First day of classes!

So, first day of classes was today, and I feel great!  The only negative experience was at the very beginning of the day, so I quickly moved past it as the day moved on.  That was, I arrived at my first class, 8:00, as did everyone else.  The teacher showed up about 8:20 and told us that he was cancelling class for today, and that we could head off.  I, and everyone else in the room I am sure, would have really appreciated, say, and email the night before, maybe?  Or at least leaving a note in the room, or coming in and telling us himself at 8:05 or so?  Just seems really inconsiderate.  Anyway, I moved on from that class (a design and manufacturing class) to my Geography class.  The teacher seems very serious, but looks kind.  He is probably around 60-65 years old with stark white hair and a small mustache, and he made it very clear that, no, we were not studying physical geography, but human geography.  The difference being one is a physical science and the other is a social science.  Studying migration, comparing cultures at similar latitudes, etc.  He let us go after giving us the syllabus, releasing us about 30 minutes early.  After lunch I went on to my British Literature class, which, turns out, is all pre-Renaissance literature.  We are starting by reading (and in some cases doing basic translations of) old English literature predating 1066.  Very excited for the class, despite the fact that I was expecting modern literature.  From there to Calc 1.  Looking at the syllabus, I believe I have the entirety of the notes for that class on a total of three sheets of paper, so…yeah.  Obviously I will still take notes and do HW and such, but it will be a breeze.  Nice to review, though.  My final class of the day was my intro to ME.  Apparently previous students complained that the freshman class was too easy and didn’t prepare them well enough for the sophomore ME classes, so it has been totally revamped and now the freshman one is the crazy hard one.  I really, really like the teacher, though.  At least from what little time I have spent with him so far.  His name is Dr. Kjerengtroen (The first sound -“Kj”- is the sound I connect mentally with the phrase “gnashing teeth”) and he has a rather think Norwegian accent.  However, he is absolutely hilarious, and I think that having a class with him will be a blast, however difficult. 

I managed to work in about an hour of bass practice today, as well, between my cancelled class and my geography class, and my first orchestra practice is tomorrow.  Looking forward to it!

I have been spending plenty of time with Sam, Jon, and Miles (my roommate, for those who do not know), as well as Thomas and Nicole (other students from Woodland Park).  As far as other friends go, I would like spend some more time with another Christopher I found, who seems to be almost eerily like me, but he is in none of my classes and on a different floor of my dorm, so I just see him in passing.  I had breakfast yesterday with a group who all apparently are musicians, and two of whom are also going to be in orchestra.  I happened to see one of them in my geology class, and another in my Intro to ME class, so I may be able to get to know them as well.  I know the name of probably 1/4 people on my floor so far, but I am not a huge fan of any of them except Miles, Ryan, and Mark (Ryan and Mark are the RAs).

Saw a performance by the “Dueling Pianos” last night, and it was extremely entertaining and loud.  Lots of crowd interaction (voluntary and involuntary- I happened to be in the front row and I got off easy, to say the least, with just a few high fives from the performers at different points).  They sang/played many 60s-70s songs and had the crowd jump in for the chorus lines.  Strangely enough, I actually knew, and could participate in this singing, due to my experience at the Hungry Bear.  Good thing I did, too, because those who were participating least were almost guaranteed to be taken up on stage and made to do some embarrassing dance or song in front of everyone.  There was one group that made the animal noises as the pianists played a craaazzy rendition of Old MacDonald.  Seriously.  Wow.  They made that song really, really cool.  The fact, though, that there were such animals as dinosaurs and krakens on the farm made the participants job a bit more difficult.  At one point one of the seniors started a conga lines that ended up stretching around and through the whole building and connected to itself, which was pretty crazy as well.  The music was loud enough that we could hear it just find outside.  Overall a very fun concert, though I did end up leaving about 45 minutes before the end, as all of the noise and people exhausted me.  I am having a great time so far here, and I hope you all are doing well also!  Talk to you soon! -Christopher