Thursday, September 11, 2008

College Weeks 1-3 in a post.
College has been an interesting experience so far, so say the least. Things have been a bit stressful with trying to get all my classes in order, and not go insane with the sheer amount of them that I'm taking. The people at the university recommend that incoming freshmen don't take more than 12 class hours and work more than 8 hours a week; me being the freak that I am, I'm taking about 17.5 credit hours and working a little less than 30 hours a week. It's more than slightly stressful, but I'm having fun.

My first and possibly hardest class is Latin, which I'm only taking because I have to make up my missing language requirements from High School. The teacher's pretty good, and while my classmates basically ignore one another, I have fun. The subject matter is very interesting, and I enjoy learning the origins to words that are used today. The hardest thing about the class is that we're expected to learn a chapter in at most 2 days; not just the grammatical aspects of the language, but a list of vocabulary as well. I know that you're probably wondering the same as almost everyone else I've talked to: Why Latin? I tried first to get into a Japanese class, but when it was full I had to choose another Language. I was going to learn French - because I like the way it sounds - but my parents suggested that if I wanted to eventually go into medicine, then Latin could be a lot of help.

All of my other classes are Musical. I have a Theory lecture class, and an extra Theory introduction class that I am required to take because I didn't pass the theory entrance exam. Going hand-in-hand with the Theory courses is a Musicianship class, where we learn ear training and sight singing (whereas the theory course is more technical). I have a blast in Musicianship! My professor is hilarious, and most of the class is made up of Vocal Majors, so it sounds really pretty when we're singing. It's pretty tough, because we have to sing solfege (do - re - mi - fa - sol - la - ti - do) while figuring out the rhythm and counting of whatever it is she's playing. And it will only get harder.

Another class that I'm taking is a Career Planing and Volunteer work course that is required for all Piano Majors. My classmates and instructors are wonderful, and if it weren't for them, I think I'd hate the class. We'll be learning a lot about how to make money in the world of music, and we're the ones in charge of organizing the Fund-raisers and a lot of the extra stuff that the School of Music does. We are also part of an ongoing study that is trying to put musical programs back in the school system. We're forced to volunteer at a below-the-poverty-line elementary school's 'After School' program, where we teach sections of kids for 20 minutes (2 hours total). I don't really like it, mainly because I'm a bid scared of little kids, but it's really not as bad as it could be.

My two last classes have the least in class time: Private lessons and Concert Attendance. The Private lessons are just piano lessons that I take from one of the University professors one hour a week, and I have to log my practice hours in order to get a grade. Concert Attendance is just that: we attend concerts. We are required to go to at least 7 convocations (basically class meetings where our classmates perform), and 9 out-of-class concerts. If we do that, we pass the class with an A - if we don't, then we don't pass the class at all.

Work is a lot of fun as well, despite the fact that most of what I do is grunt work (taking the clasps and handles off Plastic Turtles and running cables). The place I work is really lax as long as everything is running smoothly. The only problem is: if something goes wrong, we have to run around like chickens with our heads cut off and fix the problem before the servers shut down. The servers that we watch over and keep up have all the information of every patient in the Health Care System that owns the Datacenter (where I work). So it's a bit of pressure to keep things working, but I've learned things there that I would never had learned before (like breaking down Turtles ;D), and because there's a lot of downtime, I'm able to get a bit of my homework done.

So that's basically my life at the moment: Hecktic, stressful, and oh-so-much-fun. So until later, Valētis.


Cross-posted to TheOtaku Worlds
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