You know it's time for school to start when the drumline is outside practicing and the Hare Krishnas are walking down the side walk singing and playing their cymbals. Yes folks, I'm in Chapel Hill now and it's quite an interesting feeling. I really don't know anyone except for Brian my roommate and the few people I talked to today at the first of 4 days of orientation. The drive up on Monday wasn't very eventful and the traffic ceased to exist which was a bonus.
We stopped at a McDonalds in SC and there was a G-wagon with Sprewells.
We arrived in Elon around 4 and then moved the big truck to the tractor store and I got to drive it around the back lot...yes I drove the manual truck for the second time.
After that we went to a new cafeteria and proceeded to eat too much food.
Tuesday was spent moving into the apartment. It's definitely not a good idea to have a 6' long desk that needs to go on the second floor of a townhouse. Next time someone needs to remind me that a flat would be the way to go. Brian seems like a cool guy, we have a lot in common thus far though we've both been busy with moving and orientation. His mom is also really nice and has been helping set up the apartment and especially the kitchen, she's adding the woman's touch. Today was the first day of orientation and it was interesting to see who actually came to UNC that was at the open house; I noticed several people that seemed gung ho about the program that weren't there today. Overall the class seems extroverted and active which is something that will take some getting used to. Also another surprise was the age range of students. I expected there to be a fairly big gap between students but it doesn't appear to be too big. Of course there are the older folks that have been out for a long time but most seem to have graduated college in the last 5 or 6 years, however, I counted only 6 of us that just graduated out of a class of approx. 45. Tomorrow will be more orientation all day and then I'm dreading Saturday. As a TA I have to attend a campus-wide training session from 8:30-3 yes you heard me on Saturday from 8:30-3, not my idea of fun the weekend before school starts. Monday brings more orientation and then classes start Tuesday.
Now that we're on the subject of classes...I'm not really sure what to expect and I haven't really been able to tell from today's sessions. It's either going to be a ton of work or not going to be bad at all. Pretty either really, really bad or only a little bad, most likely the former. None of the other people I talked to know what to expect either and seem to have some trepidation like I do about what's about to start on Tuesday. I'm sure everything will work out and I'm just having new place and surroundings jitters but it's time to see if I can hack it. Was my undergrad time a waste? I sure hope not but now's the time to see. Another thing that's bothering me and that hasn't really been an issue before is the social aspects of being a graduate student. I'm used to just hanging out and maybe then grabbing some food then hanging out some more. It seems like that's not the norm for most people. Since I don't drink alcohol, at least yet, it's going to be weird to be around people that are. For example, there is an outing on Saturday night to some Wine Bar, who goes a wine bar? Doesn't sound like much fun to me. What does one wear to a wine bar, beats me. So do I want to go, nope. Will it look bad if I don't go, probably. So will I go, most likely not. It's definitely going to be a year or two of firsts, hopefully I'll find some friends either in classes or at church. Hopefully I'll learn to be a graduate student and I guess eventually grow up.
Sorry for rambling but it's nice to write what's in my head sometimes, especially when friends aren't around anymore. Here's some more pics.
My building:
More pics updated frequently at
My Moblog.
