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.