Real Life College Life

I currently have an hour of free time before I am going to grab lunch with my roommates. I should be using this time to study for my calculus exam tomorrow, but I think we all know what's really important.

In short, the reason I have been unable to post is a phenomenon called "course overloading." If you don't know what that is, just pause a moment and revel in how astoundingly lucky you are.

...Done yet? Great! Let me subject you to my self-inflicted misery.

Normal college kids take no more than 16 credits per semester, to my understanding. However, my major requires me to take 18. Thus, "overloading."

At first I was like, "Wow, this is gonna be great. I always challenged myself in high school so I should totally do that in college!"

And then I was like, "Okay this is a lot of work but I can totally do this."

And now I'm like, "CAN'T THINK MUST READ LEARNING THEORY"

But for now, I will simply sing the praises of those 18 credits as the alarm goes off downstairs, piercing my ears for the third time this week [note: it's only Monday]. (It goes off whenever someone holds the door open, as I am in specialty housing and we don't have a security guard. I'm thinking of some choice Panic! at the Disco lyrics right now.)

Introduction to Education is perhaps my most interesting course. It consists of a lecture, discussion group, and field experience. The lectures are of an ungodly length, but sometimes we watch movies. But sometimes we also write papers. So that cancels it out, right?

As a side note, this is college logic. Things cancel each other out. Example:

I ate some ice cream loaded with hot fudge and butterscotch.

But I ate it while walking up some stairs, so that cancels it out.

Anyway, back to my class. On Wednesday I am starting my field placement, but I believe I am not allowed to disclose any information about that. But you can expect some generic stories, I'm sure.

What's a field placement, you ask? Probably the best part of my week! It's my placement in the field of teaching. I get to go to a school in Massachusetts and assist a teacher and observe in his/her classroom every Wednesday. I'm pumped.

Student teaching your freshman year? Does that even happen? Yeah buddy! This is called a pre-practicum, so if you're interested (shameless plug)

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION!! bu.edu, guys.

Along with that, I have an Educational Technology Lab that we all just call ED101 because...well, to be honest, nobody knows what to call it. It's supposed to be teaching us how to incorporate technology into our teaching careers, but basically we're just learning how to make a website for our field placement classroom on Weebly. Weebly is actually a really nice resource, it's really easy to make a website there (she says while using Blogspot...). If you want to check out my site, don't judge. It's currently under construction, and I'm by no means a profession web designer! But it should be done around late November. letsgetrolling.weebly.com

Probably my most difficult class is Multivariate Calculus. My professor is this tiny old lady and I don't always follow what she's talking about. Okay, that's an understatement. I study most of it on my own from the textbook. I've been doing okay on the quizzes, but the quizzes are drawn word-for-word from the homework problems. I have an exam tomorrow and I am, needless to say, extremely nervous.

I also have General Psychology, and I probably have the coolest professor ever. We watch those awkward late 80s, early 90s documentaries on VHS, and she tells questionable jokes about how what guys really like are "BIG PUPILS." I just had an exam last week and I've been keeping up in the class even though I didn't take AP Psych, so basically that class makes me happy. The only downside is that it's at 8 AM.

Now, to those high school kids who are thinking, "8 AM?! You're so lucky! I get up at 5!!" You don't understand. In college, you get up at the crack of noon. It's like summer every day, except you work, and sometimes it's cold. I'm naturally an early riser, but my alarm for 6:40 is killer even when I go to sleep at 10 the night before.

My last class is a level 100 writing class. BU requires freshmen to take a writing 100 and 150 course, but there are so many options that you can basically take whatever you want. I'm interested in linguistics and where words come from (No, I didn't forget that I'm a math major, but maybe you forgot that I'm a huge nerd), so I picked a class called Structures of Language. It's very interesting, but we rarely talk about the actual structures of language. My professor is very passionate about Shakespeare, so we are mostly analyzing his Sonnets. 

In case you were wondering, most of the love poems were written to a man called W.H. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" (Sonnet 18, line 1) Yup, he's talking about a dude. 

