Favorite conversation about being a Mormon so far

Fellow Grad Student: You're from Utah? So are you Mormon?
Me: Yes!
FGS: That's awesome! So did you go on, like, a quest?
Me: I'm sorry?
FGS: You know, a quest! The thing they make you guys do for like a year after high school.
Me (Realizing she's talking about a mission): Oh! Yes, I went on a quest
FGS: That's amazing! Where did you go?
Me: I went on a quest to England

Other stuff and stuff

Clearly I am in a catching up, chatty Kathy mood, because this is my third post in a row. The problem is that I think posts should be about something specific and so I need to separate them in my mind. I may be too anal for blogging.

In keeping with a blessing my brother gave me before I left for school (Thanks D!), I have been trying to be social and not hide away in my apartment. I have been trying especially hard to participate in things at church. This is not that easy for me because as you may know, I am not a "joiner". However, I have been going to a weekly volleyball game for the sisters and young women in the stake, and I have been volunteering for things to do with music. The stake is having a musical...sharing time? in conjunction with the RS broadcast in September and like a good citizen I offered to be part of it. But then I was handed a song. No, I'm sorry, that should really be in capital letters. I was handed A SONG. The song was written in 1978 (a banner year in many other respects) and is called...wait for it...I'm a Woman (hear me roar). Ok, the parentheses are not included as that would be an entirely different song that would actually be hilarious to sing at an RS function. No, this one is just "I'm a Woman". Sample lyrics include:

I'm a woman, yes, a woman, fair of face and soft of touch...

To my husband, my companion, I'll bring tenderness and cheer

For a woman bears a softness, be she young, or pioneer

There is also something about forging the destinies of the youth with our influence. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy*. I am pretty sure I can't get through that song without laughing my head off. So I offered a song called Be Believing that my sister and I wrote earlier this year. I'm not all eager to show off my songwriting technique, it's just that I couldn't stand the thought of getting up there and singing about my fair face.

I am a teaching assistant for American Government and Politics this semester. It's a pretty good gig, and the professor is great. Before the class started he offered to let me do a lecture if I wanted to. Well of course I want to, I think it will be a great experience that will be really helpful in getting the professor's feedback. So today I told him which lecture I wanted to take based on my knowledge and "expertise" and he said that was great, but he was actually going to be out of town for the lecture before that so if I could take that one instead it would be great. Of course I said yes because that's what you do when someone who has your future funding in his hands asks, but now not only do I have to prepare a lecture on something I know less about, he won't actually be there to critique me when I do. Argh. However, Purdue has this weird (big brotherish?) thing where they can and do record any lecture so I will be able to listen to myself and even watch myself if I want to and then critique that. Yes, that's much better. Or not.


*Not a part of the lyrics, though it might actually make the song better

Things about Purdue, both good and bad

All universities are different, let's just start with that. Sometimes you can just say it's different without assigning a value, but sometimes there are definite values attached. For instance:

Buses- Purdue and the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette have banded together to make this amazing bus system that is absolutely free to all students (I mean, I guess we all pay tuition, but you know what I mean). There is a stop about 2 minutes from my house that takes me directly to the building I need to go to. The bus drivers are friendly, the buses are clean and in a pinch I've actually seen them treat their passengers like they're in a taxicab and just stop when the person wanted to get off (though this isn't great for the punctuality of the buses). It's great and convenient and saves me time and money. Which is good because...

Parking is dreadful. They've made it as inconvenient as possible for a student to park on or anywhere near campus. I understand that they are trying to encourage busing, but come on, sometimes I just need to be there for 10 minutes and I don't really want to have to wait for the bus.

Finals- The university has yet to assign times for finals, which means no one can plan their holiday travel because none of us know when we'll actually be finished. The last week of the semester is called Dead Week and it's unclear to me whether you have classes that week or not, but what I do know is that under no circumstances are you allowed to schedule a final during Dead Week. Maybe it's called Dead Week because they will kill you if you try to schedule a final? Must look into the more draconian bylaws of Purdue...

So I've done it. I've completed my first week of my doctoral education. Only roughly 300 million weeks to go (that's obviously just a joking, outlandish estimate. It could very well be more). So, from my vast experience and wisdom, here are some general observations:

There will always be more to do and learn in this program and at some point you just have to say to yourself, "I have absorbed all I can, and in fact if I try to do more I may start rocking back and forth in a crazy manner. It is time to quit." And then you actually have to stop. I actually think the real trick will be not deciding that it's time to quit before it actually is, and I may not be so zen about the whole thing when I have ten major papers due the same day. Nevertheless, that is what I have decided for now.

When you essentially have no life because you don't know anyone in the area it is easier to complete tasks in a timely manner. However, this is already ending as I am getting to know my fellow grad students. Today I had to spend ten minutes watching some guy play a computer game because despite my replying in the negative when he asked if I liked video games, he still felt he needed to show me an awesome new rocket launcher game he had found on the internet.

