not dead! just busy!
Busy busy busy!
I'm pretty much settled here in Corvallis, and I'm ready for my parents to leave and classes to start.
I went birding with my parents, unlce, and grandma all day yesterday on the coast, which was awesome. The plan was to finish up the day with a visit to the Tillamook factory after, but Uncle Tim had an epic fail. It's open from 8am to 8pm in the summer, but apparently summer ends sometime before September 17th, and it closed at 6... much to our dismay when we arrived at 6:45. But that's ok, I guess. I'll just have to make a pilgrimage by myself later.
I'm all set up in my new apartment, which is a small one-bedroom in a nice complex about 5 minutes from campus and right on the city bus route (which is FREE with an Oregon State student ID, how awesome is that??). I have a car now (a CUTE little blue Honda Fit, whose name is Dexter), but a parking permit for campus is more than I can afford at the moment, and the free stuff along the street is pretty far away, and I don't really want to get to school at 5am just to get a parking spot. Bus = no parking and no gas. My grandmother gave me money for furniture for graduation, so we took a field trip to the Ikea in Portland and my dad spent the better part of 3 days putting it all together... some assembly required. ^.~ but now I have all the basics... except for a futon, which is on its way from a WalMart warehouse somewhere as we speak. My boxes are ALL unpacked, which, for those of you who haven't lived with me and/or been there around unpacking time, is pretty much a miracle. I still need to get perishable groceries, some frames for things I wanna hang on the wall, and a table of some sort to put in front of the futon, but that'll probably need to wait until this weekend. BECAUSE...
I've been trying since Wednesday to spend 10 minutes talking to my advisor about what classes I need to take so I can get myself registered. The department is in the middle of moving their offices from one floor to another, so everybody's running around. My advisor is the department chair, so he's running around more than most, plus trying to handle all the department-chair stuff, so he's very busy. I also need to turn in a form to the professor of the class I'm TAing telling her when I can't teach TODAY. I tried all day on Wednesday to talk to him. I went in and talked to him, he said 'let's do that this afternoon, I'll call you when I've got a free minute.' I said ok, and went to get some things done. He didn't call, so I called him. The phone was busy for over an hour (I called about every 10 minutes, hoping to catch him when he was done). I went to the office and the main door was locked cuz it was after 5pm and I am not going to lower myself to banging on doors, sorry. So, I'm gonna go camp out in my office today and hope he gets a free 30 seconds. >___<
So, I'm gonna be TAing a lab of Intro Bio... and responsible for the lives and grades of 45 freshmen. Be very afraid. And I have an office. ^____^ I share it with Rocky (another grad student in my lab), but who cares? I have a desk somewhere that's not my bedroom!
Aaaanyway, Corvallis is a lovely little college town, and I'm totally excited to get started!
I'm pretty much settled here in Corvallis, and I'm ready for my parents to leave and classes to start.
I went birding with my parents, unlce, and grandma all day yesterday on the coast, which was awesome. The plan was to finish up the day with a visit to the Tillamook factory after, but Uncle Tim had an epic fail. It's open from 8am to 8pm in the summer, but apparently summer ends sometime before September 17th, and it closed at 6... much to our dismay when we arrived at 6:45. But that's ok, I guess. I'll just have to make a pilgrimage by myself later.
I'm all set up in my new apartment, which is a small one-bedroom in a nice complex about 5 minutes from campus and right on the city bus route (which is FREE with an Oregon State student ID, how awesome is that??). I have a car now (a CUTE little blue Honda Fit, whose name is Dexter), but a parking permit for campus is more than I can afford at the moment, and the free stuff along the street is pretty far away, and I don't really want to get to school at 5am just to get a parking spot. Bus = no parking and no gas. My grandmother gave me money for furniture for graduation, so we took a field trip to the Ikea in Portland and my dad spent the better part of 3 days putting it all together... some assembly required. ^.~ but now I have all the basics... except for a futon, which is on its way from a WalMart warehouse somewhere as we speak. My boxes are ALL unpacked, which, for those of you who haven't lived with me and/or been there around unpacking time, is pretty much a miracle. I still need to get perishable groceries, some frames for things I wanna hang on the wall, and a table of some sort to put in front of the futon, but that'll probably need to wait until this weekend. BECAUSE...
I've been trying since Wednesday to spend 10 minutes talking to my advisor about what classes I need to take so I can get myself registered. The department is in the middle of moving their offices from one floor to another, so everybody's running around. My advisor is the department chair, so he's running around more than most, plus trying to handle all the department-chair stuff, so he's very busy. I also need to turn in a form to the professor of the class I'm TAing telling her when I can't teach TODAY. I tried all day on Wednesday to talk to him. I went in and talked to him, he said 'let's do that this afternoon, I'll call you when I've got a free minute.' I said ok, and went to get some things done. He didn't call, so I called him. The phone was busy for over an hour (I called about every 10 minutes, hoping to catch him when he was done). I went to the office and the main door was locked cuz it was after 5pm and I am not going to lower myself to banging on doors, sorry. So, I'm gonna go camp out in my office today and hope he gets a free 30 seconds. >___<
So, I'm gonna be TAing a lab of Intro Bio... and responsible for the lives and grades of 45 freshmen. Be very afraid. And I have an office. ^____^ I share it with Rocky (another grad student in my lab), but who cares? I have a desk somewhere that's not my bedroom!
Aaaanyway, Corvallis is a lovely little college town, and I'm totally excited to get started!