I'm bored with my current template.

So I'm going to change it. I like this one; sophisticated, yet ironic, since I still write like a teenager. Lawl. =)

Week 1 = Over!

Hi!

I survived my first week of college! I did a bit of schedule shuffling this week, too, which was a bit confusing. I may have already mentioned that I used my AP Calculus credit to get out of Calc 1 and 2 and just do Linear Algebra and Vector Geometry at the same time. Neither are reported to be really hard, so I'm not worried. And since I was really bored in German 2105, I switched into German 3105, where they're analyzing films and stuff. I'm still a little nervous about it, since it's a class full of non-freshmen and you actually have to talk about stuff in German pretty much the entire time... even new words are usually defined in German, not English. But I'm excited; this looks like exactly what I needed. And the people in the class are genuinely interested in learning German. Which rocks. The only bad part: I had a week's worth of German 3105 work to make up (still not 100% done) since I missed the first two classes. Oh well.

Anyway, I have to admit I'm a bit freaked out about my meal plan. I have *finds receipt* exactly $390.69 with which to feed myself until December 18th. I guess it will help me not gain the Freshman 8 (The seniors in my church were told that "Freshman 15" is an exaggeration, and that usually freshmen gain only 8 pounds. But still.)(Man, I really should ban the parenthesis keys on my keyboard. I commentate parenthetically waaaay too much. Ending comment... now.) if I have to watch how much I'm eating, but still. I didn't realize how much food cost. And students even get half-price on nearly everything in the dining halls, unless the cashier forgets to press the "student with meal plan" button. Which has thankfully only happened to me once. Well, I guess I now know why college students can be won over by free food!

Ooh, I should mention my favorite food place. First of all, I like coffee and baked goods. It turns out that there is a coffee shop, similar to Starbucks (but it serves ice cream as well) that uses Dining Dollars. And the prices are *gasp* reasonable! It's also a great atmosphere; I did much of my Deutsch homework there this afternoon, and while I was there, there were people playing chess, having what looked like a first meeting for a small club that was just starting up, having coffee with a professor, and some people I'm pretty sure I saw at nlcf this morning discussing the Bible. It's great. <3

And I'm not just doing academics either. I'm already in InterVarsity and Cru small groups (I'll try both organizations this semester, and if I feel like God wants me to drop one, I will) that have their first meetings this week, and I can actually remember the names of the leaders! They have had a lot of mixers, and I've tried to go to pretty much everything. ("Tried" meaning that when I got lost going to the large IV group meeting on Friday because I accidentally ended up on the exact opposite side of campus, I actually tried to find the building for about an hour before giving up. And yes, it was an accident. I keep accidentally mixing up the academic and residential sides of campus on the map...) And I'm probably going to try to get involved in the Society of Women Engineers and maybe even the Society of Women in Computing. And hopefully a design team of some sort. Ooh, and there's a group that meets at a certain restaurant on Thursday nights and has dinner conversations in German. =) There's so much here.

Not everything is amazing, sadly. It doesn't look good for me getting private violin lessons right now, since people who are either music majors or in the symphony get top priority (and I am neither) and there are a lot of those people. But that's okay. I can always just work at my own pace. I still think the director was a bit miffed that I didn't bring my "good" instrument (I really don't think dorm rooms are secure enough to keep one's expensive instrument from being stolen. And bothering insurance companies isn't my idea of fun.) Oh well. Oh, and I heard that the internet security software everyone is supposed to install messes up the brand of computer I got, and mine has seemed a bit slower and more temperamental than it was before I installed the software. Maybe I'll take it to SWAT soon to see what suggestions they have. But it's usable. And it is pretty fun having a tablet. Even a Windows one. (Yeah, I still use my Powerbook for stuff too. Sometimes I'll have both computers up and running for some reason, and I think of this:



EDIT: Oops! At least on my monitor, the last panel is cut off. If you click the comic, you can see all of it on the Dilbert website.

EDIT: My spontaneous change of layout fixed the problem. w00t.)

=)

But I did get a ticket to the first home football game! I'm excited about that. The one we watched on TV yesterday (and by "we" I mean I watched it with Intervarsity) looked like a lot of fun, even though we (narrowly) lost.

Now, to finish the rest of the homework.

There's just so much here!

I was just at a meeting for people who want to major or minor or double major in a foreign language. Or study abroad. I fall into two of those categories. Every time I go to one of these things I get really excited. I'm sitting in Burger King, probably looking like a weirdo because I keep checking my computer and typing and bouncing up and down in happiness (did you know it doesn't take many more credits for a German major than for a minor? It's a possibility... I'm considering it. Not definite yet, but now I can't wait for the University Honors meeting in which I will get my Course of Studies planner back (honors students use sticky notes to plan out their years at Tech with classes they plan to take, internship/co-op periods, study abroad, etc.) Anyway, I gotta go to an Engineering assembly soon, so I should go. Just was too excited not to say something.
-Lala

I've been gone a while, haven't I?

