Shadowfiend23 @ Wrocław

“How To Be Dead”

There’s something fun about the excitement of the first day of classes. New books, new teachers, new students!

So, my first day was on Tuesday, September 6, and I must say that it was a mild first day. I woke up at about 11:00 or so because I had a team meeting for PAL in Walter library at 12:20. The meeting went fine (luckily I had to give my mock introduction to the other facilitators before the PAL coordinator arrive). After that, I literally had no other classes and hence no work to do until my next class, Reading Libertinism, which starts at 6:00pm on Tuesdays. It is like a French literature class where we focus on the libertine, which should prove to be pretty uncomfortable, really. After that, I pretty much just went back to the apartment to sleep.

The next day was more of a first day because I had more classes, but it was technically the second (obviously). I had to scoot on over to St. Paul campus for my 1031 lecture (which begins at 8:30), something that is tiring to say the least. I walked up to the professor before class and shook his hand, something that I felt proud of afterwards because I think it takes a lot of courage to do so. After class, I trekked on back to my Honors Algebra class (10:10) on East Bank, which was almost already completely full.That class went fine, but I can definitely already tell that it will be a challenge and a lot of work. One thing that is nice about it is that almost everything is take home. So that is a little less worrisome. After that class, I went back to the apartment for some lunch and some rest. After the rest, I went off to my Quebecois literature class (a french class that I actually have already dropped because I was at 19 credits). That class went fine, but I had a very runny nose all hour (I forgot to mention that I have been slightly sick the past few days). After that class, I went to my Applied Linear Algebra class, which was also fine. However, I didn’t really like the professor at all. He has a very thick accent and he didn’t explain much, and he didn’t explain anything well. If only I could teach a class like that…

Anyway, after that class I had some down time. Deanna and I ended up getting some food at Potbelly’s while we prepared for our night Italian class. We went to the class and did usual first day stuff, but we actually ended up learning some Italian! I am very excited about that class. You can never know enough languages, in my opinion.

Just one more day to explain for now I think…

So today was Thursday, and the only things I really have going on Thursdays are PAL-related. In the morning I had/will have two sessions for Math 1031 (College Algebra and Probability). The sad part about the sessions today is that they did not go well at all. Well…that isn’t quite true, but they certainly didn’t go how I wanted them to. I got to the classroom about a half hour early, but strangely the door was locked. I asked random people in the building whether they could unlock it (nobody could) and then what I should do to unlock it. Someone in the tech department finally suggested calling the classroom support hotline. I did so, and the representative on the other end said that they were sending someone over right away. Unfortunately, the situation was not resolved until about 15 minutes before class ended, so we ended up having class in the hall. Oh well. Anyway, after class, I cleaned stuff up in the room and closed up the room for the next class. While I was leaving the room, I looked down the hallway to where my backpack had been sitting and realized that it was gone. Someone seemed to have stolen my backpack. Great, I thought. What a great thing to deal with while trying to lead another session. But I had to. There were only five minutes before the next session, so I just had to pull through and give the kids the kind of experience I think they deserve. That session actually went pretty well (we were in a classroom the whole time!). After class I just went up to the lost and found and retrieved my backpack. Apparently, one of the tech guys saw my backpack sitting alone in the hallway and was afraid that it would be stolen. He had good intentions. Anyway, I didn’t really have much planned for the rest of the day. At around noon or so, I received an email from the PAL coordinator informing all the facilitators that there was an opening for another session of Math 1051 (precalculus) for an afternoon session on Thursday. Because I had dropped that French class, I was actually now about to go to that session. I was pretty excited about that. That additional session will actually increase my hours quite a bit (for better or for worse). I introduced myself at the session, but I had found out too late about the opening to actually plan anything for that session. Oh well. There is always next week. After that, Deanna and I went to the Target in Nicollet to get some things, so that was fun. We had a nice little outing. The rest of the night was pretty relaxing; I just took a nap, did some reading, and watched one of Deanna’s favorite shows with her.

All in all, these first few days have been ok, but here’s hoping that next week will be more consistently pleasant.

Schneberger out!

So I don’t have much time right now because I really want to try to get some sleep tonight, but let me just say that I am pretty happy, though I am pretty stressed. I got my paper back from my French 3101 class, and I got a B on it. : (   Deanna also got a B, and most other people got at most an A-. Also, we get a rewrite, so maybe I can improve my grade. I got Deanna two monkeys for Valentine’s Day, one of them being a girl sock puppet monkey known as “Shelley”. Deanna finds her very cute. I also got her a boy monkey who has “I love you this much” written on his stomach. His name is “Seymour”. Deanna also finds him cute. I made Deanna a tasty basil linguine chicken pesto for Valentine’s Day, while she made me a chicken “gougère” with petite Napoleons and carrots vichy (those were amazing!!!). Another funny thing that happened last Friday was that Jake swallowed a game piece while we were playing Settlers of Cataan. We all found it hilarious. I have a test next Monday in Fourier Analysis, and I am very scared of that. I will add more to this later! Goodnight!

