Busy busy bees.

I realize I haven't posted in forever, but I've been really busy. School is starting to kick my butt and there is ALWAYS something going on.

I had a quiz Wednesday and Friday in the same class. Our teacher didn't tell us about either of them. I have a test in that same class this upcoming Wednesday.

I'm taking 16 hours this semester, which isn't terrible, but it's more than I'm used to. Also, one of those classes is about six hours a week and only counts for 1 credit hour. Add in work, student government stuff, and everything else, I've kind of forgotten what free time is.

I'm super excited for today because it's the first day in forever that I have nothing going on. I don't have to work or go anywhere or do anything, I can just hang out. I went on a run this morning, ate an omelet, and now I'm probably going to take a nap here pretty soon, maybe study, and go to a movie tonight.

I love Saturdays.

Sometimes I just want to go back to kindergarten.

I realized that I haven't properly informed the internet about the joy that is kindergarten. I go on and on about it to anyone who will listen, and I think people have stopped caring. That's why people blog anyway, right? To post things that no one wants to listen to? Haha...

Anyways, for those of you who don't know, as part of my college classes this semester, I have to do an elementary school practicum. Basically that means I get to go hang out in kindergarten Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It is literally the greatest thing ever and I can not tell you how much I love it.

Actually, I probably can. Kindergartners are absolutely adorable. They call me Miss Anderson and give me hugs all the time. This one girl tells me she'll miss me every time I leave. One kid even told me he loved me today. Twice. I think my boyfriend's got some competition...

They're just at that stage where they're starting to learn how to read and write new words. They know all their letters already, but it's really exciting helping them learn how to read. Some of the kiddos are super smart, like the one who knew how to spell "snowboard" (I asked him to spell "snow" and he one-upped me). This is the same kid who raised his hand during stations and told me he was bored with making three-letter words. I love how unreserved kids are.

And yes, spelling "snowboard" is a big deal. They're still learning three-letter words and word families. Today we worked on "-it" words: lit, hit, sit, quit, etc., and some of the kids really have a hard time with it. A lot of them don' t know how to read "it" yet so I think it's awesome when they figure stuff out.

Today when I was leaving they all asked me if I could stay and come back every day. I really wish I could. Do you know how unappealing college is after being in kindergarten?

Nap Time.

You know how when you were a little kid and you absolutely abhorred (yeah, that's a $5 word right there), anyway, when you absolutely abhorred your parents for making you take naps?

Now in college, naps are seriously the greatest thing ever. Unfortunately, I never have enough time when I'm in my room not doing anything to take a nap. I always have class and work and such. Sigh...

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have a class on East Campus at 8-8:50 AM and another one at 10:30. I usually get to the Union around 9, have breakfast, and then have a little over an hour or so to kill. Perfect time to take a nap, except the East Campus Union (or probably any campus union) is not the best place for naps. Lots of people and plastic chairs at tables ya know?

Well today I found the perfect place. There's this little corner behind some stairs with two really comfy purple chairs and it's pretty secluded. I figured it'd be great because who would come back here and I can sleep all curled up in chairs. Andy says I'm like a cat or something.

This isn't the best picture, but I had to get it off the website. I took a
better one with my phone, but it won't send picture messages
anymore. It's kind of under the stairs in the left corner.

Anyway, I'm curled up in my corner chair with my iPod in, and some older lady decides to come sit in the other chair and starts talking on her phone in Spanish. Now she's just sitting here reading the newspaper, even though there's a million other places to go do that, and nap time is ruined because I think it's a little awkward to sleep in public places when there's other people around.

So instead of catching up on my serious sleep deprivation, I'm blogging about it.

Oh and she just left, but now I only have like 10 minutes left until I have to go to class.

Photo Credit: http://union.unl.edu/east/

Teaching.

Today I had orientation at my practicum school!

Practicum is basically a step down from student teaching. I have a classroom, but I'm mainly just observing and helping out and the regular teacher is still in charge and plans everything. I'm just there to get the hang of things.

Today was just kind of an overview. We met the principle and she told us about the school, then we went on a tour and got to meet our supervising teachers and classes. I have a kindergarten class and I only got to meet them all for about a minute today, but they're all adorable. It's a really small class too, maybe 15ish kids and Lilly the Rabbit so it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm super excited for this semester =)

Things are probably going to get pretty busy now that I have a bunch of kindergartners plus Ben the virtual child (who is now 8 months old and doing fine. I virtually went back to work so he's been going to daycare and it seems to be going well).

