Day One: Cold

Q: Hey, Drew! How was your first day of classes?

A: Cold. Extremely cold. Super very extremely cold! Even though I'd been outside, I was not anticipating the walks between classes being so... COLD! It was nice to warm up during classes, but, each time I stepped outside, the wind sapped every bit of warmth from me within minutes. 

I underestimated the distance between classes. And by that I mean I remembered the distance being much shorter. And by that I mean maybe I'm a little out of shape. And by that I mean I've learned a valuable lesson for planning classes next semester.

Speaking of classes, today I had Spanish II and Statistics. In both cases, the class was dramatically different than I expected. Nearly everything is online now, and, had you told me about before today, I would have said, "Awesome! It's about time!" In practice, it's clumsy and needlessly complicated. If I want to get my stats homework done, I have to visit three different websites. Spanish homework requires two. Moreover, while you can find some very useful info on one of the many (many) non-class specific hubs, it's tough to find very simple information quickly; where is my class? what's my schedule? I'm sure I'll get used to it. For now, though, it's a tangled mess.

Also everything is expensive. Everything. I laughed out loud when I heard how much a parking pass for the garage would cost. I blinked hard when I saw how much my books were. Even my Vitamin Water was pricey.

Also everyone is young and beautiful. I was repeatedly made aware of how much older I was than nearly everyone else; The woman (girl) who took my photo for my student ID kept calling me "sir" and paused with a look of disbelief when she found out I was an undergrad. I was "sir" again when waiting in line to use the rest room, and once more when buying my Vitamin Water. A woman (girl) in my stats class openly stared at me with her mouth hanging open a little. She was sitting right next to me. I said hello and introduced myself. She squeaked out a name and busied herself with her smartphone.

And that's when I noticed that nearly everyone was buried in their smartphone, grumbling and giggling secretly to themselves. It was a very strange feeling being in a room filled with people, nearly none of them speaking to one another. The professor had to straight up ask us to introduce ourselves to the person next to us. Even in my much smaller sized Spanish class, no one talked with one another.

Strange. Very strange and very disconcerting.

As far at the course content, I'm in good shape. Sure, I'll have to learn to navigate all of this "newness" but, once I figure that out, I expect I'll do fine grade-wise.

Tomorrow, I'm starting the day with coffee. It'll keep me warm, and maybe make it a little easier getting from class to class. For now, I'm going to take an hour or two and figure out all of this... new... stuff.

Thanks for all the well wishes and such. The support is very much appreciated.

More to come as more comes, gang.