grad school | The Scamp Abroad

A Scamp With A Photo

Posted on September 12, 2012 by erranteditor

I hate having my photo taken. I always look a bit awkward and messy, or my glasses reflect the flash and you can’t see my eyes. Given all of that, I still found myself at a photo shoot today for the School of Education. I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t think I really needed to be in the photo. I thought I was going to stick out like a sore thumb against all of the other people in the program, but since my afternoon was free, I decided that I should just do the opposite of what Kim would normally do and have my picture taken. I’m glad I went. Organized chaos would be too kind a word to describe the process, but I found a couple of the girls from my emphasis and we tried to make sure we were next to each other in the picture. It makes me feel better about all of the group assignments that is bound to come, and it makes me feel generally good about how hard the year is going to be.

Although I hate having my picture taken, the one thing that I am sad about is my lack of pictures so far in my journey. I carry my camera with me everyday, but feel like a tourist. There is beauty everywhere I look here, but I have yet to really capture it. I’m also not in any of the pictures. I miss my mom with her camera taking pictures of everything from the food to the hotel room (uggghhhh, now I am never going to hear the end of that). I would love to take pictures with me at the various places that I visit during the day. The view from the main library is amazing. I’ll go there just to get out of the cold and enjoy the view. The people that I come across also deserve to be chronicled as well. I seem to attract the Irish boys, and my R.A. (yep, I have an R.A. it is freshman year all over again) has blue and green dreads, and the girls here tromp around in itty bitty skirts when it is only 40 degrees outside. If I was at home, I would be busting out my camera or my phone to take pictures and mock the people around me, but here, I feel silly doing it alone.

Classes start first thing on Monday, and I am a little anxious to get started. I want to get in a routine and be busy, so that I will focus less on what I am missing at home. It will also make the year go quicker. I thought my program would be done by May, but it turns out it is just the classes that end in May, and then I get to work on my dissertation. My program doesn’t end until late August, and graduation isn’t until November. This means that I would not be able to take a teaching job in the States, or start the EDD program at Fullerton.

I guess that means I will just have to finish my PhD here….oh darn.

A Scamp With A Map

Posted on September 10, 2012 by erranteditor

A lot has happened in the last three days. Thanks to a map of the city that I picked up at the Apex six months ago, my comfy shoes, and a soundtrack featuring the Alabama Shakes, I have been able to get around the city quite nicely. I made it through move-in day with very little hassle, and have unpacked my room to make it as homey as possible. I even made friends. That was a big thing for me. Having some people to move around the city with (and make fun of the freshers) was a huge concern of mine. I like these girls, and they don’t seem to mind me, so I think the next year will be quite alright. We found the mall and picked up some basics and I got a new phone, now allowing me to feel safe when moving about the city.

The funny thing about the campus (and the city in general) is that you can spot the people that have never been here before. The lost confused look, the young faces, the ones that double fist beers to a house meeting about rules and irresponsibility….all of them have the earmarks of a fresher. I spent three days wandering the city before school started, so I feel like I have some sense of the city and how to get around, so I feel like an old pro already. I played tour guide to the girls I met, and I felt very accomplished when I got to my first meeting with the education department without getting lost.

Once I got to the meeting though, I felt like I had been swallowed by a whale. There are 180 people in the program, 150 are girls, and 100 of them are Asian. Everyone already seemed to know each other, and all the chatter around me made me feel a bit panicked. Then I sat through an hour an half lecture with so much info thrown at me that I am not even sure what was said. Thank God for the student handbook. Apparently I am already behind on reading that I didn’t even know had been assigned, and I am still not sure if I am even registered for classes yet. I have so many things that I still need to figure out, and only 5 days to settle them.

After the meeting though, I was able to be productive. I walked to main campus, signed up for insurance (which was only mildly frustrating…3 months to take effect? Why didn’t the international office tell me that?) and by tomorrow I should have a bank account (and hopefully a job of some sort. I’m not picky. Really, I am not). I have a host of meetings and appointments, and between all of the walking and the really bad cafeteria food, I am bushed. I think a small nap is in my future. Tonight is a post grad mixer, and as much as I hate that sort of thing, I am going to go, smile, and try to keep the sarcasm to a minimum. People here do not understand sarcasm.