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.