First day of school . . . ugh

I wrote this waaaaaay back when. Time to play catch up! 

I really really really really really really love grad school right now. I may have already stated this, but it has been the bestest (yes, bestest - that's even better than best) decision ever!! AND I think I have found my thesis lab :-D Finding your thesis lab is a combination of falling of love, winning the lottery, and buying the perfect pair of heels that look better on you than that other girl who just passed you on the street wearing the same heels thinking she looks good but you know she doesn't look as good as you. I'm going to basically sell my soul to this lab for the next few years, so it needs to be a perfect fit. Otherwise, you end up in a PhD thesis hell hole - kinda like when you are trying to find something good to watch on tv and you can't find anything except for a marathon of made-for-tv movies and you could have sworn you turned off the tv three hours ago but somehow you are still glued to the tv watching a bad remake of some big news sensation that happened three years ago about a group of girls who made to pact to get pregnant together (Do you remember that?? I hope you didn't watch the Lifetime movie).

So anyways, right now I am very very very happy. Primarily because I think I have found my thesis lab and because this is the first weekend in a while that I actually don't have any school work to do! I should bust out at least five blog entries . . . . but I know I won't. ;-)

A lot has happened since I first started my program. I can still remember my first day of class; it was just as bad as I had prayed it would not be. Ugh ugh ugh. I have a pretty long commute from my home to my school which means timing is key for everything - I learned that on the first day of grad school. The morning started off pretty cool. I had picked out an outfit the night before, shined up my messenger bag, and was out the door without a hitch. The train ride was realativly smooth too - I'm pretty sure I just napped. I take two trains to get to school and their schedule's are pretty well synced. A lot of people work in the area between the city where I live and the city where I go to school. Train was packed, but not too badly. When it came time to change trains though, I confidently looked at the schedule and thought, I'll be at school in no time with plenty to spare!! In my naivite I forgot to consider that many forms of public transportation often have two routes - local and express. I needed to get my butt on the express train to arrive on campus in time for my 9.30am class. But no, no, somehow I managed to get myself onto the local train. WHICH TAKES A WHOLE 30 MINS LONGER THAN THE EXPRESS. 

Of course, as I was sitting there, probably napping again, I didn't realize this. It wasn't until I woke up, stretched my arms out, and looked at my watch that I thought wait a minute this isn't going as I planned. I finally made it to the station with maybe only 10 mins before the start of my class. I'll be a few minutes late at this point, but not so late that it is unexceptable and disrespectful to my professors on the first day of class. From the train station, I catch a shuttle to my campus. Here comes mistake number 2 - I didn't check the shuttle schedule ahead of time. By the time I had uploaded it on my phone and clumsily run through the station to find exactly where the shuttle bus picks up students I realized that the next shuttle wouldn't arrive for about 15 mins, at 9.45am. My heart has dropped into my stomach at this point, I'm going to be late. 

So I pace around the station and finally the shuttle arrives. I get on and inquire about the stops. And just as my luck would have it, the shuttle doesn't go to the building I need to go to, it actually stops at the main Science Building across the campus. Oh no oh no oh no. I'm sweating at this point! I'm going to be really really really really late. The kind of late that makes everyone turn around when you open the class room door with a look on their face like where have you been???

I get off at the main Science Building and figure out how to trek myself across campus, through the bowels of some of the less savory parts of the city, and make it to the Public Health Building where my class is held. At this point I am literally an hour late. And of course, becaue it is the first day of school we don't have a full two hour class. I arrive just in time for the last 15 mins. Boo.

The rest of my day went a lot more smoothly. I didn't run into any mishaps again until I had lunch and tripped over a table right in the line of sight of some construction workers. This wasn't the cute kind of trip that you can just brush off. This was an ugly-my-shoe-laces-are-tied-together-and-my-legs-are-all-jumbled-up kinda trip. I'm pretty sure I was wearing heels too, knowing me

Sigh, I've come a looooooong way since then. Thank goodness!

When I look back at the days in my life that are like my first day of grad school all I can think is God has a sense of humor . . . . and he's taking it out on me.


. . . only in Senegalia.