It’s official, week one had been completed…and, with the holiday weekend, I don’t have another class until next Wednesday…which is great because I’ve been assigned more papers already this semester than I wrote in all of undergrad combined…seriously. But let’s back up a bit for a second.

After the general graduate orientation there was the program orientation on Tuesday of last week where I finally got to meet Emily, the program coordinator…i.e. the woman I’ve driven insane through e-mail and over the phone for the last several months as well as the professors for our core classes and last but not least the other students in the program. Sarah and Pam were both there when I arrived and seemed very friendly. Later on I would again run into Lauren whom I’d first seen at the other orientation. Funny thing about Lauren is that my first impression of her was that she was going to be a real bitch…as it turns out she’s in *all* of my classes this semester and I actually like her a lot. That’ll teach me to judge people. I’m really glad to know someone taking all the same classes as I am…we can work through this first semester of graduate school thing together! Lauren is from Kentucky but at least she didn’t do her undergrad where we’re going now, like Sarah and Pam…so we’re sort of figuring it out together as we go along.

Last Wednesday I had to go to the school to fill out the forms to get my fellowship money. The woman that was supposed to be there and help me with it that day had called in sick so I got her trainee. Nice lady…didn’t have much of a clue though. As it turned out neither did I…because at that point I still hadn’t figured out what county I live in and I’d never filled out a tax form {that’s what Daddy is for!}. All in all there might be some things that still need straightening out in that arena…but I’m supposed to get paid on the 30th of every month starting in September…so we’ll see if that actually happens. Also on Wednesday I spent $332 on books and $120 on a parking pass.

Thursday was the first day of my law class. Coming from an undergraduate institution that didn’t even *have* a law program, walking into the law school on the first day of graduate school was a bit intimidating, but I survived. Lauren and I later shared a laugh about worrying that we’d look like Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde on her first day of law school. As it turns out, the law class has the biggest paper requirement – a 25 page paper that is worth 75% of our grade on any topic we want that is relevant to the class. Then, as the course is normally only 2 credit hours, students in our program have to write another 12 page paper on a different topic to get the needed additional credit hour. There are no exams though…so at least we can focus most of our attention towards the papers.

On Saturday Dr. K hosted a “bring your own meat” cook-out kick-off for the program at his house. That was…interesting. Apparently the “bring your own meat” thing is common in the South…but it was a first for me. Thank God Sarah was there or I would have had no one to talk to. Everyone sort of just stayed in their little groups and Sarah and I were the only ones there from our cohort…so I played third wheel to her and her fiancé for the better part of the evening. To be honest, I really hate that sort of social gathering…and I’ll think long and hard before attending another one. On the even more awkward side, Dr. H showed up with his entire family. His girls were really cute, but they looked like they felt about as awkward as I did…at one point just standing there with hamburgers on their plates waiting for someone to tell them what to do next. Then there was Emily with her *partner* Virginia. Way to break up the heterosexual norm! I knew I liked Emily! :o) …and their 8 month old baby, Sylar…who was just the epitome of precious. And some other people… “Obie” for one, who is going into his second year in the program. He seems like a nice guy…but for the most part I just watched Sarah’s fiancé, Joe, freak out over the flies gathering on the food as we traded amusing stories. It wasn’t horrible but I don’t see myself doing it again anytime soon.

Monday was my first day of actual classes. I parked at the stadium and rode the shuttle to campus. People that I went to undergrad with complained about parking…they have no idea. *I’m* not complaining though. There’s plenty of parking at the stadium if you’re willing to walk a bit {and I need the exercise anyway!} and they have one shuttle to everywhere – it goes in a big loop so you just get on it and go. It’s a good system they’ve got here it seems…but the people I used to go to school with would freak the hell out. To be honest, I did too, at first. But as long as there *IS* parking *SOMEWHERE* I’m good to go. Having done the shuttle thing twice now I’ve even found that I sort of like it. It beats the hell out of trying to maneuver through campus during rush hour!

So, Psych class on Monday. Myself, Lauren, Sarah, Pam and another girl from the program that I don’t know that well all have this class together. It seems to be us versus the first years in the Clinical Psych program…so that could get interesting. We have an 18 page paper for this class…and we had to sign up for topics from the professor’s list almost immediately. I’m doing pro and con research on the death penalty…so at least that sounds good. We also have two exams in that class…the first of which is on Sept. 22…over an entire book which is 20-some chapters long…which…and get this…the professor co-authored. Fabulous. And, he tells us, his tests are hard. He goes on then to say that even if we do poorly on the exams and sort of screw up the paper but come to class and at least try we’ll probably all get A’s. What the hell? Why are we even bothering then? Oh well. Pamela said she had this professor twice in undergrad and really liked him{and she got A’s in both classes}. He didn’t set the best of first impressions though, he went over class time talking about his own accomplishments and publications…which I thought was…a bit tacky. Again, oh well.

Wednesday brought about a different kind of fun. Foundations is a class that everyone in the cohort has to take in their first semester so everyone was all there together with a few others thrown in for good measure. This class, unlike my other two which are on the main campus, is downtown in one of the medical buildings. Fun times are had getting there. I don’t like driving in that area, but I mange. I had to get there early this week so I had time to go get my parking pass from Emily and take it out and put it in my car before class started. I have a *tiny* bit of anxiety though so I ended up getting there SUPER early, so I sat in the parking lot and called Dennis who had been trying to get in touch with me since before I moved down here. It was good to catch up with him. He wants to hang out when I go home for winter break. Class was “OMG *SO* LONG” is the only way I can think to describe it. I’ve never had a 3 hour seminar before…and I’m not really a fan. Apparently we’re all going to have to give presentations over the weekly readings at some point. I signed up for one day with Lauren…and Pamela told me after class that she signed up for the other day I signed up for…so hopefully that makes things easier. These presentations are supposed to take the first 5-10 minutes of class…and after that there’s 2 hours and 50 minutes with no agenda…so that could be bad…we’ll just have to see. We have to write 3 5-page reaction papers…which actually sound like they might be fun…and a 15-page term paper…which Lauren and I were discussing today and we have no idea even what *kind* of topic we’re supposed to be thinking about…so perhaps an explanation of that will take up a few of the unscheduled minutes next week.

I’m not doing anything tonight. I need a break. I’m watching Cops at the moment…only because What Not To Wear {with which I’m suddenly obsessed for some reason} is no longer on. Tomorrow I need to work some more on reading/note taking for the up coming Psych exam…as well as starting research for these papers. I’m going to have to go to the library at some point as well…which sucks…because I always did all my research online in undergrad. That’s why colleges subscribe to online databases, right? Ugh. Maybe Lauren will go to the library with me…that might make it not so bad.

My co-dependence is showing and it’s only the end of week one. :op