Week One

The first week of college is now over! It's nice to have a three-day weekend, but I wish it was later in the semester when we students really need a break, as opposed to the beginning when we're still fresh and ready to work. GSH (Global Studies House, my floor in Boss House) had a barbeque last night to celebrate one of our floormate's birthdays as well as the end of the first week of school. Sefa turned 18 on Friday. Next week and the week after we have birthdays as well, I believe. I don't know what we'll do when birthdays get even closer together. In April we have a slew of birthdays, one right after the other! That won't be for another 7 months, though, so we have lots of time to plan.

Sefa the birthday girl looking out of her window.
The ladies started the coals. Lighter fluid is fun! This is Ji-Hye, one of my suitemates.
Eating food and having fun.
Sefa and her cake.

One of my suitemates, Zahra

This week wasn't nearly as exciting as I had been expecting. During the first few lectures, my professors and instructors went over the syllabus, which would have been useful, except the information they gave was on the paper already. Class is gradually getting more interesting, though. I've learned dozens of new concepts in each class already. Although classes are only just starting, here's my take on them:

15-100: Introductory/Intermediate Programming 10 Units
Programming is my earliest class: 8:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It's also the one I'm having the most fun with. We're learning how to use a program called Alice at the moment. Supposedly it's an extremely simplified and watered-down version of Java, with graphics that are easy to interact with. My accomplishments so far are to put objects in a world and make a person sit and fall asleep in a chair (the former was for homework, the latter I figured out on my own). Now all I need to figure out is how to use Andrew File Sharing so I can turn in my homework on Tuesday...

21-122: Integration, Differential Equations and Approximation 10 Units
This is my only class that meets every single day. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are lectures, and Tuesday and Thursday are recitations. This first week was supposed to be review for most students, but I learned a new way to integrate (it's either new or I completely forgot how to do it). I think that Calculus will probably be my hardest, most time-consuming class this semester. That may change, though.

18-100: Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering 12 Units
There is no recitation or lecture for the next two weeks, taking out 4 hours of class-/lab-time each week. I'm sure life will get much more interesting once labs start. We're going to be building a robot that turns, moves forward, beeps and lights up. My professor is the most unstereotypical professor you will ever see. He comes to class in T-shirts and jean shorts and has long gray hair. It's amazing. This class may prove challenging because I am one of the few people in this class who knows nothing about ECE. On the other hand, the professor indicated that 18-100 is fairly laid back.

76-101: Interpretation and Argument (Othering and Difference in the U.S.) 9 Units
There are several different topics you can take for the required Interp. and Arg. (i.e., university writing), but this one is the most common. At first I was disappointed because this was not my first choice topic. I have since changed my mind, because with multiple people taking similar sections, several conversations and debates have taken place in GSH about it already. It also means that help is easy to come by when I'm looking for someone to read my essays.

In the second half of the semester I'm taking Computing@CMU, which is about online security and the CMU network, etc. It's only a 3 Unit course and it's supposed to be pretty fun. Altogether I'm taking 44 Units this semester, if I'm doing my math right. I'm not quite sure how units are calculated here. Supposedly it's measured by the amount of time you spend on it per week. However, seeing as you are supposed to spend two hours studying for every hour in class, this formula works for only Interp. and Arg. Maybe you're supposed to leave out the recitations.

All-in-all, this was a good week, albeit slow at times. I tend to have three to four hour breaks between classes, so I need to find something to do during those hours when there's almost no one around. The weather has been pretty nice this week, so I've spent time reading on the Cut (the lawn running through the middle of campus). This week I also attended Kiltie Band rehearsals. The first game is next Saturday. Hopefully they have enough kilts to go around.