Lazy days

This is a weird time of school limbo, at least for myself and several other people I've talked with, because we've had two days of class, and we know that by next week or the one after at the latest we'll be incredibly busy yet again, but for right now we're just not that busy at all. The general consensus is to act like you're busy, so that you get in the habit. Along that vein I spent a good bit of yesterday reading for various classes, and the rest of it mostly sleeping in hopes of fighting off this really badly timed cold which hit me on the first day of class.

My classes this semester seem to be good, I'm on my last CHC, or MHC as they're now called, and I anticipate that it's going to be boring but manageable. I'm also on my last semester of German, and that promises to be fun and relatively easy as usual - I can't get over how nice Hunter's German department is! Although, in our first German class we did have an elderly auditor from a neighboring class room come and steal the chair we were using to prop the door open... Biology continues to be interesting, though challenging, and my chemistry class seem to be infinitely better this semester than last, thank goodness. Not only is the professor much better, but he seems to have fostered better students: I've already been invited to several study groups, both online and in person!

This week I'll be volunteering to do interviews with applicants to the Honors college, and meeting with a professor from NYu whom I'll be interning with for the spring. Last week I went down to Johns Hopkins to meet with researchers there, one of whom I'll be working with over the summer. Things are starting to get busy and exciting again. But for right now, the school limbo is working nicely; I was happy to spend the day snoozing, eating, and watching movies with my boyfriend, something we both needed before the stress of school sets in. Once the semester is underway it can be hard to remember to relax, but it is important - burning out is not a good feeling. As I ease back into the workload and the long hours, the textbooks and papers, I'm definitely hoping that days like today don't fade away entirely.

spring-a-ling

There's something about having this long break that really makes it hard to get used to school again. Here I am, on my bed at the dorm, reading chapter 36 of Biology, and I just cannot seem to understand all this gibberish about water potentials and transportation mechanisms in plants. There is something about the air at the dorms: its so dusty (maybe because I don't clean my room as often as I should) that I feel the dust enters my brain through my ears and then my mind is like a bookshelf covered in dust and grime....Oh well.
School is like braces: when you first get them on, you're like "oh no! I feel so constrained, so uncomfortable, so hurt!" and then you get used to having them on, and you don't mind them as much, and they are even a conversation starter sometimes, but there is still nothing like the sense of freedom you have when they finally come off.

Starting Again

Spring 2010 was greeted by...snow. Go figure.

I've been back at Hunter since Monday (working), so waking up for my 10:10 CHC was a lot easier than it could have been. I'm actually pretty excited about this one. I have Professor Vengoechea, who is an architect and city planner, and he's planned some pretty interesting sounding field trips and assignments. Plus, no books to buy, and a relatively light reading schedule (a VERY satisfying change from last semester. Egh.) No ideas about final projects, but there's plenty of time for that.

Und Deutsch 202! Ich habe eine neue Professorin - sie heisse Frau Anderson. Es geht gut. (She seems to finally be the professor to push the class at a quick pace, rather than dealing with people who don't put in any effort. Also, I'm excited to be taking a course from someone who isn't a native German speaker. I think it'll boost my confidence a little bit...)

I've only met two of my five professors so far - looking forward to next week! I hope everyone else is as well.

-Katharine