classes

Would you believe that I spent the whole day today in UTPA just for a 50-minute Statistics class? For the next few months I'll be wasting my Mondays this way. But that's OK. At least I have a homework-research-and-everything-else day reserved for emergencies. And I could nap for a while on the couches at the library -- the third floor's pretty quiet and unpopulated.

Well, considering that I registered almost two weeks after the regular registration deadline, I've got a good schedule -- I'm off before three every day, and my earliest classes start a quarter before 9. I'm taking only fourteen credit hours this semester -- and 14-15 hours for the next three. I guess that'll give me enough time to mull over the Congress and the Battle of Bull Run and the Civil War. (Ugh, American History!)

I was a bit startled last Thursday afternoon when I found out that my Calculus Honors class was canceled. I think it's because only twelve students enrolled. Anyway, I decided to take the other required Math course, Statistics, which didn't require Calculus as a prerequisite.

I proceeded to the admissions office last Friday morning to ask why Math 53 wasn't credited, and I looked up to a tiny ray of hope that I could do something so that I won't have to take Calculus again. By God's grace, the person at the counter immediately edited my transcript when I told him about it. What's more, he told me I was exempted from English 1301 because of my SAT scores. And then I went there this morning to ask about the transfer evaluation report they sent me. They said I could use my Geography class as an elective. So I won't have to take a social science class anymore! Yehey.

God does work wonders!

My professors were OK, and not as intimidating as I imagined, except for one. My Organic Chem instructor, who teaches both the lecture and lab, had a lilting and almost musical accent. But that was nothing compared to my Indian Statistics instructor, who spoke English so thickly I could barely understand half of what he was saying.

But both of them didn't have extremely strict class rules which are serious enough as a 10-point deduction at our final grades. My Biology professor, ancient and cranky as he was (he finished his doctor's degree in the '70's), promised to take off that much if a phone or pager beeps in the middle of the lecture. And not only the owner will be punished, but both persons seated next to him! It's unfair, really.

I'll recount more of my almost embarrassing exploits tomorrow. Gnyt.