I Actually Played Video Games Yesterday

So I kind of have free time today. I might be able to finish my blog later. Because, if you haven't noticed, it is tragically unfinished.

Wish me luck!

Heard in Room 202

So I have some pretty cool roommates. In fact, I have two of them. We have chill times. But basically we've been doing homework--

All.

DAY.

I think we're going crazy. My one roommate just claimed that her back is cramping up from laughing. I'm not sure if that's a scientific thing, but I believe her.

You see, we don't judge each other here. That's how we have such good times. But because we don't judge each other, we just say whatever's on our mind.

I thought I would share some snippets of our conversations with you. Out of context, of course, because that makes them so much more entertaining.

"Wait, did that say stoned and raped?"
"....it said strong and brave."
"Ohhhh, hahaha..."

"One time I went to the hamster market..."

"I think he should be orange because Chester sounds like cheese."
"You mean cheddar?"

"Oh, I think I heard of Jeffrey Dahmer before in my sociology class."
"Really? Who's that?"
"That guy who ate people! No, wait, I heard of him because of Ke$ha."

You see, we have this problem. I think its scientific name would be something like lafficus kronicus (chronic laughing). We can stay silent and study in our room for a while, but then suddenly we burst out with the giggles.

One of the upperclassmen living in our house diagnosed us with a case of the "miggles." This is when you giggle uncontrollably at midnight. I'm not sure if I agree, because we've been like this since 5 pm.

If you know of a cure, please contact me! Because so far, the only advice I've gotten is just to "laugh it out, girl, laugh it out."

#FYSOP23

Today was actually my first day here at college without FYSOP dictating my every move taking up a lot of my time. I mean, FYSOP was a lot of fun, but I was so busy! I was doing so much community service that I didn't have time for the important things (like blogging)!

Paws up! (Raise hands like paws)

Paws down! (Don't lower your hands)

I DIDN'T PUT MY PAWS DOWN!!

Brown squirrel, brown squirrel

Swish your bushy tail, woo!

Brown squirrel, brown squirrel

Swish your bushy tail, woo!

Take a peanut in your hands and SHOVE IT UP YOUR NOSE!!

Brown squirrel, brown squirrel

Swish your bushy tail, woo!

So yeah, expect this post to be interrupted by frequent FYSOP cheers.

Anyway. My first full day of FYSOP was Education Day. My FYcos (FYSOP coordinators) planned a presentation about the Gender Focus issue area. It has to do with the LGBTQ community, body image/eating disorders, and sexual assault. I actually learned a lot, although there is a lot I still don't know. I'm not sure what, though, because I don't know it yet.

Hey FYSOP!

Hey what?

Hey FYSOP!

Hey what?

This is a repeat after me cheer!

(This is a repeat after me cheer!)

You can't ride in my little red wagon!

(You can't ride in my little red wagon!)

The front wheel's broken and the axle's draggin'!

(The front wheel's broken and the axle's draggin'!)

Hoo ha hoo ha hoo ha ha!

(Hoo ha hoo ha hoo ha ha!)

[[This repeats with the following transitions]]

Second verse! Same as the first! A little bit louder and a little bit worse!

THIRD VERSE! SAME AS THE FIRST! A WHOLE LOT LOUDER AND A WHOLE LOT WORSE!

My first day on site was spent handing out flyers for a thrift store called Boomerangs (check it out, I'm totally advertising for them now! Their website is shopboomerangs.org, if you're interested). It's sort of like Goodwill, but the proceeds go to the AIDS Action Committee, and they do a ton of awesome work with it. I wish we could have done more for them, actually, but flyering is important work too...right?

The next day we went to Cafe Emmanuel, which is part of the LGBT Aging Project. (They're slowly adding the Q and stuff on. Cut them some slack, they're old.) It was nothing less than awesome. Cafe Emmanuel is held in a church, and it's weekly lunch event for LGBT elders. Yep, you read that right. Pretty awesome, huh? Four of them actually came and spoke to us at our Ed Day, so I was extremely excited to go. We had lunch with them, talked to them...I learned so much!