So the past week has been pretty good. I had a relaxing weekend on campus; we (Deanna, Jake, Amy and I) went to many events at Coffman. We painted some frisbees and some sunglasses, we had smoothies from Maui Wowie, we had a caricature drawn of the four of us (I will add that picture later), and we saw Due Date at the Coffman movie theater. We liked it, but it was hard to watch because Galifanakas’ character was such a bumbling idiot that he continually worsened the situations he and Robert Downey Jr.’s character were in. I thought it was like a blend of Dinner for Schmucks and Pineapple Express.

The Superbowl was pretty fun. Jake, Amy, Deanna, and I watched it together with chips and mango salsa close at hand. Jake was ecstatic when the Packers won – he was jumping up and down and screaming. It was a very strange thing to watch, if I must say.

We have been watching some old childhood tv shows lately – Jake showed Deanna, Amy, and me Mummies Alive and Street Sharks while I showed them Kablam! and Rocko’s Modern Life. I love watching the old shows because nostalgia can be very enjoyable. I actually watched an episode of Rugrats today while I was eating the wonderful leftover chili from last night’s dinner (good work Deanna).

Anyway, I have a paper to write for Friday in my French 3101 class, but I am not too worried about it because I already have Les Fleurs du Mal, the collection from which the poem I need to analyze is drawn. It is an interesting poem. It is one of the four parts of the poem Spleen de Paris. I will definitely need to think more about it tomorrow.

Sadly, we did not get our tests back today in French 3016, but we did have an interesting discussion about philosophy, religion, and politics. However interesting the class was, the lecture was haphazard because the professor hadn’t prepared correctly today (he was one day off). We didn’t learn very much, which you could consider a pro or con depending upon your point of view. I liked what he had to say, at least.

Fourier Analysis is still going well. Nothing too difficult so far. No test coming up. All’s clear on the western front.

I have a test in Calc IV Friday, and I am slightly worried about it. The theory is no problem, but we need to do certain matrix ops by hand (no calculator on this test), and there is always room for error when mental math is involved. I feel pretty confident about it though.We’ll see how I feel this Friday.

Well, I better get to bed – I need to LA for discussion tomorrow. See you later!

Hello all! Another week down!

Deanna and I went to a Guster concert last Friday, and I must say that it was very fun. I have liked Guster for years, so it was very fun to see them in concert finally. The lead singer had a very funny stage presence, illustrated by a scene where he had the crowd boo him when he came back onto the stage, prompting him to give us middle fingers and swearing at us (as a joke of course). The State theater is amazing as one would guess, so I am glad to go back there. I know Deanna covered this a little bit already, but it was nice to actually have a successful concert at the State Theater. Last time we went there (to see Snow Patrol), we were very late and technical difficulties plagued the performance. Hopefully we can see Snow Patrol again some day…anyway, if you want to see the pictures of the concert, you should check out Deanna’s blog!!!

My classes are still chugging along – I have a test in French 3016 next Monday, and I am quite scared about that. Thankfully I have nothing else coming up until them, so I can focus almost entirely on that. Every other class is OK. Nothing particularly worrying or difficult. Same old same old.

Tonight, I needed to be one of the leaders for a review session for physics 1301 (the class for which I am LA-ing). Overall it was pretty fun because I really do like instructing (and there was a lot of math!), but one of the other LAs kept trying to undermine my authority, and I think that he overstepped his boundaries a few times. It was definitely hard not to explain things more sometimes though…

On a side note, I had to do a lot of dishes last night. AGH! I hate doing them!

On another note, Jake, Deanna, and I went to a Japanese place tonight (Deanna and I went there Monday actually), and Jake ordered a seafood hot pot. He was excited about eating exotic things, but he wasn’t prepared for the tiny octopi that he got. The suckers had a weird texture, and it was very odd to eat the heads.

Well, I guess that’s all. Talk to you later!

So it is the second week of classes and it has been going well so far!  I have been really stressed lately because it feels like I am constantly working.  I guess that is the life of a working man… 🙂

Fourier Analysis teacher is hard to understand because he has a strong Chinese accent, but so far the class is pretty easy.  For my French 3016 class I am surprised at the somewhat low speaking ability of most of the students (not that I am that great).  The teacher of that class is very rigid and precise, but seems more structured than our French 3015 teacher.  J’aime son style d’apprendre.  French 3101 is very work intensive, but the teacher is pretty liberal so far (no assignments to turn in)!  Honors Calc 4 has been really easy to this point.  Busy work, busy work, busy work.  LA-ing has been fun, it’s nice to try out teaching and it’s rewarding to feel like I have helped students.

We have made a lot of interesting meals lately: General Tso’s chicken with fried rice, bread-crumb crusted chicken with spaghetti, kung pao chicken, and coconut curry couscous.  I am doing a bit of emotional eating… which probably isn’t good.

