Day Thirty Four

Today there was a giant advertising fair on campus that I had no idea was happening. So tents were everywhere giving away free stuff. Two tents in particular were seriously popular, the Thermos tent giving away water bottles and the University Federal Credit Union giving away UT shirts. Both had lines of students at least 120 students long. I love free stuff, but I didn't have the time or the heat endurance to wait in either of those lines. I did get a movie discount card though, so wandering around the tents in the hot weather wasn't totally a lost cause. I also had the good luck of seeing a man dressed as a giant sperm. I couldn't even make this up. He was advertising for a sperm bank looking for donations. I'm disappointed with myself for not getting a photo of him, but I was so confused by it that I didn't even think to capture the moment. I also had my foot run over by a girl on a bike not paying attention to anything around her. That hurt. And they did a practice emergency siren test, which was so loud and made it sound like we all needed to get ready for the world to end. All in all, it was a weird start to the day.

Then...class time! We finally met our professor today, as he was gone last week and had a different prof substituting for him. We were all relieved that he was animated and funny. Dr. Holcombe, I think I'm going to enjoy your class. I also met a few of the other students in the class with me, which was nice. We all joked (kind of) about how we already have no idea what's going on. I foresee many study groups in our future. Chemistry student bonding!!! No pun intended - for those of you who understand what the pun may have been. Dr. Holcombe got all exciting when he found out that none of us are Excel geniuses, so on Friday he's got all these Excel program tutorials for us. Yay? I don't mind Excel, but when it doesn't feel like cooperating, it can be the most maddening computer program in the world.

Then, thankfully, I checked my email and learned that I had to show up to my Quiz TA section that was 10 minutes away and 2 floors up. I taught 15 students how to use volumetric pipettes and flasks, and totally rocked it.

As I was walking back to the shuttle stop I ran into one of the student unions to refill my water bottle and came across this gem posted on the wall.

For those of you who don't know what a 'sooner' is, they're
referring to the mascot of one of UT's biggest rivals, Oklahoma
University.

Whenever there's a chance to take a jab at a rival school, Texas will find it. I was particularly impressed with this one though...never thought of using an outlet as a rivalry motivator. Well done, whoever did this.

Once I got home, it was back to the books. More Physical Organic reading, followed by starting the homework. This time, I failed to stay awake and ended up taking a 20 minute power nap. Sorry Phys Org, you just weren't enough stimulation for me this afternoon. It felt oddly good to be doing homework again soon. I'm familiar with this aspect of school, reading and studying and homework, it's almost become a comfort zone. Give me 2 more months of homework and I'll probably be taking this statement back, but for now it's true. But about 20 minutes into homework a big thunderstorm came over us, and I got totally distracted by the flashing lightning and booming thunder and terrified dog sitting next to me on the couch. Poor Otter.

Homesickness is killing me right now. Pray that it passes soon. I'm having a hard time being so far from home and my family. I'm enjoying Austin and UT so much, but it doesn't make the distance any easier to handle.

Tomorrow, class and a meeting with a potential research advisor. Wish me luck.