I’ve had a decent number of people ask me what it’s like to go back and forth between my parents’ houses, and whether I like that arrangement or not. But it’s one of those things that are hard to form an opinion on, because I’ve never done anything but that. I’ve had two houses since before I had a clear concept of what a house was. I’ve lived partly out of backpacks since I acquired stuff to put in them, I’ve had a split schedule to contend with for every sport, class, party, job and hang-out invitation. What’s it like to go back and forth? It’s like breathing, you just do it, you don’t think about it, you don’t remember when it became a part of you.

It strikes me, as I pack for college, that the experience of moving out of the house and going to live far away is probably pure upheaval for a lot of people. It’s partly that for me (I have, at least, lived in the same state for my whole life, with my same parents, so that’ll be a difference), but partly not; this will be the first time that I will actually live in one place for more than a week. It also occurs to me that all that transient-ness has probably left me better prepared than a lot of people with more typically-static lives—I’ve very good at packing up my stuff and going someplace else. But I’m also definitely looking forward to having a slightly less transitory existence, at least for a while. Maybe then I’ll actually be able to form an opinion on the back-and-forth thing.

My course info for my first semester came in the mail this week (yay!). My class schedule (to commence on August 27, after a week of orientation-y things):

Monday/Wednesday
9:00 – 10:15 INAF 252 – Geography Of Africa And Asia
10:30 – 11:45 COM 110 – Communication For Academic Success
1:30 – 2:45 CRS 101 – Critical Reading Seminar

Tuesday/Thursday
10:30 – 11:45 ENGL 105 – Intro To College Writing
12:00 – 1:15 MATH 109 – Foundations Of Math

I’m pretty happy with the schedule. I could do without a 9 AM class, especially being as I’ll probably be getting home late from karate on Tuesday nights. But that is the class that I’m most excited about taking, so at least I’ll be getting myself up for something really interesting. On the upside, my last class of the week ending at 1:15 on Thursday is awesomely convenient, for the sake of visits home and such.

Thoughts on the relative awesomeness of courses:

Geography Of Africa And Asia – Very cool, very interesting stuff. Also get to see what the International Affairs department is like.

Communication For Academic Success – I’m not actually sure what we’re doing in this class, the description is very vague (to wit, “Students will learn to participate in varied communication contexts that involve both formal and more interactive formats”). Will probably involve a lot of talking, which I’m pretty fond of, so no problems there.

Critical Reading Seminar – The one subject I have perfect test scores in, is the one thing every TU freshman has to take. Woo.

Intro To College Writing – Useful, happy to take it.

Foundations Of Math – I have gotten extremely good at not studying math over the last 3 or 4 years, so this should be … interesting.