Classes - Week One

So my first week is over.  Hooray for that!  Part of the adventure last week was talking to the powers that be at the school about what classes I would be able to take.  I was able to be put on the waiting list for my drafting class, and talked to the head of my department about being able to take a historical architecture and furnishings class concurrently with one of it's prerecs.  I was feeling pretty optimistic in all going in.

Initially I was signed up for three classes on Monday and Wednesday, with only one of those three (computers) on Friday, one class on Tuesday and Thursday early afternoon, and one class Thursday night.  I was on the wait list for a class (drafting) Tuesday night, and was waiting to be allowed to sign up for a class on Tuesday/Thursday instead of the one I was signed up for (historical furnishings). (wow that was a long run-on sentence...sorry about that.)  I got to school early on Monday so I could get books, talk to Brother Hunsaker (the head of my department) and a few other things.  I hadn't yet been able to sign up for ID 210 (hist. furn.) and wanted to check in with him.

From that point on, everything went great...mostly.

A summary of the classes I no longer am taking:

COM 122: I never actually went to this one.  I dropped it as soon as things worked out with my Interior Design classes.

LE 100: This is what I call a Poodle class.  For those who don't understand that...well, it's not really important...the point is that it was going to drive me absolutely insane.  The first class period, my second class on Monday, the teacher went over what we were going to be doing, the assignments and subjects, and by the end I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of busy work I would have to do for this class that was supposed to teach me how to be an effective student.  After class I talked to the teacher - who seems perfectly nice, by the way - and asked her if it would still be a good idea for me to take this class if it was just going to cause me even more anxiety.  I don't think she really got it, but she said that she would be perfectly willing to work with me on when I could turn things in and so forth, so I left thinking maybe I could make it work...MAYBE this would be good for me.  Wednesday we started in on covering some of the material, and I decided I couldn't stand to talk about the most effective way to be someone I have already tried and failed to me.  I am NOT that type of student, and I never will be.  When I try, I end up in my bed with a book, or the covers over my head.  So I dropped that on Thursday night, after dealing with the guilt of dropping the class the school 'highly recommended' I take.

The classes I now have:

IT 102: this is the basic computers class that everyone in the school has to take, or test out of.  At the beginning of each semester you have the option to take what they call 'Challenge Exams' for the class.  You can choose to challenge the entire class, and therefore earn a Pass for the class, without having to take it, or you can challenge it a module at a time.  I elected to do the second option.  This way, I still have to go to class, and I still get a grade, and the credit hours in my schedule, but I don't have to do any of the assignments for any module I pass out of.  There are three modules, and you can only challenge the module as it starts, so I just passed out of the 'living online' module.  Now I go to class and answer questions that others have, leaving the teacher free to continue her lecture.  It's pretty awesome; I started my role as 'mentor' on Friday.  I'm really liking this arrangement.  I take this M/W/F at 11:10 (my earliest class :) )

REL 333: Teachings of the Living Prophets.  This is, obviously, my religion class.  It's pretty self-explanatory.  I have to write a short summary of each talk we discuss, as well as a few other smallish projects throughout the course of the class.  It'll be pretty easy, and I love the topic, so I'm optimistic.  This is M/W at 1:30.

ID 210: Historical Furnishings and Architecture.  The topic of this class is also pretty clear.  There are a TON of projects, and lots of work...but the subject matter is one of my favorites, and the teacher's pretty cool, so I think I can tough it out.  This is T/TH at 2:40

ID 125: Drafting.  I am super stoked about this class, actually.  It's been the one with the most supplies required, and that makes it super expensive, but I love drafting already, and the teacher seems like a blast.  She's super funny, and she'll let us out early a lot of the time...which is good because the class is scheduled for Tuesdays from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, and I have to take public transportation home.  It's been good so far...no one too scary.  Most of the people who HAVE talked to me seem to be at least as concerned with my safety as I am.

ID 104: Principles of Design.  This class is rather boring...kinda a review seeing as I've taken three Interior Design classes before this.  It's Thursdays from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.  The teacher is pretty nice, and although there's lots of work...it isn't TOO hard...we'll see.

That's my classes.  Feel free to refer back to this from time to time to understand what I talk about it later blogs...I'll try to keep you filled in on what I'm doing in my classes, and what I think about it...ahh a place to vent or enthuse.

Goodnight, dear void!

Housing Pain

So it's been a week since I left home for school.  What a week it's been.  Admittedly, the first few days went completely as planned.  We arrived at Diana's in time for dinner Monday night, and stayed there through Tuesday night, getting in dental appointments while we were there.  Ah, the dentist.  

The adventure truly started when we got to Salt Lake.  We drove down on Wednesday, heading straight to the place we had picked online for me to be living.  From outside, it seemed charming, and looked to be in a fairly typical neighborhood, like any neighborhood you see in Provo, actually.  No one was there when we got there, and while we were waiting for the owner to meet us, we happened to see one of the other girls get home.  She let us in and showed us where I would be staying.  

What can I say about what we found?  Well, we went immediately up to the room I'd be in, and found that it was a small room in the attic, with my bed in the dormer window, which could be kind of fun, but there was also another girl in the tiny room, and only one VERY small closet.  We were then told that the bathrooms were both on the second floor, and that I'd be in the larger one.  We went down to investigate.  Unfortunately, the only doors from the hall opened into bedrooms.  You had to go THROUGH one of the bedrooms to get to a bathroom.  OK...so we headed downstairs.  There WAS a bathroom on the main floor, well, a half bath anyway...at least I wouldn't have to wake anyone up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom...I'd just have to risk two flights of stairs in the dark.  Which would have been dangerous for me, apparently, since I managed to fall down the stairs the first time I went down them...almost taking out mom in the process.  I still have the bruises.

To top it all off, the lack of storage room for all the residents made for a rather...chaotic atmosphere.  Since there wasn't anywhere to put things, it all seemed to end up on the floor in various states of messiness.  Mom described it as saying it looked like a hurricane had blown through.  That might not have been too inaccurate.  Although it was dryer than a hurricane would leave things.  Suffice it to say, we decided that we would have to find me somewhere else to stay.

That was Wednesday, and I won't bore you with the details of the hunt, but let me just say that living in the Plaza hotel with a bunch of freshman girls was looking mighty good.  We found a few apartments that I could live in, but they would be unfurnished and I would be living alone...not to mention that they were at least twice as much as I would have been paying at the original place.

In the meantime, we had gotten a call from Joannie, and it turns out she had left some clothes at her friend Joe's house that she had just gotten back from visiting in the area.  We gave him a call and decided to meet up by the Ikea.  When he heard of our predicament, he looked through our selection of housing and told us that I shouldn't live at any of them.  That was discouraging, but he HAD been a fireman in Salt Lake, so he would have seen what happened in these areas.  He was very helpful, but we were pretty much back at page one.

Eventually, we found the bulletin board at the school, and called people looking for roommates.  It was here we found the PERFECT place.  I'm living in a high-rise apartment building in a nice part of the city.  I have my own room and bathroom, and the best roommates I could have hoped for.  The rent is only slightly higher than what I was going to be paying at the scary place, and EVERYTHING I need is within walking distance, or along the Trax line, which is only a block away.  The only catch is that the LDSBC ward that I would go to starts at 9, and Trax wouldn't be able to get me there til nearly 10.  This week I went with my roommates to their ward, which is definitely an option, but I still feel like I should check out the ward for my school, so I'll look into finding a ride.

Whew, I'll leave it at this for today.