As I mentioned in my previous post, I got back from winter break at 10PM the night before my first day of my last semester of college. I’ve been living out of my suitcase. I was supposed to unpack and organise my room over the weekend, but somehow the weekend passed me by. My plan was to stay focused on school Monday-Friday and finish all my assignments within that time so that I’d have the weekend free to blog, hang out with friends, and run whatever errands I needed. But I finished my Friday morning class at 10:30AM and was like, nahhhh. Maybe I’ll unpack next weekend. Or on Wednesday; I only have an evening class on Wednesday. (Why does it feel like I’ve already been in school for a month already?? It’s only been a week!)
College
Theory of Computation
This is the last core class I need to complete my computer science major, and this was the class I was dreading the most. The professor who usually teaches this course isn’t teaching it this semester, and I had heard that the new professor teaching the course wasn’t great, so I was nervous. But after taking the class with him this past week, he really isn’t so bad. I think that maybe he’s actually better at lecturing than the old professor (old professor = death by Powerpoint). But I’ve never really taken a class with the old professor before (I’ve shopped one of his classes before, but didn’t end up taking the class), and I’ve only taken one week of classes with the new professor, so who knows. But so far, so good.
I’ve actually been having fun in this class. Luckily I have friends sitting on each side of me. Steph and I are always writing notes to each other — some note passing about the lecture, some to simply keep us awake, some just for fun.
I brought pretzels to class (honey wheat pretzel twists!) because it’s a 2.5 hour class (twice a week!) and shared some with Steph whilst the professor was lecturing. When she bit into the pretzel, it made a crunch sound and her face looked so shocked. And suspicious. It was hilarious. I was shaking trying not to laugh out loud.
Human Computer Interaction
The only other requirement I need to complete for my computer science major is a 200-level elective (courses are on a scale of 100, 200, 300), and I chose this course to fulfill it. I’ve taken quite a few classes with the professor of this class before. He’s pretty chill but disorganised. I think I’ll survive.
One of the books we’re using for our class is The Design of Everyday Things. That book has been on my TBR for ages, and now I have the motivation to start it. I didn’t realise how design-y this course would be; now I’m really curious to see what else we do!
Art of the Web
This is the only course I’m taking at Penn this semester. Originally I had planned to take this one and one other graphic design course at Penn, but the two other graphic design courses I was looking at both clashed with Theory of Computation. Actually, one of them didn’t clash, but considering transportation time, I wouldn’t be able to make it, which was maybe even more heartbreaking.
I had thought that this course would just be about web design, but it also focuses heavily on UI/UX, which is cool because UI/UX seems more applicable to different things than just web design does. Another cool thing is that my most recent assigned reading was about human-computer interaction, and if you recall, I’m actually taking a human-computer interaction course. I’m looking forward to see how these two courses will continue to overlap and enrich my understanding.
But. The professor is not great. I had heard that this professor wasn’t great from students last semester who had taken the intro design course with him (I took it with a different professor, who I loved). I heard that he was consistently 15-30 minutes late to class. So coming into this semester, I was wary of this professor but tried to keep an open mind. After a week with him, I can in fact confirm that he is consistently 15 minutes late to class. And not just that, but he just uses class time badly in general. During my first class, we spent the whole time split into groups critiquing one website (per group), and it didn’t stop there; the next class we presented a summary of our discussion. Oh and I forgot to mention that it’s a three-hour twice-a-week class.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m pretty upset that I’ll be spending six hours per week of my last semester of college like this. But I decided to stay in the class because although I don’t like the class time itself, I do think the content and readings are interesting, and I do think that the overlaps between this class and Human-Computer Interaction will be enriching. Maybe the course will get better as the semester progresses. And maybe I should also note that this class is 6-9PM and I’ve been jet-lagged, so maybe part of it is me and not the class.
