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	Welcome To My Home... September 3, 2002 The College Experience Part 2: Campus Life I had no trouble finding my way around campus. For one thing, it's relatively small in comparison to some of the larger universaries. Mainly, though, it's because I've had absolutely nothing to do for the last two weeks other than wander aimlessly around the campus (One can't remain asleep forever). By the time classes began, I knew the whole campus inside out. I don't have a phone yet. In fact, I probably never will have a phone, considering it costs at least $40 to set up service, and I'd probably never use it. That's what I got email for. I am, however, probably the only student out of 30,000 without a phone. The whole place is like one big cell phone advertisement. One could get a serious game of "Name That Tune" going simply by walking through campus listing to people's phones ring. Just the sheer number of people talking on cell phones at the one time is astounding. No matter where you are, there's at least ten people within sight talking on cell phones. Who knows who they're talking to - or what about. Goodness knows I wouldn't have anything interesting enough to say to actually call someone. Maybe they're all talking to each other. I could be missing out on some massive friendship ring here. The other thing college students seem to like is smoking. If I needed to guess, I'd say at least 1 in 5 people smoke here. Luckily, smoking is not allowed inside the buildings (or residence halls, thank goodness), but it still sucks. I suppose I need to say something about my classes. My speech/communication class is cool. Dr. Lowrie (she would be my speech/comm teacher, if you're confused) is really the only teacher that I like. Not to say I dislike my other teachers, but they're just teachers. She's the only one who's set herself apart from being just another boring lecture teacher. And the class seems like it could actually teach me something I might need to know in the future. My history class could be hard. I haven't had a test yet, but he's given us a heck of a lot of information over the course of just two days so far, and a ten page term paper is part of the syllabus. Of course, my view of the class has been a bit tainted from the start - ever since I was required to buy $170 worth of history books. My music class is the only class I have in a lecture hall. (All my other classes are very much like high school classes in size and feel.) It's interesting to learn about the different elements of music, and I like the material we're covering, but the lectures get pretty boring after a while. So far, we've just been learning terminology, so hopefully the class will pick up a bit later in the year (although, somehow, I doubt that). ...I love these residence halls. Bryan must have half the floor over here right now. But I'm sorry. I got sidetracked. One might say 'distracted' by the sudden occurence of freaking loud music. At least some variety would be nice. I swear he only owns one friggin' CD... Anyway... let's see... Oh yes, classes. Well, I think that was all I was going to say about my music class. On to math. My math teacher is in an electric wheel chair, suffering from some disease which also prohibits most of the use of his arms and impairs his speaking. It looks like it could be some form of Multiple Schlorosis, but I can't be sure since he's never acknowledged it to the class... (By the way - and I know that this will most likely only reach two people of the desired audience, but just let me believe I have some influence - if you are a teacher, take five minutes at the beginning of the course to introduce yourself. You don't need to say anything too personal, and it doesn't take much time. Just tell the class that you have a cat or something and move on. Or do something to make yourself appear as a human being rather than some artificial entity spawned for the sole purpose of lecturing a class. We like that confirmation. And if you give a survey asking what music your students listen to or what they do in their free time or whatever - tell your students that information about yourself too.) ...But I was talking about math. (I get sidetracked too easily). To recount, my math teacher is in a wheelchair, has extremely limited use of his arms, and talks like he has a sponge shoved in his mouth. Now don't take this the wrong way. I have nothing against disabled people (I apologize if I don't know the politically correct term). In fact, I have the greatest respect for anyone who can make so much out of life in spite of such hardships. But the man shouldn't be teaching math. To understand the concepts, one needs to see problems worked out step by step and by hand while being explained by the teacher. Equal rights or not, someone who can't write and has trouble speaking is just not equipped to teach math. I can read the book on my own, thank you. It does me no good to have someone else read it to me from the overhead. Not that it matters. The class is way too easy. Students are assumed to have taken High School Algebra 1 and 2 for the course (Which, if I recall, were not terribly easy classes). I was expecting something around the difficulty level of High School Pre-Algebra. Not too hard for me to handle after a year without math, but covering some skills that I need to improve and going more into depth in others. Which is why I can't figure out why we're going over stuff I learned in SIXTH GRADE. The first day was devoted to learning greater than and less than symbols (That would be these: ">" "<" for those of you who haven't made it through the third grade yet). Seriously. This is elementary school stuff. I actually have math homework that I need to do pretty soon. It may be easy stuff, but he sure assigns a heck of a lot of problems. That means that this is about all I have to say about college right now. You may expect regular updates to the site again, now that I have my computer set up (I'm so happy), and I'll be seeing about letting other people post comments soon. Return to Part 1: Moving In Comments There are no comments for this topic.		Quick Links - Fun 'n Folly - Juggling Club - RF Haunt - RF Gallery News/Updates HOME - Latest Post ARCHIVE - Full Archive <- PREV | NEXT -> 9/3 - The College Experience: Pt 2 9/3 - The College Experience: Pt 1 8/20 - Not Just a Walk in the Park 8/12 - Getting Reoriented 8/9 - Things Come Together 8/6 - Brand Spanking New! Previous 10 shown Read More... 8/6/02 - First Post HOME - Latest Post ARCHIVE - Full Archive
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