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well, that was a clusterfuck
Nov. 7th, 2008 11:13 amThe second half of my chinese test had simplified characters spread through it. Which would be fine, except that I don't actually *know* the simplified characters, since we aren't studying them. It took until the last five minutes to figure out some of them, and it was too damn late.
ah, well.
...
I'm sitting out in front of McKeldin, as waves of campus tours parade by. Little kids, sulky teenagers, anxious parents. I'm not really sure what the little kids are doing here, actually.
This morning by the metro station, there was a mass of red coats at parade rest. It's like a modern day CCC, except idealism is substituted for labor in City Year.
I haven't actually seen them do anything but stand around in formation, shouting slogans. Unfortunately, the African-American Civil War Museum is basically a vast square right in front of the 10th and U street metro entrance, so they tend to mass there, right in front of the escalators.
...
On the upside, I finally acquired a faculty advisor; one of the things that the GEOG department requires is that one has a faculty advisor in addition to the department one. It's nice in theory, because it's possible to get exposure to interesting research projects and discuss one's path with a faculty member whose area of study is similar to one's own. They really don't want people falling through the cracks in the department. But it's a pain when most of the classes are pawned off on grad students- I've had three classes with faculty members but two of them aren't available to advise undergrads, and the third is my incomprehensible stats teacher. Makes it difficult to find a faculty member to advise one, and you can't register for classes until you've found one and met with them.
My cartography prof from last semester recommended that I talk to Dr. Zhou, as he focuses on GIS. Actually, as it turns out, he's less focused on GIS than he is on *ontologies* for GIS; this is far more interesting. Unfortunately, I think I suckered him in with my last name; as far as I can tell he mostly advises Chinese students and was at a bit of a loss when I appeared in his doorway. Clearly I need to learn more Chinese; my poor command of 250 words isn't going to cut it.
Now if I could just get my neck and shoulders and back to not feel as if someone is stabbing me repeatedly, I might be able to study for the massive Chinese test Tuesday. *sigh*
ah, well.
...
I'm sitting out in front of McKeldin, as waves of campus tours parade by. Little kids, sulky teenagers, anxious parents. I'm not really sure what the little kids are doing here, actually.
This morning by the metro station, there was a mass of red coats at parade rest. It's like a modern day CCC, except idealism is substituted for labor in City Year.
I haven't actually seen them do anything but stand around in formation, shouting slogans. Unfortunately, the African-American Civil War Museum is basically a vast square right in front of the 10th and U street metro entrance, so they tend to mass there, right in front of the escalators.
...
On the upside, I finally acquired a faculty advisor; one of the things that the GEOG department requires is that one has a faculty advisor in addition to the department one. It's nice in theory, because it's possible to get exposure to interesting research projects and discuss one's path with a faculty member whose area of study is similar to one's own. They really don't want people falling through the cracks in the department. But it's a pain when most of the classes are pawned off on grad students- I've had three classes with faculty members but two of them aren't available to advise undergrads, and the third is my incomprehensible stats teacher. Makes it difficult to find a faculty member to advise one, and you can't register for classes until you've found one and met with them.
My cartography prof from last semester recommended that I talk to Dr. Zhou, as he focuses on GIS. Actually, as it turns out, he's less focused on GIS than he is on *ontologies* for GIS; this is far more interesting. Unfortunately, I think I suckered him in with my last name; as far as I can tell he mostly advises Chinese students and was at a bit of a loss when I appeared in his doorway. Clearly I need to learn more Chinese; my poor command of 250 words isn't going to cut it.
Now if I could just get my neck and shoulders and back to not feel as if someone is stabbing me repeatedly, I might be able to study for the massive Chinese test Tuesday. *sigh*
