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textualdevianceBack from orientation. Very tired, since I didn't get much sleep Monday night, nor much last night, due to a crapola motel bed. Plus I walked (most of) the length of campus twice. With stops in between, but still. Far more than I usually do. The shuttle will be getting a bunch of use from me when I start going.
Got answers to 90% of my questions, except the financial aid issue. I now have a workable schedule for the whole five terms (plus my internship.) I only need three classes to finish off the Psych minor, though one of them is Physiology, which may be kind of a bitch. It's a 200-level class, however, so hopefully it won't be too stressful.
What I'll be doing, if schedule holds, is commuting for Fall, in-residence Winter and Spring, internship in the summer, commuting again Fall 06, then in-residence for my last term, Win. 07. It may well be that even with a mwf schedule (starting at 1p, no less), commuting will be a pain, so I might get an apt. there sooner than I think. I'm going to try to get through the first couple of weeks without it and see if I can manage.
I got along really well with the advisor in the J. dept. She's actually going to try to get me admitted to the program early so I can get the FA office to cover me. She reminded me a lot of the kind of person I assume I'll be at her age (mid to late 50's.) And the Psych guy was cute and funny.
The best part was discovering how relaxed the campus is. It's a traditional (pastoral, old buildings, etc.) setting, and there are definitely a lot of young people wandering around, but the school itself is fairly small (only about 10k students total) and it's hippie central. They apparently have a big Environmental Science dept. and a really cool alternative-fuels vehicles Engineering project, so they attract all the tree huggers, which is yay. The other heartening thing was seeing tons of rainbow stickers and other "diversity welcome here" type signage on a lot of office doors. Oh, and I was amused to find out a tidbit I didn't know: apparently residents of Bellingham call themselves "hamsters" as in Bellinghamsters. Cute. :)
I psyched myself out for this by realizing that I'm not going there to impress the other students, but to get an education, which means impressing the faculty. I think I'll be able to do that. All of the traditional college stuff is behind me. I'm there to learn, period. And I think in some ways, that may be refreshing for the faculty I work with, who are used to babysitting freshly-minted high school grads and other sorts testing their wings for the first time since leaving the nest. I won't require any handholding of that sort -- just the academic stuff.
I do think there may be some students I get along with anyway, however. One of my fellow J. students had a bunch of buttons on her bag with some very amusing sayings, such as "You go, girl! And stay there!" and "Just because you can have a child doesn't mean you should." Awesome. (She was cute, too. Bonus. :) )
Probably the only disappointment was noting that there are several of my classrooms with the nasty desks. Many are lecture hall style with the foldaway desks, which I can't use at all, but I can take notes on my armrest if needed. It's the perma-connected ones that worry me. I'll probably go visit one more time before I start to find the exact classrooms I need accomodation in and then talk to DSS. I should be able to manage okay, though. Most of my classes will be in the spiffy new Comm building, with just a couple more a short hike away. And there's a shuttle stop right in front of my building. So I can just park out in the boonies (which I'll undoubtedly have to do since I'm arriving late in the day) and hop the shuttle practically to the front door. There aren't any campus resources nearby, unfortunately, so I'll have to bring snacks or brave vending machines for lunches. I won't have to worry about that until Winter, though, since my first term will just be four-hour blocks and my blood sugar doesn't really start crashing until about 4 1/2-5 hours. I'll probably keep some Balance bars with me just in case, though.
One challenge for me is that all of the dept's publishing is done on Macs, with "In Design." Not that Macs are brain surgery, and I cut my teeth on one, but that was 12 years ago. I haven't played with OS X leik... ever. What would be cool is if they were to release that version which can run on PC's and I can engineer myself a dual OS laptop. Email and games and other stuff on the Win side, school on the Mac side. For now, however, I suspect I'll be stuck using the labs, which is going to be a right royal pain.
