The First Full Week of Classes!

Wow!  It has been a crazy crazy week!  It was our first full week of classes and our professors did not hesitate to jump into the material!  I’ll start out will class stuff and then talk about other things! Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have Calculus and German.  Calculus has been very very hard.  Mostly trying to wake my brain up from the summer but also just because it is difficult math!  I’ve gone to the math lab a few times and the have been helpful.  The math lab is essentially run by older students who professors recommend as good mentors.  They can step you through math problems or just answer your question on a part of a problem.  Having someone explain the specific problem was helpful, but was even better was the group work that we ended up doing.  Several people were there from my class and we could all help each other in different ways!  My professor is great and really loves his job, so that makes math even more enjoyable!  Oh, I also got lost in Noyce Science Center almost every day this week…..and I panic and just leave at the first exit I see and then get really turned around!  Anyways, next I have Intermediate German 1.  Language classes in college are much different than high school.  Most of the class is taught completely in that language and at a school like Grinnell, the classes are so small you are forced to participate.  I think I have spoken the most consecutive German I ever have in the past week.  It really is fun though!  We are doing a lot of grammar but we are also reading stories in German and doing some basic literary analysis.  Tuesdays are my busy days, I have my Tutorial (which is on failure and that is what I shall call it from now on!), Calculus and Biology.  I really love my tutorial class.  We have had several fascinating discussions on failure and we are reading excerpts from books and short stories written about failure. Right now we are looking at how failure plays into creativity.  I think this is really interesting because in high school I did a lot of ceramics.  I was always afraid to make a mistake and often didn’t’ make piece because I thought I wouldn’t succeed.  I hope Tuesday will yield yet another great discussion!  My Biology class, titled Bio 150, Microbial Pathogenesis, has already had us in the lab plating bacteria cultures and reading literature from scientific journals.  Next week we start our first lab, looking at the difference in store bought organic and conventionally grown leafy produce…probably spinach.  Speaking of biology, guess who won the bacteria growing contest?  Me! I didn’t get to take a picture of that particular plate, but I took a picture of one similar to it!  I will post it here!  We also did some dilution plating on Thursday and had to go into the lab on our own time on Friday to count the colonies.  It was really fun to go in by myself, wash my hands, put gloves and a lab coat on and just work!  I actually felt kind of like a biologist!  Thursdays consist of Failure and Biology.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I am done with class at 10:50, which is really nice because I can work on my homework in the afternoon, go for a workout and not have to stay up super late trying to finish my homework!  This also allows me to work ahead and hopefully not be so swamped on Tuesday and Thursday!

 

Ok, so enough about classes, I did quite a bit of extra-curriculars this week so I’m just going to summarize most of them!

 

On Monday I went to Ultimate Frisbee, a really great group of people, but way too serious about Frisbee for me!  If I could run more I might’ve stuck with it but the combination of the two was not going to fit with me this year!  On Tuesday, I went to Salsa!!  They have a performance group as well as a “just for fun” group.  I am really excited to learn more!  I spent an hour or so dancing several dances with many different people!  Right after Salsa my roommate and I went to the Student Alumni Council (SAC) meeting.  This group coordinates networking and other events on campus to facilitate contact between alumni and current students.  They also plan events to get students into the habit of giving back to the school so that when they graduate they will give back in any way they can, not just monetarily.  I think that this will be a great resource as well as a great way to get involved!  On Friday my dorm had a movie night, so we all sat in the lounge and ate popcorn and candy and watch The Princess Bride.  Saturday I worked on homework most of the day and then in the evening few girls and I went to Dari Barn, a wonderful ice cream place in town!  It is right next to what is essentially a tractor and farm equipment parting lot where two really small cats live, they were really cute!  Then in the evening was the first Harris Party, a school sponsored party at the Harris Concert Hall.  My roommate and I decided to go, it is not my scene at all….but it was fun and I’ll go to another one when everybody dresses up in some crazy outfit (basically the rest of them!).  But then I came back and went to sleep!  Today I am going to help my roommate with calculus, write a short essay for my Tutorial and maybe work ahead on math a little!  I managed to finish all my homework for tomorrow yesterday so I get to work ahead of the game today and hopefully won’t be so busy Tuesday and Thursday!