A Week

The first week of school is over and done with. So how was it?

Things are more disorganized than I expected. My mom has to leave incredibly early in the morning to make it to work on time (it takes around thirty minutes to get from Manor to Austin proper). In order to make sure she's on time, I wake up around 5:45 AM. I think I have to start waking up earlier. Otherwise I'll make her late all the time.

I get to school around 7:00 AM. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday my first class begins at 9:00 AM. This means that I waste two hours walking around the school, or down to the gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes. If I haven't eaten a banana or some toast on the way to school, I'll go to the campus store and buy myself a candy bar or a bag of chips. The cashier who works there is a nice old guy. He always says, "Good morning!" when you walk in and, "Have a nice day!" when you leave.

Tuesday and Thursday have a shorter wait. Japanese begins at 8:00 AM and continues for two hours. After that is an hour and forty-five minute wait for my History class to start. It ends around one, unless the teacher gets into the lecture and doesn't let us go until thirty minutes later.

All this waiting before school even ends is not the end of the waiting. My mom doesn't really give me a breakdown of her schedule unless she's telling me that I'm on her time. This week has been abnormal and next week will be too, but once all this abnormality is over and done with, I'll be waiting at the school until around 8:00 PM. Well, that's technically not true. I'll be walking around town and getting on buses in search of a job. This was my idea, kinda, for some god awful reason. Actually, it's just what I told Mom and Samia when they told me I should switch to evening classes. And truthfully, it probably is for the best. I mean, if I have no options at all, it'll sort of force me to go out and find something to do, right? I think. I hope.

Anyway, on the subject of classes themselves. They're all right. My teachers are all right, and my classmates aren't any better or worse than high school. I like my Speech teacher. She's pretty funny and kind of adorable. She gets the point across pretty easily, and I'm not nervous about giving speeches to this class like I was in my high school speech class.

Actually, most of my teachers are like that. The only one who makes me worry is my History teacher. He's one of those guys that is bent on making sure all the students know on the first day that he's gonna be the hard ass. A former professor at a military academy, he's now lowered himself to the level of public college professor. He was quite disappointed that there were no veterans in the class.

I'm sure I'm going to disagree with a lot of what he says, but he seems to really like his subject and I don't have any trouble following his lectures. Actually, I kind of like listening to him. He has a really interesting voice. Like a movie narrator. Every time I'm in his class, I start thinking about this old cartoon about dinosaurs. That and Colonel Sanders. Combined. Battling the evil Islamic forces in Spain.

So what is my impression of college?

It feels like I've gone back to high school, only this time I'm paying for it and I can't get away with not doing any of my work. Pfffflflflfft.

In other news, apparently the Art Institute is finally opening a school in Austin, the most obvious place for an art school you could possibly think of. I've already sent in for an information packet.