Dear All,

My first 1/2 week of classes is over, and now I can sit back and think about this new situation. Tuesday I had orientation, which was meager 1 hour, with some speeches, reassuring us (there were probably 100-120 new students at the orientation) that we are in one of the most prestigious post baccalaureate pre-health programs in the country, bla bla bla. The pre-health program encompasses a couple of disciplines: there's a 'special science' offshoot for people who want to get extra training for pharmacy school, etc. Then there's pre-vet and pre-dental as well. But the program has mostly pre-med oriented people, from what I can tell. I guess everyone wants to save lives these days...

Wednesday I had my first physics class, which was mostly introduction to the class structure. I have physics lecture Monday and Wednesday from 6 - 8 pm, and my lab Wednesday from 4-6 pm. I am looking forward to this class, as I way to psyche myself up for a discipline far removed from what I have studied. I haven't had physics since 11th grade at ETA, and that was almost 10 years ago. I have a good amount of connection to my other classes, biology and chemistry, but physics terminology will be new. But I am psyching myself up, putting more wood on the fire of intellectual curiosity that is the only thing that will get me through this course without torture, and with an A and valuable lasting knowledge.

Thursday I thought I would have chemistry lecture. I have chemistry lecture Tuesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 pm and lab Thursdays during the same time slot. But seeing as we started this first week on Wednesday, and I knew from the teacher we weren't having lab, I thought we would have lecture on Thursday. I rode around frantically for 1/2 an hour from the empty lecture classroom to the empty lab classroom, thinking I had viciously misread and misunderstood directions, but it just turned out we didn't have class at all that Thursday. Ha!

Today, Saturday, I had biology lecture from 9 am - 12 pm. Tiny Chinese professor with very good English, and she's pleasant. We discussed cell structure, and a lot of it was very familiar, so this class should be okay. The least of my worries. My schedule dictated that I have biology lab from 12-3 pm Saturdays, after lecture. We didn't have lab this week, which was nice. But then the lab coordinator needed volunteers to switch from Saturday lab to a Tuesday lab from 1-4 pm, as the Saturday lab was too full, so I pounced! Now I will have a more full day Tuesday, which is fine, and I am done at noon on Saturdays, which is MUCH better than 3 pm.

Overall, the schedule looks good. I have the daytime to do homework, which is advantageous since I am day person and do my best learning then. I will blog more as classes develop. I already have a bunch of homework!

Thursday night was Gavin's band's show (the band is called 'Beaver Avenue') at the 'Khyber' music venue in Philly, along with a performance by our comedian acquaintance, Doug Stanhope. Beaver Avenue consists of Gavin on guitar and Radder on keyboards. They pre-record bass and drums, and will continue to play like that until they can find a committed bass player and drummer. So anyway. The venue is not big, fits 100 people MAX. The place was hot and sweaty, and smoky, by the time Doug came on. He did a great show though, heckling hecklers, and delivering a lot of stuff I had never heard. I hung out during the show mostly with our neighbor Natalie, who ended up taking on the role of the Beaver Avenue cd seller, and sold 9 cds for the band. After Doug Stanhope finished, a lot of people fled the place because it was so hot and cramped, but some people stuck around for the band, and Doug was there with his bald girlfriend named Bingo signing t shirts and cds like crazy. The band's performance went off really well. It was video taped, so there is record of it. There were a lot of our friends in the crowd, which is to be expected, but still there were some new people there watching who liked it. Doug eventually came over, hung out with me and saw the last few songs, loved the band, and invited Beaver Avenue to play at his desert party next year in Death Valley. So JP, and C (if you can make it), plan a trip out to DV in May 2007!! The final song, and show stopper, in my opinion, was the Beaver Avenue rendition of 'The Greatest American Hero' theme song, on which I did vocal accompaniment. Radder plays keyboards on the song, as the only instrumental accompaniment, so it sounds like some cheesy Frank Sinatra lounge song. It really brought the house down, with everyone there screaming the words along with us. Great fun. Natalie also took a lot of pictures, so I will post some when I steal them from her.

So it's been an eventful week. Beaver Avenue is playing a block party in South Philly today. It's the block that their occasional drummer friend Josh lives on, so he will play with them. Considering that they haven't practiced with him in almost 1.5 months, we'll see how it goes. I will be there for vocal backing and possibly some hand clapping.

All from me. It's time to go take a nap.

love,
H
- posted by H @ 9/09/2006 01:29:00 PM