First day of school!

Lol. I feel weird saying that... like I'm back in high school or something. Speaking of high school, the majority of my classmates so far look like they just graduated from high school. I feel old.

Precalculus was Wednesday morning. In the first 10 minutes of the class, I considered dropping it and taking it from someone else. The instructor's accent (Indian) is fairly thick, and I had trouble picking up some of her words. Once we got started with the actual learning, though, it became easier to understand her. So far, that class is going well.

Biology was Wednesday night. That class is going to be hard. The instructor is fun, but I gather that he asks difficult essay-type questions on his tests. UGH. Essay questions have never really been a strong point of mine. He also gave us a quiz on the first day to test our knowledge of biology (and chemistry, since chemistry intermingles with biology quite a bit). He said that students that don't get above a 6 on the test are highly recommended to drop, take an easier biology class, then come back to Biology I. I haven't had biology since about 1997! I was totally sweating this quiz.

About half of the questions, I had no doubt about the answer. The others, I knew I had been taught the material... but 12 years ago, if not more. On those, I just went with my best guess. When we were done, he had us exchange our quizzes with the person sitting next to us. Given that I was sure I hadn't done well, I hated that--but as it turned out, I got a 7. ;) The poor girl whose test I was grading only got a 3. At the break, she asked me if I knew how late the library was open (I didn't), left, and never returned. Poor girl.

Organic chemistry was Thursday night. I don't really like this instructor's style of teaching. I can't really put my finger on it. She seems a bit... scatter-brained. On several of the ideas she was teaching, it was pretty much review for me, but a few times, she confused me, and I resorted to consulting the text book. That's okay for now, but when it comes time to learn new material... gah. This class is also going to be tough. Oh, and she said that Organic Chemistry II (I'm taking I) is the class that normally separates the good from the bad. Sigh... great.

Oh well. My life is all about studying right now.

Today was my first day at the aquarium. So, I arrived just before 9:00, thinking I was 1/2 hour early. I met up with Mark, the head biologist, and he asked me if I ran into traffic. There could only be one reason he asked me that--I was late. I asked him what time I was supposed to be there, and he said 8:00. Dangit! I've now been late each time I've been there. Oh well... 8-4 is a better time for me anyway, and the traffic was nonexistent at that time of day! Well, as traffic in Philly goes at least.

So, I'm working with a guy named Tony. He taught me a lot about cleaning, feeding, and general care of the fish he works with. He mainly does fish, with a few turtles, starfish, an octopus (named George, lol), a tiger shark (awesome), and crabs. It was cool to be able to walk through the aquarium with no guests--it opens at 9:30. It's quiet and we can observe, clean and feed in peace. I didn't really do a whole lot today... mostly observed. I helped with food prep (have to admit, that's something I'll need time to get used to... fish guts make me want to squeal like a girl) and feeding a little. One of the tiger sharks is held in a large tank in a metal building outside the aquarium. The water temp is, of course, kept constant, but the air temp and humidity are not... so the building had lots of mosquitoes. We were in there for maybe 30 minutes, and I ended up with 11 bites... probably more. Freaking mosquitoes. If anybody wants to walk into a room infested with mosquitoes and doesn't want to get bitten, just bring me! They love me! Tony didn't get a single bite.