Tomorrow, Deanna and I are going to the Guster concert at the State Theatre and we are both really excited!!!  We have been there once before and are happy to be going back because our last concert there was cut short by our first day of French 1003.  Deanna got me a really cool toy helicopter as an early birthday present; Jake and I have been playing with it ever since!  On a less positive note, I discovered that the back wheel on my bike has been stolen 🙁 🙁 🙁

Deanna is writing my entry this week because she thought it would be nice!  (Aaron is dictating)

So, I am pretty sleepy right now, but I haven’t written for a while, so I will quickly summarize my past few weeks. I took a french test and a physics test last Friday – I will be getting them back this Friday and tomorrow, respectively. I think I did very well on the physics test and pretty well on the french test. The french teacher told me that I should consider being a french major because she thinks I am so good at it. I wonder whether she meant that…also, what provoked the comment? She just told me before class.

Anyway, we saw Obama a few Saturdays ago at the Field House. We waited in line for three hours, thinking that there was no way we were getting in (as the line snaked from the Field House, down Washington, up Church St., around the Mall (where we were), and down the Washington Ave. bridge). We saw first a student speaker, then Al Franken, then Amy Klobuchar, then Mark Dayton, then Obama himself. Deanna’s friend Amy waited with us most of the time but she left to go somewhere with her aunt and uncle about ten minutes before we got in (big mistake in my opinion). Umbrellas were not permitted inside the building, but it was forecasted to rain that day, so many trees along the line were adorned with discarded umbrellas. Deanna was too short to see the speakers very well, but Jake and I could see pretty well. I don’t have any pictures available at the moment because Deanna lost the memory card she was using to take the pictures (it’s fine).

On a similar note, I voted on Tuesday. There was quite a commotion because I didn’t have any documentation (with me) to prove that I lived at the Dinkydome and because the Dinkydome wasn’t in their lists of addresses, but it all worked out. I like to think that my vote counted.

We had a java assignment assigned on Monday that was supposedly very difficult, but it didn’t take me more than about an hour to do. All it does is determine whether two strings are anagrams of each other, but the catch is that non-letter characters are to be ignored. I decided just to count the number of letter characters in the first and then second string, returning that they are anagrams of each other only when the count for each character is equal. I was first considering the permutation method, but doing ten factorial twice would take just a bit too long. I like my solution.

Normally, I have physics homework due on Thursdays, so I scramble to finish it on Tuesdays and Wednesdays by meeting with some people from my physics class and going over the homework. However, we thankfully don’t have any homework due tomorrow. So, instead of studying tonight, Lucas, Joe, Deanna, and I just met at Middlebrook and played Settlers of Cataan, Cities and Knights. I ended up winning (barely though; Deanna would have won right after my turn, and Lucas would have won after hers). I wished Deanna had won.

Jake and I now have Dragon Age, New Vegas, and the Force Unleashed 2 on his computer, and I am very excited to eventually play them. I wish I had more free time, although I do like studying.

The masquerade party was very fun last Saturday – I went as Luigi, and I believe I was a huge success. We played Rock Band later in the night, and I did pretty well singing on easy and playing guitar on expert. I like being the center of attention when I am doing something in which I excel (is Rock Band impressive?).

To celebrate Halloween on Sunday, Jake, Deanna, Amy, Amy’s boyfriend, Michael, and I all carved pumpkins at our apartment. I carved out the two theatrical faces, drama and comedy. I think mine was very cool-looking. I don’t normally carve unique pumpkins. Just the regular, generic faces.

Well, I have a lot more to say, but I am getting sleepier all the time. More later!

—–Aaron out!

So, as you can tell from the title of this post, we now have a door in my bedroom in the apartment! It won’t be “finished” (painted) until Friday, so I haven’t taken any pictures yet, but I must say that it’s a stark improvement. To keep myself awake in the morning, I have been opening the door and letting light in, so I think that shows how much better it is now. The door was supposed to be installed on Monday, but it was actually installed yesterday because nobody was here on Monday to let the construction workers into the apartment. Still waiting on the hooks for the closet, but I’m more than content with the door for now. Apart from that, I am excited to get my calculus test back tomorrow (I think I did well).  I am really enjoying calculus thus far. It is really easy. Since I correctly my french test completely, I got five points back on it, making my final score on the test 94.75% (maybe 99.75% if you count another assignment…I’m not sure whether that one is extra credit or not…), so I am very happy about that. Also, due to some miscommunication, I did the homework for Friday for today, clearing me in French for a few days at least. Physics is moderately confusing, but I really do enjoy the special theory of relativity. The warping of space-time and the consequences of the constancy of the speed of light are hard for me to imagine, however easy they are to accept. Java is still a cinch. I am basically tutoring someone in that class, and I find it very rewarding. It helps me to grasp the concepts better. As a final note, I am upset that so many dishes need to be done. How do they pile up so quickly? Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. Bonne nuit!

So, at 10:10:10 p.m. tonight, it was 2010 10-10 10:10:10. To commemorate the event, I photographed the exact time this occurred. Sadly, I had to take the picture so quickly that it didn’t focus well. Regardless, here it is:

Apart from that, I had a pretty good weekend. We are actually getting a door tomorrow morning! Very exciting in my opinion. I also just finished my Calculus homework, and I recently corrected my french test (I got an 89.75%). I have a lot more to say, but I think that I will go to bed now. I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow (Mondays are my busiest days). More later!