As of 4pm today, my first week back will be officially over. It's been defined by the avalanche of syllabi and paperwork. But I suppose I should back up to the very beginning.
The flight back to St. Louis was quite bumpy, but mercifully short, only 3 1/2 hours instead of 4+ hours, thanks to some crazy tail winds. Arriving back it was surprisingly mild weather which was great. On the plane I happened to sit next to another WashU freshman who was planning on taking a cab with another friend. He asked if I wanted to share the cab, which was nice because it got us back to campus in 20 minutes instead of an hour and for only 10 bucks. By the time I was back on the floor, it was still pretty deserted. At least in terms of guys. Most of the girls had come back a week early to rush, so I got reunited with all of them immediately, but had to wait for the guys to trickle in over then next few days. But by Tuesday, the first day of classes, everybody was back and ready to go!
The first class was a film studies class, Visual Media and Youth Culture, which was a really interesting class, but it has screenings every Tuesday night at 4. Because of this, I decided to drop the class, making my course load the normal 15 instead of 18 credits. That night I had my first EMT class, which was probably the most boring 3 hours of my life. The teacher is a guy that could be accurately described as a big blueberry. He's just a big round guy, that's all there is to it. And I'm sure he'll be a great teacher, but he has a very odd sense of humor and personality. The class itself was really interesting once we got into it, but the first 3 hours were just paper work and describing the paper work which is never fun. But overall I'm excited for the class, especially because I know that our new medic class is going to bond over the painful semester long classes.
But other than rambling about EMT class, my chemistry and physics classes are more or less the same old, although I do have a new chemistry lecture professor. As far as we can tell he's from Romania, and did his graduate work at Standford and taught at Berkley. So at least his resume is rather impressive. I'm not too sure about him as a professor, because we've only had 1 real lecture section, but so far so good!
Last but not least is my Science Fictions (emphasis on the plural) class, which so far has been fantastic. My professor actually a Spanish professor who just happens to love science fiction writing, and how all the stories have influence other works. What's cool about him is he sees all these connections and loves to discuss them, even if it's outside his professional area. He also lived in Argentina for a couple of years so he has a really interesting perspective. Everything about the class seems to be a combination of random but really cool factors.
Also in this last week, we had our first big St. Louis snow. The snow started around 7 and didn't stop till the late into the morning, giving us around 10 or 12 inches. This was awesome, except that I had my first Wilderness Project Leaders meeting. Which was outside. At midnight.
(As an aside, I don't know if I talked about Wilderness Project (WP) is yet. It is one of the pre-orientations programs which is entirely student led, and takes the incoming freshmen out hiking or rock climbing. I applied and was selected to be one of about 25 leaders.)
The instructions were vague, and secretive, telling us to meet on one of the fields under a big tree, with lots of warm clothes. Me and a friend headed over there with lots of layers and boots on (as it had already snowed at least 4 inches) and met there. After a little while waiting, we saw a couple of figures slowly walking towards us, encircling us. The figures approaching us were the previous leaders who were in charge of interviews (called Steering committee) and they quickly yelled to be quiet and shut our eye. They then lined us up and made us hold hands, then led us around campus (with our eyes closed the whole time, in the snow) until we eventually made it to Brookings quad, where we were put into a circle, and could finally open our eyes. We then had a little funny ceremony where we could jump into the circle and say something. It was kind of cheesy but really sweet because everybody was really excited to be there and really excited to bond with everybody. After everybody had gotten a chance to say something to the group (most of it silly), we were again told to close our eyes. The steering committee promptly ran away, leaving us to bond as new leaders. We played in the snow for a while, and it was all good fun, especially because Brookings was gorgeous during the snow.
The next night we had an actual meeting, telling us all the information we needed for now. I didn't realize how big of a time commitment this was going to be but I'm extremely excited for it. If nothing else, it will be an awesome excuse to go hiking a bunch over the semester!
Sorry if this has been so disjointed and rambling, but I tried to hit all the major events that happened over the last week. I think I got it all, but if I forgot I'll update everybody soon!
Hope all is well,
-Brendan
