Court, Toilet, Visitors

Oh wow,  I haven't updated for like, two weeks.

Okaaay, well. I finished my first two graded assignments today. One was the court paper I mentioned briefly  in a previous update. At that point in time, I hadn't gone to one yet. When I did, the first trial we went into was filing through defendants really quickly. When it was called to recess, we spoke to a police officer and asked him if it was a real trial. Wasn't clear on what it actually was, but the answer was "no". So we went to another one, but this one was really one-sided. Somebody was trying to put somebody in jail for two years for possession. But the defendant had already been to prison for two years for a worse drug addition and had since been successful in rehabilitation and had become an active public speaker against drug abuse. Also, what he was currently being charged for was possession of something unrelated to what he'd been in jail for previously, I don't even think the substance was illegal, he just had too much of it. Like a painkiller or something.

So everything leaned heavily in favour of the defendant. The real kicker was that the defendant wasn't even present. We were supposed to reflect on the emotions of the defendant.  Hard to do when he's not there.

So we went back and the second time around, it was a guy who denied taking a breath test after being stopped for speeding. The catch was that he offered to give a sample a few minutes later and the officer denied him. This was a closer case, and the defendant was present.

So I wrote a paper on that. The second assignment was a group presentation on a school philosophy book. I think I did alright on both of them.

My roommates left for the weekend. I went to the bathroom and saw that someone hadn't flushed the toilet. I flushed it, it overflowed, and it kept going. I looked for a plunger, found only a tiny one way more shallow than the bowl. With no other options I thrust my arm elbow-deep into the bowl and plunged with everything I had. No result. Figured it was the silly novelty plunger's fault and ran downstairs to find a real one. Found one, ran up, started plunging. No result. Top floor flooding. I call around, ask how to stop a toilet. There's a little nozzle at the base that shuts it off when you turn it. Didn't know that.

Now the top floor is ankle-deep in toilet water but at least the toilet stopped. I go downstairs and see that it is raining in the bottom floor. Couldn't be the water upstairs seeping, there's too much and it got trhough too fast. Call the landlord, landlord calls a plumber. I mop stuff up, the ceiling eventually stops raining. The plumber shows up, inspects the toilet, flushes it a few times, it works fine. Leaves without doing anything to it.

Later on, some people show up in the house. I expect they're friends of my roommates. I think they must have a copy of the key because they got in even though the door was locked. I chat with them, tell them the toilet story, share some laughs. Eventually they leave.

Next day, roommates come back. I tell them about the visitors and they flip. They hadn't invited anyone, no it's not normal for people to just walk in, and no, they didn't give anyone a copy of the key. Did I run into burglars and inadvertently talk them down?

Fire Warning

We had a fire alarm go off the other day. Want to know how you can tell the difference between a drill and the real thing? When it's  the real deal, someone says "ATTENTION, ATTENTION, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING" repeatedly.

I was worried for the person making the announcement. Was she staying behind in the burning building to make sure nobody was left uninformed? Or was it just a recording put on loop? But then she swapped it up with "PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THE  BUILDING", and eventually with "YOU MAY NOW ENTER THE BUILDING".

Very noble, if someone stayed behind to provide additional warning.

Nobody  knows what it was about, but this morning, I was woken up (in my room across the street) by another alarm in the school with the same accompanying announcement. Two times in two days? Little fishy.

Today, there was a school-wide announcement for security. Maybe this isn't too ominous, but since it's following within a day of the last "real" fire warning, you could feel the tension in the class rise as people made connections in their heads.

School shootings are so commonly in the media, a school arsonist doesn't take too much a stretch of the imagination for many.

Two Weeks In

Wow, it sure doesn't feel like it's been two weeks since school started. Well, it does and it doesn't. My time-perception is messed. It feels like a long time because so many new things have happened, so reflecting on those events takes longer and gives a feeling of slowness. But I feel like the initial stage of adapting to college life has been prolonged. So I feel like I'm still only beginning, and that makes it feel like it's only been a short time.

I registered a locker this year. Last year, I didn't see the need, but I have so many textbooks this year... Want to know how many? Thirteen. That's more than two per class!

Well, three of them are workbooks, so that kind of puts it down to ten. Then one of them was only recommended, one of them was listed by accident, and one of them I don't need. So that puts it down to seven mandatory textbooks. Those workbooks made my three inch binder overflow, though, and now I need a second one.

I got exempted from Intro  to College Writing, since I took that English course last year. I said before that I wouldn't be able to be exempted because there was no overlap between courses, but it turns out that it doesn't have be a direct overlap. If you took a course that contains the same or advanced content as the one you want  to be exempt from, then you can do so. I couldn't be exempted from Development Psychology, but supposedly next semester there's a Psych course that I can be exempt from.

That's why I didn't need one of my textbooks. Today, I returned both my Intro to Writing book and also the one they accidentally listed. You can get any textbook back at full price if you do it in the first two weeks.

A bookstore worker helped me and another woman find our textbooks. She thought they were all necessary, but one was only recommended, and so we got that one, too. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I'd known that, but it was only $24 and it's called Writing in the Social Sciences. It's actually quite useful and accessible. So I didn't bother to return it. I'm sure I've made worse use of my money.

The stated price online was $800, but when I got to the bookstore, it was $960. Bringing those two books back brought back $175. So that puts me under $800, which is what I budgeted for. This makes me feel better.

I looked at my current courses and compared them to last year's. Last year, every course was worth 3 credits, and if it wasn't, then for every 2 credit course, there was a 4 credit one.  This year, I have two 3 credit courses and four 2 credit courses, until I dropped one, leaving me with three 2 credit courses. This means that, each semester of HSF, I earned 18 credits, but this semester, had I not dropped anything, I would have earned 14 credits. But I'm earning 12 after dropping one.

Do you know what that's based on? How many hours spent in class. I almost feel like getting a part-time job, but this program keeps getting built up to be so monstrously hard, that I don't feel like underestimating it just because it's starting out at a pretty relaxed pace.

Next week, I'm going to watch a trial in a court and then write on it. I have to dress professionally. I didn't bring any dress clothes when I came here. I had to travel light and I planned on bringing other stuff back with me when I visited home. Didn't expect to need to dress up in the first month. That's another unexpected expense.

Can't believe 9/11 and Friday the 13th happened on the same week this year.

Stuff Continues

Everyone I knew in Rez (almost) has moved out this year, and is living in houses in my neighbourhood, with this format. So basically, I followed the collective mindset and took the same step as everyone else. That means that this community is basically the same as the Rez's. Just cheaper and with a bit more freedom.

We've had an "extended orientation"  this week.  That means, the only class I've had is Developmental Psychology.  All the rest have been supplemented with more program preparation meetings. Next week should be on schedule.

We each get a "student mentor" who is in their second year, and I got specifically chosen by someone. I'd met a few people from SSW last year,  but I didn't expect to have made a significant enough  impression to be specifically selected by someone.

Moved Out

I'm in my new place! I'll probably post photos later, but right now, I'm too tired. My room has a window, curtains, a closet, a bed, a set of drawers, and a weird basket thing. The rest of it is stuff I brought.  I brought two suitcases and a backpack of stuff. Really, it's enough to live on, but I'll probably build from this side. Last year, I entered with this much and left with more than twice as much. Had to throw out a lot, too. Amazing how things accumulate.

I forgot to say that our old desktop computer got fixed awhile ago.  And then we got a wireless router up. So the first time in our lives, all three members of our household were able to go online at once.

We harvested our zucchini before I left. I might post a  pic tomorrow.

Got one class tomorrow.Group Process and Dynamics Theory at 1 pm. Easy way to start off the semester.