Hello 2010!
Hi guys, Now that I’m back at Tech I’ll be blogging for the winter term and I’m excited to share my next 10 weeks with you. I’ll begin by talking about the winter break.
Going home last December was very rewarding after an intense first term at Tech. I played indoor soccer several times with my friends, spent a lot of time making and buying Christmas presents, and I got a chance to see all the loved ones. I also went on a road trip to Disney World and added an extra day at Universal Studios.It was phenomenal. I’m attaching a picture of the New Year’s Eve fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom: I was able to disconnect from my studies and truly enjoy a pleasant vacation with family and friends.
I arrived at Tech this past Sunday. Most of the people in Ricketts, my house, were already back and basking in the remaining hours of the winter break. Unfortunately I caught a cold during the break, so after exchanging winter break stories with my friends I ran upstairs and went to sleep.
Yesterday was the first day of classes for the term. This is the second and last term that frosh (freshmen) take on pass-fail. Also, this term the frosh split into practical and analytical tracks for their math and physics classes. I chose the practical track for physics and analytical for math. (I have to note that my prof for physics this term is the Nobel laureate David Politzer! I’ll make sure to take pictures of his demos.) Monday is my heaviest day, I have four classes, one being a 3-hour class (Intro to Accounting); but all my classes seem great so far. And today is a light day, I only have two 1-hour classes, math and chemistry. I like that we get to make our own schedule; this gives you certain freedoms like picking the times you want for your recitation sections and picking humanities courses in the morning or evening. The way it works is that at some point near the end of a given term, registration for the next term opens at 8AM. Students set their alarm clocks to wake up “early” the next day and pick their classes. It’s actually very exciting, as you have to figure out which classes fill up quickly and you have to race the other undergraduates and test your mouse-clicking abilities.
Anyways, last night I went to sleep early again after buying some Tylenol Cold from the C-store. I don’t feel much better today, but I woke up early regardless to eat a few oranges and my favorite breakfast choicefrom the South Kitchen– the poppy seed bagel. (These things are delicious, put them in the toaster and take a bite, they taste like pizza.) I’m off to chemistry in about a half-hour, and then I have the day free until math at 8PM. I will probably play a one or two dozen games of pool in Ricketts lounge and do some reading for physics. I’ll catch you guys later this week, thanks for reading.
-Juan
