One Down, 438955793 Weeks to Go

No, I did not just calculate that.
I have survived the first week of college. What, don't they have free t-shirts for that?

It's been crazy-ish, I suppose. Just meeting everyone has been pretty hectic. There's always something going on in campus, and sleeping in is not an option. I have found it impossible to sleep in anyway, having to transition to my fluffy king bed to an XL bed lofted....but that story is probably for another post.

I hate my schedule. I wake up all early, and then eat breakfast if I feel like it. If I don't feel like it, I pack a bag of Craisins or a cereal bar and find somewhere to study. (I don't really like studying in my room-it's kind of depressing, but yet this topic is probably for another post as well.) I then wait until I'm so hungry that I forget about studying and then go eat lunch. Depending on who I sit with/if I sit with anyone, I'll either eat very little very slowly, or eat a lot very quickly. After I go to the next class, and try to stay awake. Classes have been from 1-7 with a couple unnecessary breaks, except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I had lab cancelled. I did laundry. But there ya have it. Some nights I do homework, some nights I go play capture the flag barefoot and slip and bruise my kneecap. And that's about it.

My classes are all pretty different from each other, and obviously from high school. Speaking of "obviously", my Calculus I teacher has a European accent, like either Croatia or Russia, or something like that, so that when she says "obviously" you can totally tell. The thing is, what she's teaching is not so obvious, and the kids in the back mutter "what the-" every 30 seconds. Oh, and an interesting fact about Calc: I counted around 37 kids Friday. I counted 3 girls, including myself. They weren't lying when they told you about the ratio. But 8%? I just thought that was interesting, not because I like calculating M:F ratios, but plain ole Calc is boring and I like to do my own nerdy calculations. "I'm good with calculation."

On the topic of accents- the first day of class, I noticed my Chemistry professor had an East Coast accent. I just couldn't pinpoint where. Philly? Bahston? New Yawk? Then after watching explosions and seeing pretty colors of fire, I hear these words:
"If anyone is a Boston sports fan, they get an automatic A."
Oh. My. God. My worst nightmare. I buried my head in my desk. I'm gonna fail, I know it. And he was doing so well with the fire and stuff. Here are my notes from the first two lectures:

Profit.
And that was my first week of college. Yeah!
My other classes are alright. I still haven't really let it sunk in that I'm in class or I wake up in my dorm room in Maple and wonder where the heck I am before I remember I have to get up and....do nothing. (Well for this week, so far.)
Oh, I did engineer a couple stuff today. My team made the 3rd-best windmill. Our car (Coke bottles) did not win.

Now on to studying.

"Hi, My Name Is"

I feel as if I've met the whole freshman body twice and forgotten their names more than that. Seriously, Orientation Week is filled with new people, their faces and names, and the task of trying of memorize them all. It's been non-stop, but fun.

I climbed a mountain Monday carrying a rock. I somehow feel it's a foreshadowing of the academic rigor in front of me, but we'll see, starting Wednesday. I had no classes on my first day of school (awesome!). But I guess I'm ready. If I could make it up that mountain, I guess I can make it up this one. Even though the blisters suck horribly.

But tomorrow I officially end this Orientation and activities galore business with the start of my first class. Even though I know it's not over, I'm ready to move on past the "Hi, I'm Katerina. Yeah, Katerina. With a K. Geophysics. I'm from Arvada. Wha-? Oh, where am I staying? Maple. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm lucky.", and so forth. It's been like this since before my graduation party, with people asking where I'm going to school and what I'm studying. (And I got the same questions asked while wearing a Mines shirt, I might add. Yeah.)

Ain't gonna lie- I'm pretty excited. "First day of school! First day of school!"

Greater Than, Less Than Infinity

Remember when your mom used to go to the store and leave you and your three siblings and shut the door and one kid would yell "celebrate!"?

Yeah. It's not exactly like that. College, that is. In fact, it's kind of surreal right now, that everyone including my mom and dad and three siblings dropped me off at college today. Yeah.
It's weird packing. I guess I related to Andy from Toy Story 3, seeing Toy Story came out when I was a kid, and saw it numerous times growing up. But Andy, in the third installment, packs up his room and leaves to college. Even though I didn't have any toys to get rid of or pack, it's a little strange throwing some stuff I've had for years into a box, while leaving others in my room. (WHAT IF I NEED TO READ OLD EDITIONS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS SOMETIME?!??!) But maybe it's less simple bringing a box of stuff and trying to find a place for it. (Of course I need this...thing!)
.....
You've heard it's better to be lucky than good. Same goes for Mines. All I've heard all summer is that it doesn't matter how good you were in high school, the test is gonna be how hard you work, and who you know, and what habits you implement. It's better to be hard-working that good. Which is great, 'cause you know, I'm not that good. Now I am average. So I'm gonna have to be hard-working, and light sleeping. And maybe lucky. Eh, probably not.

But half this thing is 90% mental, right? And not knowledge mental, attitude mental. Mental toughness, [insert cliche here] etc.

So begins the next four years. I can't believe I'm actually doing this.


To infinity, and beyond.

The Oxymoronic Blog That Is This (With a Side Serving of Ungreat expectations)

Welcome to this blog that I hope will soon become an oxymoron.
As you have probably heard, science nerds cannot write. Absolutely not. Not to save their lives. It's been proved with science. And numbers never lie.

Now that was to get expectations out of the way. You see, I'm like my favorite baseball team. You might have heard of them. They had great expectations. Flopped dead. Now that no one's expecting me to hit a grand slam, (much less win the World Series), I may continue.

This is a chronology of me, a college student. But not just any college student. I'm going to be a Mines Oredigger. Now, talk about expectations, right? But this blog is to tell my story of my college journey to those who might be inclined to follow it. Expect to find stories from college, but mostly random musings about anything by me. I'm sure you folks at home are thinking "Oh my! When will you ever have time to write!? Shouldn't you be studying? This is Mines, after all!" to which I will have to respond that you shouldn't worry about it, and also see paragraph 1. If this becomes a ghost blog soon, I will most likly be studying harder or something, and thus, my oxymoron of a title will be proven.
I can't lose.

So be it.