Check out one of my best bro’s sport blog, jayjcsports.typepad.com. An aspiring sports writer, Jason Chong details his views on the wide world of sports. From the NBA, to the World Cup, he’s got it covered. (He’s a pretty smart dude). Thanks for the sports Jason Chong!
Twenty Minutes
After I ate, I stood waiting for a bus to take me across campus to the library. After a minute of standing, however, I quickly realized that this was a sheer act of laziness. In an effort to stop taking the health of my legs for granted, I decided to take in the mile long stretch through the beautiful Georgia campus. The vivid memories of being on crutches subsided as I approached the six story side of the monstrous Sanford Stadium and continued through numerous quads and brick walkways. After twenty minutes of walking, I reached my columned destination with a refreshed mind and inspired spirit, thanks to the mere act of walking itself. And those buses give me motion sickness anyways.
Getting In The Zone
Hello, hello. And happy Saturday my friends. Writing to you from the depths of The University of Georgia campus, my new home away from home. The past week has brought a sense of routine to my life here at UGA and I’m straight up lovin’ it. I had my first assignment due last week and saw success as I got a perfect score on my first physics problem set! I must not be too consumed with that though, because the work here doesn’t look like it is going to cease until after May. Ouch.
But as I was telling my Mom on the phone yesterday while driving with Sheida, I feel like I’m completely involved in all of my classes here. Besides physics, there isn’t really one class that I prefer over another. I come out of each class inspired and don’t want to leave. It’s a very nerdy thing to say, yes, but this is why I am here. This is why I am paying for school. I love it.
A quick recap of my classes so far… 1. Intro to Religious thought: the class is centered around how to properly study religion. Coming up is our first written assignment (out of three total) for the year. We have to interview someone about their religion and faith and write a report about our findings. 2. Macroeconomics: A possible minor or double major? (HA I’m a dreamer) This class is centered around a huge 300 student lecture. We are learning the fundamental concepts of economics and how to apply these concepts to specific situations in order to develop an understanding of what choices make someone the most “economically” advantageous. I love it. 3. Introduction to Weather and Climate: We just finished learning about basic coordinate systems and the science of the sun and the Earth’s orbit. Now we are studying basic atmospheric sciences. The atmosphere, different heat forms, clouds, etc. 4. Political Science/American Government: we are studying our first topic (out of three) of the semester, identity. What exactly is an American? We narrowed it down to five basic American values.. religion, constitutionalism, liberty, equality, and work ethic. 5. Advanced Intro Physics I (Mechanics): My only BCMP class (Biology, chemistry, math physics… these classes are the most significant to medical school admission committees). This is my smallest class as it is reserved, although not exclusively for, physics or astronomy majors, 25 (freakishly smart) students. We learned, or rather to the rest of the class, reviewed (although it was a lot of learning for me) vectors and characteristics of vectors. We then introduced position velocity and the first two Newtonian Laws.. which were presented and derived with much, much more theory than my class last semester. It’s so much more in depth, but makes so much more sense!
Phew, that was a lot. Anyways, as you can tell, I’m really loving school and feel like I’m getting in the zone more than ever. All my professors are brilliant. Although I’m only taking one BCMP or “premed” class, I really like the liberal arts classes that I have to take as part of my core that is required for graduation at UGA. Although this is a huge university, you still get that much needed liberal arts education, as well have all the resources you would ever need, in which a huge research university provides for you.
I have my first AED (Alpha Epsilon Delta, which is the premedical society) meeting on Tuesday. A discussion on the limited number of medical school spaces for adequately prepared premedical students is supposed to occur, I’m pretty pumped!
Well, I’ve got to get a workin’ on my new physics problem set. Im here at the MLC with Sheida next to Jittery Joe’s.. we be doing lots of school work this noon.
Catch ya later!
Decided to go home yesterday noon. Hung out with Sheida, her brother, and her best friends last night, had a blast. Now I’m chilling with my lil weener bro, Bergkamp, this morning! And ironically, the Arsenal game just came on, live from Bolton, (Bergkamp loves watching his team, the team which he was named after haha).
Somewhere Up In The Air
OR
OR
ALL =
I just want to do what I love.
PS… UGA ROCKS, and I think it is going to be very, very helpful in my search for my professional niche.
A Swell Place Indeed
Well my beginnings in Athens seem like a blur as they are coming to an end. I’m getting used to my classes, used to the campus, and used to my daily routine. I know what time I need to wake up in order to leave by a certain time, which in turn makes me on time for breakfast and then for class. It’s been a great “first” week, as I count last Thursday the official start to my first week.
Most importantly though, I’m enjoying every second here in my new home. I love being at the huge UGA, with all it has to offer. I haven’t even digested what all the University of Georgia has in store for me, and I don’t think I will ever have enough time to see exactly what all there is to do. But I am definitely going to make sure I get involved in what interests me!
I’m sitting on a comfy chair in the student center. I had my advanced physics class this morning at 9, followed by my weather class at 10:10. I have a nice little break until 1:25, when I have my 300 person political science class (my two classes this morning were about 25 students and 50 students, respectively). On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have religion at 8 AM, which has about 50 students and microeconomics with 300 students. I don’t really have a particular preference on whether my class is packed with 300, or smaller like my advanced physics.. but I do really enjoy the crazy atmosphere of learning with 300 fellow UGA students.
The workload is going to be a few steps up than what I was accustomed to at Winthrop, I’m already finding myself a bit overwhelmed with the amount of reading in some of my classes. Also, the pace of the classes is a bit different, there is no slowing down to make sure everyone in the class is caught up with the professor. That’s fine though, the professor has a curriculum to cover and only a certain number of days to cover it. For example, in my econ class yesterday, I was following the lecture notes my professor provided the class with, and I was understanding all the concepts and following examples he was giving. But then there was no stopping him.. concept after concept, example after example, at UGA I feel that I will HAVE to review everything the next day on my own time to keep up with the classes. Lot’s of content thrown at you in a short class time.
But all and all, it’s been a great first week. I feel that I am provided with more than enough time to study for my classes, but classes aren’t even amped up to half of what they will be in a couple of weeks when the flow of the semester hits with exams, papers, and etc.
In my spare time I have been enjoying top notch UGA athletics and been working out and hanging with Sheida and my friends. We saw the four time defending national champion Gym Dogs host number 7 ranked Stanford in the gymnastics meet on Saturday, which sold out the coliseum with 10,000 plus people. It was pretty surreal. We had also made plans to go see the number 7 ranked Lady Dogs basketball team play Sunday night, but decided to just chill instead. I’ve also worked out at the Ramsey Center twice with Sheida so far, and feel that we’re going to be making a routine of this. Even though I haven’t been physically active for around a month, my body still feels pretty sore.. hence the non-stop soccer from before age ten. Oops!
UGA has so much to offer, and I can’t wait to see what is out there. Some things I have been thinking about are the Men’s Club Soccer team (UGA doesn’t have an NCAA men’s soccer team) which are pretty competitive, as they just won the regional championship, beating teams like Florida and Tennessee on the way. Or possibly, trying to walk on as a kicker.. but I’ll post more on that later HA. I also want to be a student researcher in the Physics department and get into some things there. I just want to investigate EVERYthing here and really find some cool little academic niches.
Tonight the men’s basketball team hosts the no. 23 ranked Ole Miss Rebels in a great SEC basketball match up. I think I’m going to go walk over and get tickets at the bookstore when Sheida joins me here after her class.
Talk to you soon!
