My second class of the day was Earth and Space Science 102: Space and Space Travel. I was actually quite excited for this class, but I left just feeling rather angry. I mean there were certainly some good things. I'm excited to learn about space and all I need to do to earn a writing credit is write a short research paper and a Sci-fi story, which is easy and actually sounds super fun. The part I'm upset about is that my teacher neglected to tell us that we would need a textbook and a clicker for this class. Teachers are supposed to put that sort of thing on the UW website, there is actually an official spot for that on the main page, but nope, she gave us no prior notice. That means that instead of buying a used clicker while I could still finding someone selling one, I will likely be forced to buy one from the bookstore for $50!!! That's more expensive than the textbook that I need to buy and, like the clicker, I can't buy it used. My teacher collaborated with someone else to write her own book and it's so new that we have to buy it directly from the publisher for about $45. That actually sounds pretty reasonably priced, except that there's a pretty major catch... it's a preliminary edition. This means that they expect there to be quite a few typos in it and my teacher is even offering extra credit for every five mistakes we find. So, not only do we have to buy special textbooks, but we also have to pay to edit a book for our teacher. It is, in my opinion, completely ridiculous.
After becoming both upset about, and excited for this class, I decided to head over to By George Cafe in Odegaard to get some lunch. I bought a super gorgeous, fantastically delicious, Vegetarian Caprese Ciabatta and was very very happy with it. I also checked out the Student Activities fair and found out that if I paid $35 to join the yoga club that I could get lots of free classes every week. They also have a few important meetings and they do one major philanthropy project. It's a way better deal than taking a yoga class at the IMA because it's $35 for the whole year whereas the IMA, with class costs and general costs, adds up to about $110 per quarter.
My last class of the day was my Chemistry 142 lecture with over 500 people. I don't care about playing fair when it comes to academics, so I shamelessly got to the front of the crowd that was waiting to get into the lecture hall and got a prime seat in the third row. I don't think I've seen enough of my teacher yet to form an opinion of her, but from what she has described about the class so far, I am pretty excited to take it. I really loved taking chemistry in high school so I'm hoping the fact that I enjoy the subject will help me to study and do well in a class that has a reputation for being particularly nasty and difficult.
After class I went back to my dorm to get ready to go to a free yoga class at the IMA. I had gone the previous night, but the only thing that was sore was my back and even that was only a bit sore, so I figured that I would be fine. Unfortunately, the teacher's style wasn't one that I enjoyed nearly as much as the class I took last night. The other issue was that by the time I finished, literally everything other than my neck, calves and forearms were starting to feel sore. We did so much Warrior II that my thighs were on fire and I thought I was going to collapse. Okay, that might be a slight dramatization.
Although, I was stupid for going to two yoga classes in a row, and I'm still mad about my ESS class, I really did enjoy my first day of classes and I'm really excited for the coming quarter. I have all of my classes again tomorrow but I have smaller sections for both Chemistry and Space and Space Travel, so I will probably have a better chance to meet people in those classes. So far everything is looking pretty promising.
~Arrivederla