The First Week: Nothing

I have been at college for 5 days now, and had 3 days of class. I have delayed writing anything about them because, well, there is nothing to write about. I've been utterly bored every day, but that's what I'll write about!

Monday I had orientation, so that kept me occupied until night, at which point I took a long walk. Eau Claire is a city of many churches (watch for an upcoming post... many of them are quite beautiful!), and on my walk I encountered a Lutheran Church that was ringing hymns from their bell tower. That was quite enjoyable.

Tuesday I spent reviewing Calculus. I am in Calculus II right now because I tested out of the first class. But I forgot much of my Calculus over the summer, so I thought it was fitting to review it. It was actually quite fun, doing 6 hours of Calculus problems... I am a math major though.

Wednesday was the first day of classes. One of the things I didn't realize about college is that you only spend 2 hours in class a day (which I did realize), but what I didn't realize is that you then have 6 hours of extra time that you're used to spending in school, not to mention the time you're used to spending on homework! It makes for a lot of spare time. Not to mention that my Anthropology class was only 15 minutes long, being dismissed 35 minutes early.

Thursday was a longer day: 4 hours of classes. Even still, I found time to take a long walk, celebrate the feast day of St. Gregory (from whom we get Gregorian chant from) by chanting two of the hours (that was a slew of linkable words!). That night I was required to attend "Party House" which was something the college put on about drinking. I was given some root beer and shown into a staged "party", complete with inebriated women acting stupidly! I asked how to exit (it wasn't my thing...) and I was told I don't. They didn't even give me that much root beer, and now they lock me in! What kind of life is this partying anyways? Thankfully, by way of shouting "the cops are here!" (I laughed...), I was escorted into another room, where I was given an envelope, which told me the outcome of my night of debauchery. Luckily I "dogged the bullet", and made it back without harm or punishment. A few presentations about drinking later, and I was escorted into a hall to hear a Mr. Green warn us against drinking. All in all it was rather uneventful in my eyes, though I don't plan on drinking... it was something to do I suppose.

Today I had only 2 hours of class again. Right around 1 I decided that it was useless to read my accounting book simply for the sake of reading it, and decided that reading it (with purpose this time!) on Saturday would be a good option, so I read Moby Dick under an excellent shade tree, and then took a long walk around Eau Claire. Then I did a load of laundry, did a few Calculus problems (for fun really, if you can imagine such a situation) and went to dinner with my roommate Roy and some of his friends. (A post about Roy should come soon... to whet your appetite, he likes to listen to the Backstreet boys and sings along!).

Tomorrow I'm going to go to the post office to pick up stamps and envelopes, and read my accounting book. Perhaps I'll go for a swim in the river! Many kids are floating down the river these days. Monday is Sausage Fest at my dorm a most masculine get together over sausages from all nationalities, in celebration of the only all-male dorm on campus! I've grown quite cynical at seeing girls in the dorm hallways: I like thinking of my room as a sanctuary for males, which no female will ever see, but my interest in the opposite sex is decidedly different than the average college male's, and I suppose that changes things quite a bit.

Until next time, perchance you'd be interested in what I learned in calculus today: the wonders of the number e, or perhaps you are understandably frightened when a number is given a letter name... actually, it's the number x at which the integral of (1/t)dt, from 1 to x is equal to 1. That's a full 4 letters, and a wacky squiggle with a number on the bottom and a letter of the top, which somehow equals a measly one! What fun math is when it involves more squiggles and letters than actual numbers! Though I repeat, I am a math major.