8.22.2011

Day 93

First day of class.  Woo!  And what a day it was...


I woke up around 6:20 and couldn't fall back asleep.  So I got up and showered.  I was pretty nervous about my first day of classes.  Since I didn't have a parking pass yet I had to park in the garage.  That was an adventure because I didn't know where I was allowed to park and how prepaying worked... or anything.  I felt so silly.  I also copied down what I considered to be important information so that I could get my parking permit between classes.


So I got to my first class around 7:45 and there were already about 10 people waiting in the hall.  I recognized a couple of them from the G.A. meeting I went to on Friday.  I asked the people standing around whether anyone had tried the door and one of the guys, I think his name is David, said he had tried.  Then he asked me if I had heard of the "bars experiment," where scientists had a group of 9 people, 8 of whom were actually researchers as well.  The 8 basically just had to give false information when comparing the sizes of bar (like saying that the bar that was clearly the smallest was actually the largest) to see if the actual participant would follow.  Anyhow, I had heard of it, so I asked David if this was a test, and whether he had actually tried the door.  He claimed he had, but after the story I was uncertain.


The door was in fact locked.


Our professor finally got there right at 8.  So we were seated and he started class.  Today's class was just a review of simple interest.  I was kind of bored... this was something we had all done in 8th grade.  But I learned that apparently the Ball State book store didn't have the right books on the website.  So I had one book I needed but not the one we would be using for the majority of the class.  Blargh.  Oh well.  So after class I scurried over to get my parking pass (after going to the wrong building) and there was a really long line.  Probably about... 25 people?  So I filled out the information card and waited in line.  By this time it was about 9:15... and I had class at 10.  The line moved pretty quickly and I was on my way out around 9:35.  On my way to the parking garage I ran into a couple girls that recognized me from the first class.  So I talked with them for a couple minutes.  Their names were Senzeni and Yu, I believe.  Anyhow, I talked with them, then scurried off to move Pegasus before class started.  Obviously all of these things are on opposite sides of campus.  So I got Pegasus, drove to the commuter parking lot, and got to class with about 5 minutes to spare.  


Both classes had pretty much the same people in it (first class was Mathematical Finance and this one was Life Contingencies I).  They saved me a seat in the second row.  My new friends are so thoughtful :)  Since I had the wrong book for this class as well (thank you BSU bookstore...) I tried to buy it via the Amazon app on my phone before class started.  I accidentally hit "one-click buy," which was going to ship the book to Mount Vernon (since that's where I had it set to ship).  This was not where I wanted my book, so I tried to cancel the order... but something went wrong.  So I had to sit through the entire class with the fear that I had just ordered a book to the wrong place and it would take forever to get to me.... So I was not happy.  Anyhow, this professor was a bit intimidating.  Not only did he (in the nicest way possible) inform us that getting an A in these classes in no way guaranteed us of passing the Actuarial exams.  If we got an A, the information seemed "trivial," and we studied up until the day of the class we "should do alright."  So...you know, I feel great about all of this.  Too late to go back now!  Let's do this thing.  But basically by the end of the week we're supposed to read the first two chapters thoroughly and do all the practice problems.  And memorize all the definitions.  And by "thorough," I mean that he mentioned how "often questions on the actuarial exam come from the footnotes."  Boy, this sounds like a jolly good time!


After that business was over, I headed over to the graduate department so I can get paid!  Thankfully my Amazon order did get canceled, by the by.  So I got to the grad office, filled out some paper work, discovered that even though I'm not going to have an assistanship over the summer I will be getting my tuition remitted.  So that's exciting.  When I'd finished up there I went back to my apartment to eat lunch and order some new books... oh joy.  My life contingencies book should be here on Wednesday.  My math finance book... hopefully Thursday or Friday.  I purposely picked someone who was shipping it out of Indiana.


Um... around 2 I went to go run some errands.  I had to stop by Wal-mart to get some folders and soy sauce for dinner tomorrow (the folders are not for dinner).  Then I went back to campus to figure out what my classroom tomorrow is going to be like.  Apparently these rooms are not set up with computers...so no powerpoint.  We're going old school!  That will definitely eliminate some prep time, thankfully.  I had some time to kill (I had intended on working on my powerpoint) so I tried to get my desk key... but apparently that desk does not have a key.  Or the secretary couldn't find it.  But she put an order in for a new key for me.  So yay!


My last class (Mathematical Theory of Statistics) is taught by my faculty mentor, Dr. Begum.  I have the right book!  Yay!  Umm... this class was also a bit slow.  We had a review of basic set theory... most of us were pretty bored but we all very dutifully took notes.  After class I showed Erica where her office is (since it's near mine).  She made the same mistake that I did in thinking that 361 was her office... not 361a.  361 is a conference room.  I made this mistake when I looked for my office last week.  So after class I showed her where her office really is.  We also decided that we're going to ask some of the people in our classes if they want to form a homework/study group... since that makes things a lot more manageable.  So we'll see how that goes.


When I got back I got some dinner.  Then Clifton came and I talked with him for a while.  Then Andre came and we all talked and just got to know each other a bit better.  So we talked for a while and it was good.  Um... I did some laundry, played some Team Fortress, tried to figure out if I had any homework I could do... and I realized that there wasn't because my only assignments are in books I don't have.  So win.


Um.  Now I'm blogging.  But I think I'm going to make my lunch for tomorrow and go to bed.  Yup!

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