The first week (or most of it) of classes.

I'll just give you a brief of my classes. So, This semester I am taking for sure Physics 2, Calculus 2, European History, and Global Marketplace.

About the professors: The first class I had on Tuesday morning was Physics. I have Jessica Uscinski as my professor, and I fear that she will not be quite as good as Professor Johnson was. She is a nice lady, but teaches a lot out of the book so far. I also had her once as a sub for Phil, and she taught similarly in there. The grading in Physics 2 will be similar to the grading in Physics 1, as my grade is comprised of 2 tests, a final, class participation, labs, and homework. I was a little too tired to appreciate the teaching I think also.

The next class I had was Calculus 2. Professor Lansky teaches it and I originally thought that it was going to be a little boring, but again, I was just tired and it actually was a little boring, because it was review. The grades in Calculus will be homework, tests, and a final. He is a nice handsome man and got the hot chili pepper rating on rate my professor for being good looking. I walked with him a little ways after class on Wednesday, and he asked me about my classes. I think I will like him.

My next class was somewhat strange in the time leading up to the class, because I had been expecting Professor Lohse who wasn't rated all that well, but then on backboard, I was listed under a section that had a really good teacher. So I got my hopes up a little bit and then realized as I appeared in class that it was actually the Professor who had posted the syllabus and not the other one who was listed on the roster. She is very knowledgeable about the material, but at least on my very tired first day of class, she presented the introduction in the most boring way possible. She read in a monotone voice directly off her notes. I think that I'll eventually like her better, but it might take some time. Another thing that didn't help the presentation was the fact that every sentence she said was said in such a way that it appeared that she was on the verge of tears. ratemyprofessors.com had said that she seemed shy, and I guess that is the thing to which they were referring.

My next class was my block class (2classes in a row, but only once a week) and my professor was gone because of a snow storm, so the head of the International Business department was there instead. I think the class has the potential to be somewhat interesting, but it sounds like he is a very though grader and almost everyone does poorly until the end when he curves everything.

Lab was pretty good this morning, and I have the same lab instructor as last Semester. He is tall and somewhat funny. I also think he has a last name that would barely fit on the standardized tests. His name is David Friedlander-holm. He signed up to do an Iron man competition, except it is a generic one and is a lot cheaper, but the distances are the same. He said that people doing those competitions burn about 20,000 calories in a day! He was a swimmer in college so that part will be easy for him, but he said he would be practicing for it on his spring break. It was really nice, because that was my only class on Thursday!

I also auditioned for two musical things. I auditioned for the Winds Ensemble on Tuesday and met the instructor for that class. I had been practicing my French horn over the Christmas break and I brought it out here in my duffel bag/suitcase. It took up a lot of room, so I was glad that I'll be able to play in the band! He seems pretty nice, and said I'll get a part for sure, but he doesn't know which one yet. I auditioned for choir today and didn't have to prepare anything. I just went in there and sung some arpeggios and such to establish my range. Then she played some notes in succession and I had to sing them back to her. It was pretty easy. Then the most challenging part was the sight reading, since I was by myself and didn't have Torey to listen to. She gave me the starting pitch and then I had to sing the 3 lined song. I just missed one note, going down a 3rd rather than a 5th, but she still said I was great and that I was a definite "yes." I will be singing Tenor 2 for a while, but may drop the class if I get too busy. The community can sing in the ensemble, so she said that most of the other Tenor 2s were community members, so I won't meet many friends that way, but hopefully some...

In my classes... Hmm, in Physics we are studying Harmonic motion, like springs and pendulums and such. THere are lots of equations to go along with that. In the lab today, we used the fact that the period of a pendulum swinging is equal to the square root of the length of the string divided by the gravity to calculate the gravity on earth. We only had a 1 percent error for one of the methods, so we are doing pretty well I think. In European History, I read a book called Giovanni and Lusanna and it is about the marriage laws of Florence in the 1400s. It was a really short book and was pretty interesting. The reason that this particular book came about was that it was one of the most closely documented court cases of the time. In calculus we are reviewing integrals, and will then move on to more difficult integral calculations. In business, I had to read several articles from the Harvard Business School Review. I didn't exactly understand them, but one was discussing different types of arbitrages. Its basically taking advantage of some aspect of a region whether it be culture, geography, or economics, and using that to make a profit.

I had been looking at a scooter to buy, because it is fairly portable and would assist in my travels to Georgetown, and I bought it as soon as I had returned here last Saturday. I just received the confirmation email that it had shipped, so I will hopefully get it soon. It is a razor scooter but has big 8 inch wheels:)

That's all for now.

Travis