Have you ever even thought about LGBT elders? I'm going to be honest: I never had. It's quite interesting to consider, so if you're interested you can do some research or just some personal reflection on your own.

Anyway, this was also what we call FYSOP Fusion, because it blends two issue areas: Gender Focus and Elders. An elders group also came with us on site.

The coolest thing was how happy, energetic, and funny all of them were. The less cool part was that the lunch was pretty funky. In their words, "We come for the company, not for the food!"

And on the third day (that was a shout-out to my little sister, so don't feel bad if you don't get it), we went to Germaine Lawrence. It's a treatment center for girls ages 12-18 facing various serious challenges in their lives. We put some mail in envelopes, stamped and sealed them...I actually thought that was fun. And then I organized a closet for them (with the help of some of my other Quillbacks).

Oh! Story time!

We found a really scary bug inside that was like nothing I've ever seen. It was like, the demon bug of the closet. Seriously. It had maybe 20 legs. At first I thought it was a super gross clump of hair. But I was wrong. It moved. It had a face. It was a bug. One of my friends took it outside.

That wasn't a good story, but I told it anyway. Now I'll teach you the GF Call. It has a dance too, but you'll just have to imagine one on your own.

Hey GF!

Hey what?

Hey GF!

Hey what?

Let's do the GF Call!

Gender 1, Focus all!

Let's all do the GF call!

(chorus)

Go GF go GF go!

Go GF go GF go!

Gender 2, Focus 3!

Let's fight for equality!

(chorus)

Gender 4, Focus 5!

Let's all do the GF jive!

(chorus)

Gender 6, Focus 7!

BOYS AND GIRLS MAKE OUT WITH KEVIN!

(chorus)

Gender 8, Focus 9!

STOP! It's GF time!

(chorus)

We actually didn't know anyone named Kevin, but that honestly doesn't even matter.

Other highlights of FYSOP including seeing awesome dancers that were on America's Best Dance Crew, and even more yelling and cheering. And other stuff, but I doubt you want to keep reading this post forever. I just wanted to impress you with the America's Best Dance Crew thing.

FYSOP is over now and my classes start on Tuesday...But for some reason I'm still busy. Tomorrow you can read all about that business! Oh yeah, I'm lookin' forward to that!

(I'm holding a sarcasm sign)

Is this college...?

So, I signed up for college, but I think it's actually just a giant awesome dance party.

Seriously. I am doing a service project called FYSOP [pronounce that fy-sop], the First Year Student Outreach Project, and we do a lot of serious stuff, but we also dance. And cheer.

Example:

Hey FYSOP!

Hey what?

Hey FYSOP!

Hey what?

Show me how you get down!

No way!

Show me how you get down!

Okay!

D-O-W-N and that's the way we get down! Woo!

D-O-W-N and that's the way we get down! Woo!

See what I mean? I'll post more cheers later because, really, reading a cheer just isn't the same as cheering it. If you didn't like it, try rereading it in a cheerier, louder mind-voice.

There you go, that's much better!

For this week, I am in a group of 11 first-years (Yes, they call us that. It's like Hogwarts.) and 3 staff. The whole program this year is fish-themed, and my issue area is called Gender Focus, so we are called the Queer Quillbacks. Don't hate.

And when I'm not out with my Quillbacks doing service, I chill in my dorm. Which technically isn't a dorm, it's what's called a "specialty house." It's only for students majoring in education.

Yep, that's right. My major is math education. Maybe you're not jealous of that. But you should be jealous, because I get a whole bathroom to myself when I shower. So there.

Anyway, remember how I said my school is like Hogwarts? Well, so is my dorm. There's a big "Welcome to Hogwarts" sign when you walk in, a Platform 9 3/4 poster, signs directing me to various magical shops, and on my room's door is one of Dolores Umbridge's educational decrees--WITH MY NAME ON IT.

So I'm not sure if this is actually college, but maybe things will make more sense when classes start on September 4th. One thing I am sure of is that this is an awesome ad, and I don't even like burritos.