Just Call Me Student Lady

Hello Blogosphere! I hope you missed me. I really need to be in bed but we have so much to catch up on.

This week was Teacher Lady's triumphant return to university and what a week it was. I'll try to break it down into categories.

The Bus
I decided not to get a university parking pass and opted instead for a student bus pass. It will also save me gas money. I had a transit pass in Calgary that cost me $75/month and I was amazed that a student pass here is only $48/month (there is no such thing as a student pass in Calgary and an adult pass is for anyone over 14). After studying the routes, I figured out that driving 5 minutes and parking my car at a nearby mall would save me about a half hour of travel time. I was pretty used to this concept since I always used to drive my car to a nearby train station in Calgary.

The first day I took the bus was on Tuesday. After classes, I take the bus downtown to work. As of this week I've shifted to part-time hours and Tuesday was my first 1-9 shift. The plan was to catch the 9:15 bus at Victoria Park which is a couple blocks north of work. As I arrived at the bus stop (early) the bus started to pull away. Since I was coming from behind the bus driver didn't see me. The next stop is at Cornwall and because of the one way streets the bus has to go to Broad and loop around to 11th. Cutting through Scarth Street Mall, "I ran. I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid." I beat the bus there. Actually, I beat the bus there but didn't know it and had to check about 7 other buses to see if they were the right number. I had to double back when my bus arrived. (See illustration below. My path is black, the bus' path is blue). I had two text books in my bag and I was wearing winter boots and the impact on the pavement and the lack of proper footwear bruised the bottoms of my heels.

Excuse the crude path drawing, I'm still learning GIMP

In other news, the route on the way home from the university makes me motion sick. I don't know why but I suspect it is because it winds so much. Today I took Gravol to combat but since I couldn't swallow, it got stuck at the back of my mouth. So gross. Once swallowed, I had a peppermint to get rid of the taste. Bad idea, you should not mix peppermint and Gravol. Peppermint relaxes the esophagus opening* and I think it messed with Gravol working properly. It also made my throat numb. I should have known better.

Classes
This semester is going to kick my butt, as my former roommate used to say. I have five classes (one of which is an honours math class) and two labs, all of which are faculty of science classes. Every week I will have 4 assignments, 2 labs and 1 quiz. Four out of my classes seem like the work will be easy but just a lot of it. My honours class probably will make me cry and make me cry often. I'm struggling with the review material (does not help that I took the prerequisite class over ten years ago). I was slightly comforted by the fact that I have more of a clue of what is going on than the rest of the class (comforting but does not help the grade). A fellow student found notes from a different prof as well as his old assignments and tests. I hope this will be a help since I've only had two classes and I fell like I'm a semester behind.

They restructured the math requirements for Education, Science and Engineering so now everyone takes the same classes (For example: they used to have specific Engineering Calculus classes). I'm not used to such big classes, especially 3rd year math classes. Three out of my five classes are held in lecture theatres. My honours math class only has five people in it and the class room is comically large.

As of today, I am officially an honours student. I had enrolled as one but through a clerical error I was not registered as one. The Department of Math recognized me as one but the university did not. There is a summer research job I'd like to apply for but it needs to say on my transcript that I am an honours student.

Making Myself Known
I'm trying to be bold and make myself know to my professors, lab instructors and people in the math department. I figure it can only help me in the long run so I had to bite the bullet and overcome my shyness. The acting department head is the only professor I have this semester that I've had before. I asked him a question after class and we got talking about his markers (as in people who mark). When I mentioned I previously had been a high school math teacher who has taught Calculus, he encouraged me to apply to be a marker in the fall (too late now). I also randomly ran into the former dept head who I've had many dealings with when I was previously at the university and after as a teacher at conferences. He is retired from teaching but still works at the university running a math education website. He gave me his card because he wants me to come visit him. He wants to talk about my academic future and get my feedback on the website. He was one my favourite profs, second only to Jimmy P (but who can ever complete with a soulful tenor?**) He is so awesome, he has a great bushy beard and wears cable-knit sweaters.

I Am So Old (But I Don't Look It)
Nobody has called me a Narc yet, so that is a plus. Even though I am probably the oldest person (besides the prof) in the class, I don't look it. Some of my classmates look 12 but some look older (poor premature balding boys). It helps that I am mostly taking 3rd year classes.

The university had to reissue my student card since my purse was stolen after the last time I took a class. The girl gave me the option of using my old picture since I "look the same" (her words). I could not believe they would let me use an ID picture from 1996 of an 18 year old Janny. Almost 30 year old Janny approves and will take that as a compliment.

The math dept head looks exactly the same as he did ten years ago. I think he is in his late 40s (judging from how long he has had his PhD). I'm pretty sure he has the same clothes too (or he buys his clothes in bulk). His Dr Martens circa 1994 would be the dead give away.

More stories for another time.....

*gastro-oesophageal sphincter if you want to get technical
**An April Fool's Edition of the U of R newspaper ran an "article" about a boy band comprising of beloved faculty. The nickname, Jimmy P, stuck. Jimmy P, kicking it to you history style.