All in all, however, I think things are going to work out. There shouldn't be longer than a single 6 month block living away from Mike, if I can manage the commute, and that's doable.
*cracks knuckles*
Okay. Bring on September. :)
Got answers to 90% of my questions, except the financial aid issue. I now have a workable schedule for the whole five terms (plus my internship.) I only need three classes to finish off the Psych minor, though one of them is Physiology, which may be kind of a bitch. It's a 200-level class, however, so hopefully it won't be too stressful.
What I'll be doing, if schedule holds, is commuting for Fall, in-residence Winter and Spring, internship in the summer, commuting again Fall 06, then in-residence for my last term, Win. 07. It may well be that even with a mwf schedule (starting at 1p, no less), commuting will be a pain, so I might get an apt. there sooner than I think. I'm going to try to get through the first couple of weeks without it and see if I can manage.
I got along really well with the advisor in the J. dept. She's actually going to try to get me admitted to the program early so I can get the FA office to cover me. She reminded me a lot of the kind of person I assume I'll be at her age (mid to late 50's.) And the Psych guy was cute and funny.
The best part was discovering how relaxed the campus is. It's a traditional (pastoral, old buildings, etc.) setting, and there are definitely a lot of young people wandering around, but the school itself is fairly small (only about 10k students total) and it's hippie central. They apparently have a big Environmental Science dept. and a really cool alternative-fuels vehicles Engineering project, so they attract all the tree huggers, which is yay. The other heartening thing was seeing tons of rainbow stickers and other "diversity welcome here" type signage on a lot of office doors. Oh, and I was amused to find out a tidbit I didn't know: apparently residents of Bellingham call themselves "hamsters" as in Bellinghamsters. Cute. :)
I psyched myself out for this by realizing that I'm not going there to impress the other students, but to get an education, which means impressing the faculty. I think I'll be able to do that. All of the traditional college stuff is behind me. I'm there to learn, period. And I think in some ways, that may be refreshing for the faculty I work with, who are used to babysitting freshly-minted high school grads and other sorts testing their wings for the first time since leaving the nest. I won't require any handholding of that sort -- just the academic stuff.
I do think there may be some students I get along with anyway, however. One of my fellow J. students had a bunch of buttons on her bag with some very amusing sayings, such as "You go, girl! And stay there!" and "Just because you can have a child doesn't mean you should." Awesome. (She was cute, too. Bonus. :) )
Probably the only disappointment was noting that there are several of my classrooms with the nasty desks. Many are lecture hall style with the foldaway desks, which I can't use at all, but I can take notes on my armrest if needed. It's the perma-connected ones that worry me. I'll probably go visit one more time before I start to find the exact classrooms I need accomodation in and then talk to DSS. I should be able to manage okay, though. Most of my classes will be in the spiffy new Comm building, with just a couple more a short hike away. And there's a shuttle stop right in front of my building. So I can just park out in the boonies (which I'll undoubtedly have to do since I'm arriving late in the day) and hop the shuttle practically to the front door. There aren't any campus resources nearby, unfortunately, so I'll have to bring snacks or brave vending machines for lunches. I won't have to worry about that until Winter, though, since my first term will just be four-hour blocks and my blood sugar doesn't really start crashing until about 4 1/2-5 hours. I'll probably keep some Balance bars with me just in case, though.
One challenge for me is that all of the dept's publishing is done on Macs, with "In Design." Not that Macs are brain surgery, and I cut my teeth on one, but that was 12 years ago. I haven't played with OS X leik... ever. What would be cool is if they were to release that version which can run on PC's and I can engineer myself a dual OS laptop. Email and games and other stuff on the Win side, school on the Mac side. For now, however, I suspect I'll be stuck using the labs, which is going to be a right royal pain.
All in all, however, I think things are going to work out. There shouldn't be longer than a single 6 month block living away from Mike, if I can manage the commute, and that's doable.
*cracks knuckles*
Okay. Bring on September. :)
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Re: yay for you!