So I'm a senior.

Because I transferred an ungodly amount of credit hours to Clemson, I'm considered a senior (previously, they had me listed as a freshman, and then they waived a couple of required freshman-level classes that didn't directly transfer, which meant I was done with all of the freshman year classes, which I figured made me a sophomore). That's interesting and kind of depressing because I'll be a senior for another three years, lol. Sigh.

Classes are going well so far. The pace seems slower than Drexel, but I feel like I've been doing more school work. The professors I have are assigning more homework than they did at Drexel.

Exhausted

It's been a crazy couple of days. Yesterday, I had to go to school (keep in mind that school didn't even start until today, but I feel like it started days ago) for a cheer-a-thon or something. I really do not understand the point of these things, but I think the gist of it is to get us "pumped" about school. Basically, we showed up at school to hear several speeches from faculty, staff and other students. They talk about stuff that I've already read about. For example, every student is required to take a no-credit, pass/fail course that consists of learning about the library... or something. Anyway, they have a few different requirements, and they're all listed on Clemson's BlackBoard, an online program that lists each student's classes and other info. But as long as the student has been checking his/her e-mail and actually following along with the requirements, telling us about it is really pointless. These things have been a total waste of time, and are heavily geared toward the 18 to 21-year-old crowd, which is really annoying. They need to have a non-traditional option that allows someone who can actually take care of him/herself to skip this crap. As I said to Eric one night when I was tipsy, "I don't need my hand holded!" Which totally ruined my point and made me sound completely ridiculous.

Anyway... off my soapbox.

After the cheer-a-thon, I had to go to my tongue-thingie removal appointment. Here's where it would have been nice to have my hand held. ;) I'm such a baby when it comes to needles. I rarely get shots, so when I do, I always make a huge deal out of it. The doctor sprayed a numbing agent on my tongue, and a minute later, came at me with the needle. I tried not to look at how large the needle was. Honestly, the shot really wasn't too bad. The numbing agent did its job well. But I was still a nervous, sweaty wreck, and if I had been holding anybody's hand, I probably would have left fingernail gouges. So anyway, he removed the thing with a scalpel and scissors *shudder* and then put a suture in *double shudder*. It's the weirdest sensation to have your skin tugged at, but still not really feel anything.

But now I have a suture stuck in my tongue for, I'm assuming, a couple of weeks, and I'm paranoid about the knots coming undone (one of the three came undone yesterday when I was eating), so I've been eating a liquid diet ever since. The doctor had given me a prescription for Vicodin, and man I can't remember the last time I slept so deeply.

I started classes today. Thankfully, most other students seem to want to sit in the middle or at the back, so I got lucky and was able to find a seat at the front of the class in each class today (yes, I'm one of those... but if I don't sit at the front of the class, I get easily distracted by the students sitting in front of me). My first class was differential equations. So far, his teaching style is a bit hard to follow, but hopefully I'll get used to it in time. Second class was physics II. So far, it's mostly been a review of chemistry, which is great because I love chemistry... so if the majority of the class is heavily based in chemistry, then I'm good to go. The third class was intro to ethics, one of the obligatory "arts and humanities" classes I'm required to take. It was one of the few classes still available, which is the only reason I chose it. So far, it's okay. Lots of discussion. The fourth class, my favorite, is intro to environmental engineering. We talked a lot about waste water management, which is something I'm really interested in, so I'm really happy with it so far.

That's it for now! Oh yeah, and I'm exhausted.

Booooo.

I have a lesion on my tongue. It's a little whitish/pinkish bump that's been there for about six months. It's more irritating than it is painful, but it's worried me a leetle bit, so I decided to go see a doctor. She asked several times if I ever smoked, have ever smoked, etc. No I haven't, no I haven't. :) She said it's "probably benign" but that I should go see an ear/nose/throat doctor, who would likely remove it and send it in for a biopsy... which means they'll probably need to give me a shot in the mouth to numb my tongue. SIGH. I HATE shots. I'm such a weenie.