Monday, August 20, 2007
so THERE's the other shoe...it dropped!
Today was the first day of school.
I can't tell you how relieved I am that something got all screwed up. It makes the place seem real and normal instead of fantasy school.
First: it rained. All day. This is actually a good thing, as it hasn't rained since I've been here (two months) and wilderness areas have been closed because of fire danger (or fires). Except I couldn't find my umbrella so I had to run to Shopko and get one. No big deal.
Thought we had a meeting at noon. Got there at 11:30 because I had some things to do. While doing things, saw some people who would have been in the meeting and they said oh no, no meeting today. We'll start next week. Ok, no big deal. I would just go back home until class at 3pm.
But then, as I went to see the academic coordinator about some very minor money question, she had someone else in her office. No big deal, except she said "Julie! Don't you go anywhere!" Ok, no problem, I was going to wait anyway.
When it was my turn she said, "Did you know you had a class today at 8am?"
[STUNNED SILENCE]
[CONTEMPLATE HOW SIMILAR THIS IS TO A DREAM I HAVE ALL THE TIME]
[PINCH SELF. NOPE, I'M AWAKE]
I said, "uh...no."
Turns out that I'm a grader for the GenEd/World Civ class (Long story short: GenEd gets graders from the English department and at least one semester during our eight semesters here we pull that duty. It's actually pretty easy work: grade 110x4 short papers and hold office hours once a week, no preps or anything.) on MWF 8:10-9:00.
That's right: I missed my first class. But in my defense, I didn't know. Super awesome academic coordinator screwed up and feels terrible. But I said eh, whatever. It'll all work out. As long as the prof knows _I'm_ not the screwup in this instance! She assured me that wouldn't be the case.
However. This GenEd class conflicts with my foreign language class. I have an email out to see if I can just go on M and F and skip W or if the prof needs me to sit in the back of the auditorium on all three days. We'll see. No great tragedy if I have to drop the language class. I'll just take it next fall. But it screws up my carefully-planned schedule! I also had to email the writing center and tell them I have to change my availability for leading small-group tutoring sections.
I went home to send a bunch of emails about all this, then I walked back onto campus for my 3pm class. It was great, and I got home at a quarter after six and here I am.
I have three open issues and I don't like unfinished business, but it'll work out soon. Tomorrow's a new day. My other two grad seminars meet tomorrow and I'm stoked about those. But this was not the way I wanted to start the week!
6AM Tuesday Update: Yep, everything is fine. The prof doesn't think I'm a loser, and says I don't have to drop my language class. I'm sure the tutoring section issues will work out as well.
I can't tell you how relieved I am that something got all screwed up. It makes the place seem real and normal instead of fantasy school.
First: it rained. All day. This is actually a good thing, as it hasn't rained since I've been here (two months) and wilderness areas have been closed because of fire danger (or fires). Except I couldn't find my umbrella so I had to run to Shopko and get one. No big deal.
Thought we had a meeting at noon. Got there at 11:30 because I had some things to do. While doing things, saw some people who would have been in the meeting and they said oh no, no meeting today. We'll start next week. Ok, no big deal. I would just go back home until class at 3pm.
But then, as I went to see the academic coordinator about some very minor money question, she had someone else in her office. No big deal, except she said "Julie! Don't you go anywhere!" Ok, no problem, I was going to wait anyway.
When it was my turn she said, "Did you know you had a class today at 8am?"
[STUNNED SILENCE]
[CONTEMPLATE HOW SIMILAR THIS IS TO A DREAM I HAVE ALL THE TIME]
[PINCH SELF. NOPE, I'M AWAKE]
I said, "uh...no."
Turns out that I'm a grader for the GenEd/World Civ class (Long story short: GenEd gets graders from the English department and at least one semester during our eight semesters here we pull that duty. It's actually pretty easy work: grade 110x4 short papers and hold office hours once a week, no preps or anything.) on MWF 8:10-9:00.
That's right: I missed my first class. But in my defense, I didn't know. Super awesome academic coordinator screwed up and feels terrible. But I said eh, whatever. It'll all work out. As long as the prof knows _I'm_ not the screwup in this instance! She assured me that wouldn't be the case.
However. This GenEd class conflicts with my foreign language class. I have an email out to see if I can just go on M and F and skip W or if the prof needs me to sit in the back of the auditorium on all three days. We'll see. No great tragedy if I have to drop the language class. I'll just take it next fall. But it screws up my carefully-planned schedule! I also had to email the writing center and tell them I have to change my availability for leading small-group tutoring sections.
I went home to send a bunch of emails about all this, then I walked back onto campus for my 3pm class. It was great, and I got home at a quarter after six and here I am.
I have three open issues and I don't like unfinished business, but it'll work out soon. Tomorrow's a new day. My other two grad seminars meet tomorrow and I'm stoked about those. But this was not the way I wanted to start the week!
6AM Tuesday Update: Yep, everything is fine. The prof doesn't think I'm a loser, and says I don't have to drop my language class. I'm sure the tutoring section issues will work out as well.
Labels: grad school