I should throw out that Ben is really not that much work, maybe 15-20 minutes a day. Definitely not as time consuming as an actual child. But still, I want to do it right ya know?

Parenting?

I've realized that as I've gotten into some major-specific classes, my assignments get more and more...what's the word...interesting.

I started raising a child today. His name is Ben and he is three months old.

For my Human Development class we have to raise a virtual child, from birth to age 18. Ack.

It tells you your initial situation (I had pregnancy complications and my baby was born way early and had to be hospitalized for a week) and then it gives you a bunch of situations and you have to decide what to do. My child is probably going to be really screwed up because I have NO FREAKING CLUE what I'm doing.

To paraphrase one of the questions, "You want your child to develop curiosity and interest in things, how do you do this? Pick one of the following:

• You deck out his crib with the latest baby gear, like red and white rattles, etc
• You hold him, talk to him, and interact with him as much as possible
• You give him lot of audio stimulation, like talking to him and listening to music"

Umm...they all sound pretty good to me. I picked B.

Another example: "Will you breastfeed your baby?

• Yes, he will only be breastfed
• Yes, but we will supplement with formula
• No, we don't see the need to"

Again...ummm...B?

Remind me never to be a single parent.

Hopefully this kid survives. We'll see how it goes. I don't think I'm quite ready for this whole parenting thing.

Back to the grindstone...

I actually think I'm going to enjoy my classes this semester.

All of them.

That's a first. I usually have a couple good ones and a couple terrible ones, but if the first day means anything, I think they are are going to go well. I haven't had my Monday-only class yet, since this Monday was a snow day (YAY!!) and next Monday is MLK Day (YAY!!!), so I don't know about that one, but so far all my teachers seem great and all my classes seem interesting.

Hopefully it stays that way, because I can not get up for 8 AM class if it's not going to be a good one.

Oh yeah, that's the crappy part of my schedule. I have to be on a bus by 7:30 three days a week or leave to go to an elementary school by 8 am the other two days. I'm going to have to become a morning person. I also get done at 4:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and have a night class on Mondays.

This is why I need my classes to be amazing.

But these first couple days of class were really encouraging because for once, I actually felt like I belonged there. I'm so excited for the rest of the semester. All of my classes are Child Development/Family Studies/Education something, so I really feel like I'm finally in the right major. I feel like I'm on the right track and taking my life in the right direction.

And it only took me a year and a half of college to figure that out!

Survival.

Surviving college is not all that hard, at least so far. You just gotta know some stuff.

Like don't sit by people with laptops in lecture classes. I spent almost the entire 50 minute class period watching the guy I sit by play solitaire and the kid in front of me play some game where you throw turtles.

I sit in the second row.

Also, I found out sometimes it helps to study someplace other than a dorm room. There's just something about that I can't focus on anything. Go to a study room if you want quiet or the dining hall if you need background noise. I can't do anything in complete silence. It drives me crazy. I always bring homework to breakfast, especially if I don't have anybody to go with. It's nice. My new favorite place though is the Coffee House. Bring your laptop, grab a mocha, be productive. I was there for like 3 hours the other day studying for my biology test.

And finally, you gotta learn to outsmart the weather. You know how in movies when it's really windy and the umbrellas turn inside out? That totally happened to me today. Also, it's probably not a bad idea to invest in a pair of rain boots. Chuck Taylors do not cut it.

Tip of the Day: Well, I already had like three, so we'll call that good.

Back to school...sort of.

Today was our first day back after fall break. It was kind of disappointing. It even rained all day, which I think that means we shouldn't have come back to school.

Fall break was amazing. It was kind of crazy since practically everyone went home, so it was pretty empty here. I think there were like 3 girls on my floor that stayed. I wasn't here very much though, so it wasn't bad.

I also had a bio test today, and I answered 20 of the 50 questions with "e, all of these." So hopefully our teacher just really likes having questions with that as an answer, cuz that kind of made me nervous.

Oh, and apparently our dorm is haunted, so they're doing ghost tours tonight. Can't wait!

Tip of the Day: Don't listen to the weather report. Open the window instead. I checked online this morning and it said it was 61 degrees out. It definitely wasn't.

Ouch.

I just wrote UNL a check for $484.86.

Yay education.

