Day 1 (Monday)

I'm just going to go ahead and start this post by stating a fact:

GUSTER=AMAZING!!!

After the concert we got back to our apartment at about 2:00 am and 6 1/2 hours later I was sitting in my first class at the beautiful UO. Psychology seems like it's going to be interesting. My professor is in Europe and the east coast for the first week so the GTF is teaching. He seemed a little nervous to be teaching the first class on his own and said things like "Everything comes out of the brain: emotion, joy, laughter, happiness." (Hopefully there's a little more to it than that) He also mentioned that the actual professor is a 6'4" large German man which should be interesting... frightening. I was happy to learn that Renee from Sprague was also in the class. After an hour and a half of going over the syllabus and course content I had an hour of free time which I used to pick up some books from the bookstore.

Next I was off to General Chemistry. I felt a little overwhelmed at first because of the enormous class size, but I felt a little better when 10 minutes in, the girl next to me turns and says "This is chemistry right?" The class consisted mainly of more syllabus talk (as was the case in most of my classes), but there were also some interesting demos and apparently the professor likes to tell terrible jokes (i.e. Did you hear about the steer that swallowed the dynamite?...It was abominable).

Korean was a very interesting experience. It was the exception to my syllabus comment earlier. The class was very enjoyable and the professor was hilarious. She has a very heavy accent and is obviously very excited about the class. We learned some history, a few vowels and consonants, and basic greetings and introductions. I was really glad I already had a pretty good foundation, because I can tell the class is really going to move along at a quick pace. I knew that the course would be exciting, but I'm surprised at how much I'm looking forward to attending future classes. Afterward I had another free hour which I used to grab a bite to eat.

Next came running. We didn't actually do any running. Just discussed expectations and such. Turns out the class is going to be even more basic than I had expected, but exercise is exercise. We got out pretty early so I had quite a bit of extra time before Chemistry lab where I ran into Jordan. We sat together through the class which sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Again class ended fairly early so I had to wait outside for my next classroom to open up.

The science colloquium is going to be awesome. Renee happened to also be in this class as well as Carrie Walsh. I had no idea what to expect, but it turns out the class consists of field trips and guest speakers introducing us to various science related fields. The instructor was...interesting. He obviously just hated his life, but in a funny way. For the last hour of class of he called out each person's name and major. He then questioned them as to what they want to do with that major and then spent several minutes making fun of their names and choices without offering any better alternatives.

After class I met Jordan on my way back to the apartment so we walked together. I called Erich to see if he was home because I had left him the only copy of the keys with a note when I left (his classes started 6 1/2 hours after mine and ended before) but he was out. We then had an interesting conversation (to Jordan's amusement) which escalated when Erich said "what note?" and we realized that the keys were on the kitchen counter... in our unlocked apartment... in our locked apartment building. It all worked out though. We met up and sneaked in as someone was leaving.

We had a little spare time before both of us had beginning piano, which (to Erich's horror) turned out to be intermediate piano, but I was the only person with any useful musical experience so I think it will be alright. I would have to say my favorite part of the class was during the knowledge pre-test when my test accidently slid up inside the electrical upright piano that doesn't open. We tried to get it out, but finally gave up and the teacher said "Let's not worry about it until it stops working." Embarrassing? Just a little.

7:30 hit and we rushed back to the apartment, picked up my copy of the key, did a quick costume change and were off to Salem (picking up Stephen), Beaverton (Danny) and finally Portland for Dredg. The concert was amazing. The venue was very intimate and they are unbelievable live performers. There were quite a few people who got a little out of hand and several who I'm pretty sure you could get Syphilis from by simply observing them, but that was all peripheral and quickly forgotten once the music started. Once we were back in Eugene (again at 2:00), I essentially passed out in my bed, preparing for another day.