Hello, everyone! I have been gone forever, it seems. Since I last posted, I went to Prom, had AP exams, graduated, did a summer program at Virginia Tech, and became a Virginia Tech student. Today was my first day of classes.

I am living in a theme dorm called Hypatia, which is for first- and second-year engineering major women. A similar program, called Gallileo, is available for engineering men. Hypatia is a great group, and I'm really excited about it. One funny thing is that here at Virginia Tech, I have met more Lauras in the past few days than I have met in a LONG time. My roommate (this was not planned, by the way) is named Laura. Sometimes, people will walk into our room and say "Laura" just to watch us both turn around. And there is another Laura down the hall who likes to hang out in our room. Seriously; if you have ANY ideas for nicknames, they would be greatly appreciated.

My first day of classes has been great. I first figured out the situation with my math classes; since I can't take Multivariable Calculus until I take Linear Algebra and Vector Geometry, I will be taking both of those this semester. (I have had several people, including my awesome calculus teacher from last year, that with my AP score, I should just skip out of Calculus 1 and 2.) Then I had German, and though I was a little nervous (I was the only freshman), I enjoyed it, especially when a Mechanical Engineering professor taking the class (I didn't know they could do that, but that's actually really cool that he's taking classes. I probably would as well if I worked at a university.) asked to talk to all the engineering majors (all 3 of us) after class. He told us that there was a program starting that would allow Mechanical Engineers who were sophomores this year who got good grades in certain German classes spend the summer before their senior year in Stockholm, Sweeden and then spend their senior year at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. They would then receive Bachelors degrees in MechE from BOTH Virginia Tech and TU Darmstadt. I think this will be an ongoing program. And one in which I want to get involved. A lot. I have been trying to decide between Electrical Engineering and MechE, and since both could probably lead to the subject in which I am currently interested (designing and building robots), I think this might be worthwhile. And FUN. I have seriously been excited all day. My mood was only slightly dampened with an assignment from my next class, the Hypatia seminar (for first-year Hypatia residents). That assignment: join the newly-created Hypatia group on Facebook. I asked if I could not join facebook, but apparently I have to. I will do my best to not get distracted by it, which basically means that everything on my account will be private and I won't check it much. Is there a way to delete Facebook accounts, by the way? I don't want this sucking me in later on, especially in Junior and Senior years when I'll really need to focus. While the concept of Facebook is brilliant, I think it could be fatefully distracting at inopportune times (finals, projects, etc.) It was kind of weird, though. Once they found out, people who I had told I would never get Facebook unless I was forced came up to me and said "Laura, I'm so proud of you!" Ugh. I was forced; it's a graded assignment. Drop it, people! Anyway, the rest of Hypatia wasn't bad. It doesn't look like a hard class, but it looks like it will be useful at the same time. We already have another assignment to do a presentation about ourselves to get us used to public speaking. (By the way, does anyone know if the (really awesome-sounding) Dale Carnegie Public Speaking Courses can be taken by college students or by people not being forced to go through the course by their employers? I really want to take it. The instructors give only positive feedback to assignments, or so I have heard, so the students build confidence and learn to enjoy speaking in public. I would like that experience.)

And then I had my Vector Geometry class. It is an online class, but it has lectures and recitations (thank goodness!). The professor seems both nice and funny, so I'm looking forward to it. Althouth it took nearly all of the 15 minutes I had between Hypatia and VecGeom to get there, since it's a ways across campus. But it was fun.

Anyway, tomorrow I have my first Linear Algebra class (which is also online, but has no lecture or recitation; it's self taught. Fun, fun fun. Thank you, AP Physics B online for teaching me how to teach myself. But I've heard it isn't hard. But now I'm wondering why I keep making long parenthetical comments. I think I'll end this parenthetical comment now.), followed by Engineering Exploration (it would be followed by VecGeom recitation, but for our section, there's none the first week) and then Chemistry. And there are currently some random guys singing a capella music in the hallway. They actually sound pretty good.


Anyway, (I also start a lot of paragraphs with that word, don't I? Tsk, tsk.) I think I have a way to make myself post more often. I have bought two tiny portable garden gnomes, one of which I try to have in my purse at all times. I want to make a habit of taking pictures of it in random places and posting them. I already have some pictures, but I won't post them tonight. But soon. Hopefully.

I'm gonna get off now. My first class tomorrow is at 9 am. (Which means I should change the alarm clock, since I thought it started at 11... I'll figure this out. Hopefully soon. And someday, I won't feel compelled to write overly long parenthetical comments about everything. That's bad form, isn't it? Oops. It's fun, since I can make jokes about it. w00t.)