What's the good word?

Answer: "TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!"

Orientation in my mind has always meant the gain of knowledge about general campus life and expectations. We would get a few maps, meet a bunch of people, sign up for a couple of classes, and go on home. Who knew I would be learning this phrase and several others that would soon become a part of my daily vocabulary? Auburn says "Wareagle", Tech disses UGA. What could be better? But of course, we did do all those other things as well. So, with no further ado... (drum roll please)...

Fall 2009 Schedule

1310 General Chemistry MWF 1-2 p.m.
Lab T 7-10 p.m.
Recitation Th 6-7 p.m.
1502 Calculus II MWF 9-10 a.m.
Recitation TTh 9-10 a.m.
1101 English Composition MWF 12-1 p.m.
1000 Intro to Biomedical Engineering W 8-9 a.m.
1000 GT T 4-5 p.m.

Now, that schedule up there? Yeah, that took some major work on this (that would be me) undergraduate biomedical engineer student's part. Those FASET leaders that were supposed to be there for help? Yeah, what crap. OK, that's a lie. My leader was pretty awesome if I do admit. I don't think anyone else could have answered all of the questions about how to get around the legal drinking age ;) No, but for real, she was cool. Super bubbly and super awesome. Sadly, we got some random other person when registering, and I have no idea what this dude's name was, but he turned out to be a serious disappointment. I mean, I guess I should be fair, he did teach me how to actually sign up for classes. But yes, tons of tinkering was done and hours on the phone with Joey were spent.

And really, I think all of that has produced a fairly balanced schedule. The downtime between classes seems fairly reasonable, although I do need to figure out how to change the MWF Chemistry class from 1-2 p.m. to 2-3 p.m. In all though, looks to me like a nice course load. Tuesday used to be completely barren, but I managed to switch Chem lab from Wednesday to Tuesday. 3 hour night lab. Whoopee... Then again, being a nocturnal person, this should be my prime awake time. OK, I'm rambling, moving on.

Talk about friends galore! I don't think I met this many new and awesome people on the first day of GHP, let alone any other time in life! Countless poets have described and many a girl has had dreams of "love at first sight". I, Devi, seem to have been lucky enough to experience something even better... "friendship after first conversation". Maybe, just maybe, I am coming out of that awful shy and reclusive shell that always surrounded me. Sure, with all the trials and tribulations of high school, this shell has cracked in many a place and has had pieces fallen off in small increments. But I don't think I have ever managed to come out of it. Even now, though I felt a lot more confident and was able to make friends and chat up with random people all on my own, I think it's still more of a "me sticking my head out of one of the larger holes in the shell" type of situation. But hey. It's a start.

Two campus maps, 13 hours of credit, tons of friends, a horrible experience with the showers, a few rounds of the strangest icebreaker games, a wealth of information about how to get around rules, and a boat load of free shirts and misc. items later, I have concluded that orientation was pretty good. As well as my actual stay at Sumi's house and hanging with friends of course. But that is a story for another time.