It was weird because I never write checks, and I definitely never write them that big. It's kind of depressing to think of your bank account getting $500 smaller in about 30 seconds.

It's even more depressing that the first big chunk of my hard-earned money from working a crap ton over the past 2 1/2 years went to pay for books and a parking permit. And that was after scholarships and loans and what not kicked in.

I keep saying I need to get a real job, but I kind of really don't want to. Maybe after football season...

Tip of the Day: Play intramural sports. Good times, good times.

Adventures!

So today, my roomie and I came back from lunch and...our door wouldn't open.  We have the key card things like in hotels, and neither of our keys worked.  Apparently our battery had died.  What???  They're supposed to flash red before they die, but for reasons unknown, ours didn't.  So we had to sit out in the hallways for like forever and wait for Elmer to come fix it for us. 

Elmer is awesome by the way, he's our building maintenance guy.

The really funny this is that there was a guy interviewing the girls across the hall from us for journalism class, and he was asking them if they had had any strange, unexpected things happen to them this week.  As we were trying unsuccessfully to get into our room.

Luckily, neither of us had class right away in the near future, I just didn't get my homework done.

Now I'm off to the bus stop to trek to East Campus!  Because for more reasons unknown, UNL decided to have two campuses, and the one is like 20 blocks away.  So we have to bus, which is ok, more adventures!  Hopefully this time we make it to the bus stop in time though, cuz last week we literally had to sprint after the bus until it stopped at a red light.  It was classic. 

Tip of the Day: Be on time!

Oops...

Haven't updated in a couple days, it's been super busy...

I survived my first weekend of being an official college kid.  Yay!

My clothes also survived their first time in a college washer.  Yay again!

Homework takes up way too much time, and it's really weird getting used to not having every class every day, like in high school.  Meaning, I forget about things, like homework.  The other day, I checked the website for my honors seminar class at, oh I don't know, 9ish in the morning and found out I have a paper due that day at 2.  Luckily, I start class at 11 on Tuesdays, but that was a crazy two hours and a really crappy paper.

Moral of the story, time management and organization, kids.  It's important.

Tip of the Day: Invest in a planner.  Write in it, look at it, it helps, trust me.  Also, use sticky notes.  Sticky notes are my new best friend.  They're nifty for reminders, and you can put them anywhere you'll see them: your planner, computer, mirror, bulletin board, wherever.  They're great.

What I learned in school today...

I just got back from my biology lab where we literally spent almost three hours "learning" how to measure stuff.  I'm not even kidding, we had to learn about the metric system and scientific notation.  And then we weighed pecans and measured the length of dead animals they borrowed from the museum.  I'm pretty sure we did that in like 6th grade... well not the dead animal part, just the measuring.  I guess that's why it's Biology 101...

On a related note, I also learned it's a good idea to invest in an umbrella.  The city of Lincoln had a freaking monsoon this morning, and trekking across campus in the rain is not a whole lot of fun.

Tip of the Day: Always know where you're going.  I went on a run last night, and I started out on this bike path and I just decided to see where it went.  I ended up in the sketchiest neighborhood ever.  And instead of just turning and making a loop back to campus, there was a huge, fenced-in train yard so I had to end up going like a mile out of the way.  But I survived and I made it back.

Now I'm off to dinner and yoga class....whoo hoo!

Freshman 101

Right now, I'm sitting in my dorm room, not yet bogged down with insane amounts of homework and I have like 40 minutes until my next class.  So basically I'm bored out of my mind, which is why I'm doing this.

I'm new at this whole college thing.  I've been living in the dorms for a grand total of 5 days, and I have a day and a half of classes down.  I'm a freshman, one nameless face among thousands of others, but so is everybody else right?  Awesome.  So this is it, this is Operation College.

I think the most consistent thing I've noticed so far is that organizations that really care about you will give you free stuff.  We're paying thousands of dollars a year to go to school, so of course college kids love free stuff, especially if it's edible.  I've been promised free food by everything from church choir to residence hall council to horticulture club.  But the coolest thing I've got so far is a plastic headband with a giant foam Arby's logo (you know, "I'm thinking Arby's").  Is it useful? No.  Practical? Absolutely not.  Does it have any real purpose? No way.  But is it awesome? Oh hell yeah.

Tip of the Day: Plastic spoons do not work for scooping ice cream out of the container.  Steal soup spoons from the dining hall for that, (with every intention of eventually returning them of course) it works much better.

Cara