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!