Digital Cultures
I didn’t know what to take for my last class to fill up my schedule as I wasn’t able to take another graphic design course at Penn. I browsed the course guide and stumbled upon this one. I’m still not 100% sure what this course entails, but I went to the first class and it was interesting and the professor was good. Also this class is only once a week and only for 1 hour and 50 minutes (usually classes add up to 3 hours per week, usually three 1 hour classes, two 1.5 hour classes, or one 3 hour class).
I was telling my friend about my class schedule and about this course, and it wasn’t until I said it out loud that I realised what I got myself into: it’s a 300-level anthropology class (recall that courses are on a scale of 100, 200, 300). I’m a computer science and linguistics double major. I have taken an anthro class before, but it was just an intro anthro course, which I randomly took during my freshman year of college. I think I’ll be fine though. I’m excited.
But I do have to say… I was pretty confused by the first set of readings we were assigned. I’m interested in what people will share during the class discussion, and I hope that things will all of a sudden make sense to me.
Her Campus
We had our first team meeting this week and our first exec meeting this weekend. There were so many new faces, and I hope that they’ll bring new energy to our team! I put together a calendar of important [article] deadlines for the whole semester, so I’m feeling pretty organised and prepared. Hopefully it won’t be too time-consuming to lead and maintain the chapter. I’m hoping that since I’ve planned everything for articles, I can put more focus on events and publicity during the semester and really build a brand and a community with these ladies.
Friends
Steph and I coworked at Starbucks after class to keep each other on task. It felt just like last semester, which I appreciate because so many of my friends graduated last semester, and I wasn’t sure how I’d feel coming into this semester.
Had dinner with the squad (Georgina, Victoria, Grace) (minus Ami who was away for a retreat) at El Limon. It’s our last semester of college, so I think we’re all trying harder to make time for each other. We sometimes see each other one-on-one every once in awhile, but it’s always hard finding a time for everyone to be together.
Recall how my Friday-after-10:30PM mood was nahhhh. I spent the afternoon crashing at Georgina’s. I finished class, called her up to see if she was free, and then just chilled. It’s so good to have places to crash when you have friends on campus (I live in an apartment off campus)!
Had dinner with my Hell Family (it’s a Bryn Mawr tradition thing) + karaoke in Chinatown. Cute pics were taken. Having the whole Hell Family there together was pretty legendary. The food was so goooood.
Misc
My skin was taking a beating from a month in Beijing. It was so dry and I had dandruff ): So grosssss. But my skin recovered seemingly the instant I got back to the States.
When I got back from winter break, I checked the mail at my apartment (which had been left for a month) and was delighted to see a package from Mei and a package from Her Campus! Mei and I had sent each other Christmas cards and other lil goodies; I’m so thankful for how the blogosphere brings people together :’) The package from Her Campus was a gift for leading my chapter as a Campus Correspondent to the platinum level (the scale goes bronze, silver, gold, platinum, pink). I’m not gonna keep the gift because the products gifted aren’t stuff I use, but I’ll probably be giving them away throughout the semester on our Instagram and at our events.
You know what? I really like riding the train. I know a lot of people at my school find it troublesome to ride the train into the city, but for me, it’s a pretty soothing experience. There was one ride I didn’t get ticketed for, even though the ticketer was right in front of me the entire time; I wasn’t even hiding. Another fun train thing is that when I was catching the train into the city with my Hell Family over the weekend, I enlightened them about how they could get free rides into the city on weekends with a SEPTA keycard. Not a lot of people know that the SEPTA keycard lets you do that. (I wrote an article about SEPTA hacks for Her Campus that is pretty helpful imho, but I don’t think very many people saw it. Their lossssss.)
When people tap you from behind. (You turn around, see it’s someone you know, and it’s such a pleasant surprise :3)
Making breakfast. I’ve been slightly jet-lagged, which means earlier mornings. I love having more time in the mornings and taking it slow. But as of this past weekend, I don’t think I’m jet-lagged anymore. I probably won’t be having as early mornings anymore, but I’ll try to sleep at a reasonable time and wake up early-ish.
How was your week?