Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Defrostin' the Freezer

When Karen (the director of graduate studies) asked if someone wouldn't mind defrosting the department freezer, who was the first flunky who volunteered? Yep, that'd be me. So, I brought all my pans and my hairdryer on the bus so I could come up to the department, unplug the freezer, and watch the ice melt. Well, it does pay 40 bucks, and it did get me out of bed before 10, so I guess there are good things. I've also been around to meet people who are coming in (profs and other studetns) to start classes tomorrow. So, I guess there are a bunch of good things about being a flunky, except that I am watching water drip, drip, drip, and this giant yetti block of ice doesn't seem to be getting much smaller.

So, classes start tomorrow. I have Classical Theory from 1:10 to 3:25, and then Thursday I have Statistics from 2:10 to 4:25. And starting next week, I'll have Deviance on Tuesdays from 1:10 to 3:25. Three classes, seems manageable, but I guess we'll see just how manageable they feel this time next week. I'm excited to start, but after watching Chad get like an average of 2 hours of sleep the past few nights, I'm a little more nervous than I was. At least I'm not reading about contracts. Ugh.

The Nashville heat wave broke, so now we're clearing 90 instead of 100, so that's definitely been nice. I can't wait until fall. With all of the massive trees around campus, it's going to be beautiful for sure. Okay, I have to attend to the ice again. I think one of my pans is filling up. I'll let you know how classes go.
Ciao!
Morgan

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Math Camp and Orientation

So, math camp might actually sound more exciting than it actually is. There's something about the word "camp" that makes you think of tents, marshmallows, and all around good times. There were none of those things, of course, so I feel like they shouldn't be allowed to use the word "camp" in the title of something so insanely boring. Four hours of linear algebra, vectors, matrices, logarithms, and such. I can't really tell how this is going to apply to statistics, and neither can anyone else. At least we got to do our homework as a group, so it was kind of fun working on something with the other incoming soci students.

And we got to skip today, and we will again tomorrow because we have teaching orientation. Even though teaching orientation sounds like it could be equally lame, it actually wasn't. We were in a small group with all of the Sociology and Anthropology students and a lone Poli Sci guy. It was cool meeting the Anthro kids, even though they're kinda like Soci wannabes. It's okay, they're pretty harmless. Not nearly as argumentative as the Poli Sci punks. (I kid, I kid. =) So, yeah, I have to prepare a 5 minute shpeel on something interesting and Sociology related so I can try out my teaching skills on the other kids in the group. I'm not too worried since we all know I can talk about something with seeming confidence even when I have no clue. And really, I think that's a pretty good asset to have. Well, maybe I'll do a little research before tomorrow morning. All around, it should be pretty fun.

Chad and I are pretty much settled in. Mom and Dad are in town for a couple of days. They delivered some furniture, lamps, etc from Midland and are hanging around for a bit to feed us delicious steakhouse meals, which we appreciate much more than mac 'n cheese (not that there's anything wrong with mac 'n cheese.) So that's been very nice. And now Chad is giving me a hard time for blogging instead of figuring out what I'm going to teach, so I guess I'll go do that.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Last Saturday Before Classwork

Hi there family and friends!
I know I've started blogs before and been bad about keeping them up to date, but I thought I'd give this another shot anyway. So, what's going on in Nashville, you ask? Chad and I are pretty much settled into our two-bedrom apartment. We went for a jog tonight - which ended up being a walk - and we explored the park near our place. It's a massive ciy park with a replica of the Parthenon, yes, like the Greek Parthenon, smack in the middle of everyhing. Apparently, in the early 20th century, Tennessee just up and decided to build temporary replicas of the seven wonders of the world, and the people of Nashville liked their Parthenon so much that they took down the temporary one and put up a permanent one. Tonight, it looked like there was a wedding reception there. In another part of the park, there was a free play - a Shakespeare play of some sort - and in another part there was a town big band dance. I always thought scenes in movies like Sweet Home Alabama where the whole town is out on a wooden dance floor and everyone's dancing like they've been dancing their whole lives was a crock. I though scenes like that couldn't exist! Well, let me tell you, there were over a hundred couple out there dancing like pros. All in all, it seems like these Nashville people sure like their free city stuff! Pretty exciting, and it's all down the street, too.

And on Monday, I start math camp, a week-long intensive math review class with all seven of us incoming Sociology stuents, plus some political science students. So, that should be fun. Yep, and that's Nashville for the moment. Chad and I are both sititng on the couch with our laptops, watching Forrest Gump on TV, so I'm going to put my little computer to sleep, relax, and finish the movie. Heck, maybe I'll even make another post in a few days.
- Morgan