I know that's only two observations, but what do you want from me? I've only been here a week.

I'm Meltiiiiing

My brain, it might be melting. That's bad news. I wonder what life will be like with a melted brain? Will I in fact be the exception that proves the rule that the unexamined life isn't worth living?

MIGHT I IN FACT BE HAPPIER?

Cross your fingers.

Orientation

This week has been an up and down sort of week. I finally put all of my clothes away yesterday, which I suppose officially declares that I am here to stay, but you'll notice it took me a week and a half to take that step. Part of the problem is that I don't feel like this is my home, and not just in the sense that it is an unfamiliar place, but I'm not really comfortable in my apartment yet. I still haven't completely gotten rid of the smoke smell, though I think I've made progress, and I just don't feel comfortable here. So it's not been great because I've been spending a lot of time at home but don't really like being here. However, I had a series of orientations this week and met my department and there are some really nice people who I think will be good friends. The orientations were on a variety of things, the most helpful being a 10 minute lecture on not "socializing" in any way with your students outside of class. Except of course it was put a lot more bluntly than "socializing". I didn't have any intention of "socializing" but am glad to know that I will be backed up by the university in that.

I actually start school tomorrow. I have to confess that I am a little nervous. Having never been in a PhD program before, and having listened to the older grad students in my department expound on the challenges of the program (I don't wish to be uncharitable but I do think there is a certain amount of glee from those who have survived their first years in scaring the crap out of the newbies), I am fairly convinced that they are going to drum me out of the program within the next week or so after they discover that I am not nearly as clever as they thought I might be. In keeping with one of the senior grad's bits of advice I have tried to get as far ahead as I can stand, which means that I have already read four books and eight articles for a class I haven't actually attended yet. That was for my political science methodologies class. It's difficult to sum up what the class is exactly (and in my defense even people who have taken it can't tell me what it's about), but I think it will be helpful, even if the professor does describe it as a sort of hazing for the program. I'm also taking a quantitative methods course where the professor claims he is going on the assumption that we have never had a statistics class before and have very little background in math. I'm ok with that. Those two classes are required my first semester and then I am also taking a Pro Sem on International Relations. The "Sem" is short for seminar, but I don't know what the Pro is. I would assume professional, but you never know. I really wish people would stop assuming that I just know what these stupid abbreviations stand for. For instance, there's a field in this program called PBI. It has something to do with American politics, but that is as much as I can find out from the context. I kept meaning to ask someone the first day but forgot and now it seems like it is far too late and now I will never know. I may even end up majoring in PBI and never know what it stands for. I just hope there isn't a test on that.

I got a very fun rug to match my random turquoise square ottomans so now i just need curtains to feel like the front room is done (for now of course). Still haven't taken any pictures, though I now know where my camera is, so that's progress.

Indiana

Well, here I am. I'm here in Indiana and I'm here, at long last, in the world of the blogger. I don't have much to say about Indiana thus far. It...exists. The people are friendly, but I can't say I've noticed the extra dose of friendliness that the Midwest is famed for. I hate my apartment and will never in a million years understand why people smoke. Actually, it's not fair to say I hate my apartment. If it smelled normal I would be pretty delighted with it. But let me just say, I think smoking is a disgusting habit and I don't understand why people would ever pick it up. I understand it's heinous to quit, but I really think if they would all think about me just a little bit more and themselves just a little bit less then we could come to a compromise that would benefit me. I mean us. I am thinking about the poor smokers as well!

Today for the first time I think I may have started to get a handle on the smell. Here's how you get rid of cigarette smoke: listen to and follow all of the advice that various family members, friends, and the internet can provide; wash down the walls, dust the carpet with baking soda, use vinegar liberally. Then go ahead and buy every deodorizer that looks like it has half a chance of working, cross your fingers and hope that one of them works. Magic!

In other news I went to my first of roughly three thousand orientation meetings today. It was for graduate student employees. I sat next to a guy, glanced at his paperwork (For those of you who know of my...tendency to be overly curious about things that don't concern me, I swear I wasn't being nosy, just glancing over) and it turns out he's from Utah. So we chatted and his wife was from Orem, they're in one of the other wards in the area and I'm sure if we had played the Mormon "do you know?" game we would have ended up discovering that we were third cousins once removed and were once in the same ward. You know, because there are actually only a thousand people in the Church. This came up yesterday in church when, after introducing myself in Sunday School, a girl ran up to me and said, "were you in the Sharon 7th ward?" and it turns out I used to visit teach her twin sister. Like I said, a thousand people tops.

And that's it for my first post. I make no guarantees of posting frequency. I don't even guarantee I'll remember the name of this blog two weeks from now. But it's a start. If I ever get around to feeling like my apartment is presentable in pictures I will take some and then start a new adventure of figuring out how to post them here. Again, no guarantees.