Back into the swing of things

I've had an interesting start to my summer classes. On Monday, I drove out to Lawrence, parked my car, took the 10+ minute hike up the hill and to the building, and showed up to an empty classroom. I quickly realized, through my impressive skills of deduction, that classes didn't start that day. I was a day early. KU is weird like that - they never seem to start classes on a Monday, even during the summer, as I've found out.

I guess I could have checked the date on my schedule instead of assuming that classes started on Monday, but whatever. Minor detail. I'm more of a big picture kind of person. Yeah. I'd like to say that I don't always pay attention to details because my mind is too busy swimming with deep thoughts about theory and philosophy and other things of substance, and that, in my staggering genius, I simply don't have room in my mind for trivial things such as getting the date correct, but that's not really the case. You can humor me and pretend that's what it is, though.

While I was there on Monday, I decided to ensure that my drive wasn't a total waste of time and gas. I ended up finding the graduate secretary and signing my GTA contract for next year, which is something she had emailed me about last week. Good thing I got that signed - now I know for sure that they'll be paying me my stipend and tuition...that's always good to know. And I ran into my thesis committee chair in the hall. She didn't seem at all surprised that I got there a day early - she already knows me well, it seems. And next fall I'll be her TA, as well as working with her on my research. She's going to see a lot of me over the next year. Bless her heart.

So, on Tuesday, when classes actually started, I went to my first class for environmental reporting. For our class that day, we met up at Clinton Lake. We're reporting on the water reservoir issues in Lawrence, so the professor figured it would be a good idea for us to actually see, in person, what we'll be researching and reporting on. There are only eight of us in the class - a mix of upperclassmen undergrads and grad students. We all got onto a pontoon and took a tour of the lake. Some people from the Watershed Institute were there to tell us about the lake. Two of them were on waverunners and followed our boat as we went along the shoreline area.

About an hour into our tour, the prof asked if any of us would like to go for a ride on the waverunners (we wouldn't be driving, just along for the ride). I asked if I would get soaked, since I had to drive back home after class. The guy on the waverunner told me that only my feet would get wet. So, I hopped on with another woman from my class, and off we all went. Only four of us wanted to go. The other people in the class opted to stay back on the boat. Wusses.

It was so much fun. At one point we were going so fast that I could feel my cheeks flapping against the rush of the wind and I couldn't keep my eyes open. And he was right - only my feet got wet...until we were stopped and he tried to start out by making a sharp u-turn, and all three of us tipped it and fell into the water. I went completely underwater, but I had a life-jacket on and it wasn't a deep area, so I wasn't worried about it. When we surfaced, the three of us looked at each other and started laughing, as did the people on the other waverunner who saw it happen. I lost my sunglasses when I went under, but they're a cheapo pair from Walmart, so I didn't mind much. My drive back home was a bit soggy, though.

Today I went to my other class that I thought started on Monday. So now I know what my workload is going to be like for the classes I'm taking. It's a lot. I'm going to be quite busy reading and researching and memorizing and interviewing people. But, it's the good kind of busy, so I don't mind. I might not be blogging much this summer, though. I'd rather spend my free time at the pool or hanging out with friends. Fair warning.

posted by elizabeth @ 11:20 AM