August 28

Today started with a bang: the bang of my iPhone hitting the tiled bathroom floor and the screen shattering. >.< I've had it for almost a year, and I've dropped it almost everyday, so it's kind of amazing that it lasted that long. But on the other hand, I've had iPhones/iPod touches since 2010 and that's the first time I've wrecked the screen on one, so there goes that streak. >.<
I've got an appointment at the Apple store on Tuesday afternoon to get it fixed. Hopefully it won't drive me crazy between now and then. Or break further, I kinda live off my iPhone, I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't use it. I want to share a pic of the busted screen, but seeing as iPhones can't take selfies (haha), that's not gonna happen.

Aside from that the rest of the day was great!

Today's Friday Lab consisted of guest speakers from potential employers. Without going into too much detail, the first talked to us about how the field of Analytics influences the field of Marketing, and the second talked more along the lines of "this is what I do for a living". They were both very interesting to listen to. Next week's lab is more guest speakers, but after that it'll be more tech based: we'll spend a couple weeks learning a programming language we won't learn in any of our classes, and then our first sprint is scheduled for October. [I'll explain what that means then. ;) ]

We had some announcements before the lab, and one of them was that there was a meet up of people involved in data analytics tonight. Laura, our career counselor, really encouraged us to go as a chance to network with people. So a whole bunch of us decided to go, and those with cars offered rides to those without.

But before that we had a couple hours to kill. Ben, Amanda, Myanka, and myself decided to walk the three blocks down the street to the Mexican restaurant. Less than two minutes after we were seated another group of students from our program came in, so we played musical chairs and all sat together. Matthew (one of the second year students), Jigar (the guy in my GRA project whose name I couldn't remember), Shijie, and Ashwin (I think- there are three Indian guys who all match the same general description (height, build, glasses, etc.), and I'm still working on which one is which). Kishin (the other second year guy) joined us after we'd ordered drinks, but not before we'd ordered. So the nine of us had lunch together, and that was just awesome.

After lunch, we went our separate ways: Amanda went home, and Ben, Myanka, and I went back to the classroom and hung out until it was time to leave for the meet up. We got stuck in traffic and had to do a couple of u-turns, but we made it. We were told there was going to be a speaker and were worried about being late, but after we got there we learned there wasn't one, so it didn't matter that we were nearly an hour late. There was pizza and coke, and about fifty people, including more than half of our program. I tried to network, but I was exhausted from being social earlier and from walking in heels all day. So I found a chair and sat down and took off my shoes. Because I wasn't putting any effort into being social I expected it to be a quiet evening (relatively- it was really loud in the room from all the talking), but that didn't stop people from walking up to me. ;( I spent half  an hour talking to a guy from AT&T, and met half a dozen other professionals in the field. They all seemed really impressed that there were so many of us from our program there after only a couple weeks of class.

 I'm too tired to label these, but here are the pictures I took of the building where the meet up was held:

Good night!

August 27

Class today was really easy. And not just because it was the first day. ;)

Thursday is Data Programming in Python with Arash (he's a computer science professor, he comes up to Buckhead from the main campus once a week just to teach this class for our program). It's also the class we have with Susan and Kishin and Matthew- the three second-year students. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Class starts at seven, but the building gets locked at six, so I had a bit of an adventure getting inside. Basically I found another student locked out and she banged on the door until security let us in. Our access cards are supposed to let us in, but they're not working properly. @_@ I guess for now I'll be going in early on Thursdays. 

Class started, we did introductions and the syllabus. That took all of twenty minutes and then Arash launched into his lecture. Compared to the boot camp we just finished it was really really easy. And based on the course outline it's going to stay easy for a couple weeks. Which is a big relief as the other two classes I have look like they're going to be HARD. 

Tomorrow is our first Friday lab. I'm both excited and nervous about that. The hardest part will be that it's at noon and I'm used to my classes being at night. 

And that's it. Good night!

August 26

I wasn't feeling well last night, so I went to bed early and forgot to post. 

No class on Wednesdays, so not much happened. I did have "orientation" for my research assistantship though. It was kinda boring. I did get to learn a little about the project I'll be working on, and I "met" the faculty member in charge and the other GRA's. "Met" is really the wrong word though, as the faculty adviser is Dr. Javad, and all the other GRA's are from my program; I'll be working with Timi, who is from Nigeria, and one of the guys from India- his name escapes me at the moment. :/ 

After Dr. Javad was done talking about the project, he left. And the three of us talked for a bit and reached the consensus that we're all at interested enough in the project to be able to work on it, but it was not what we were expecting. It seems like it's going to be research heavy, while we all were hoping for more practical application. But ... the Indian guy seems confident that we'll be able to push the project more in the direction we want it to go. 

After the meeting was over, I went upstairs for dinner. The lounge was completely empty. It was a drastic change from the previous days when there was no free seating at all. But I wasn't alone for long, one of the other GRA's came up once her group was done talking. So I had Korean noodles and sushi (which was only ok- it reminds me of what gets served at the Mukogawa farewell dinners) with Aida. She's from Honduras. We've talked a few times before, she's one of the dozen-ish students, like me, who are always at class half an hour early. In fact before the GRA meeting she, Harini, and I got a chance to talk with Susan (one of the three second year students). 

And that's all that happened yesterday. I'll try to remember to post tonight, but I'm not making any promises. ;)

August 25

So today I got to go to the main campus downtown and file hiring paperwork with HR. That was ... obnoxious. Rickety elevator to the third floor to get to the HR office. Only to learn that they're doing the hiring packets for graduate students at the urban life center. The receptionist gave crappy directions (though to be fair I am unfamiliar with the downtown campus and "turn at building x and it's across from building y" meant absolutely nothing to me), but someone else visiting was able to give me good street name directions. So back to the lobby in the motion sickness inducing elevator. Then walk the five blocks down to the urban life center. Which is also the law building. Only it's only labeled as the law building. Fortunately the guy giving me directions knew that, so I didn't get lost. Another old elevator- why can't I find the stairs in any of these buildings?!? Tangent: I dislike elevators. It's got nothing to do with motion sickness (though I do sometimes have that problem), and everything to do with a fear of it breaking down while I'm in it. As a general rule I'll only take an elevator if I have to go more than four flights of stairs or if I have luggage with me. Only none of the school buildings I've been in so far have findable stairways!!!

Back to the story: I make it to the room where they're processing hiring packets. It takes them an hour to get to me, but less than five minutes to process my paperwork. @_@

So I go back to the awful elevator to get back downstairs; they were doing construction on one of the other elevators in the block- I did not need to see that. 

Here're a couple pics of the maze that is the Five Points Marta station:

A train had just left, that's why it's empty in the photo. Also it's called "Five Points" because it's the station where all five train lines intersect. 

And here's one of the Buckhead station, the one I'm actually familiar with:

This one's a little vague as I'm on the walkway over the freeway looking back towards the station- the Buckhead station is in between the northbound and southbound lanes of the freeway. It makes sense as a place to put the train lines when they have to be above ground, but it's still odd. 

I was early to class, so I hung around in the lounge. Then Jennifer arrived, looking for someone to go up to dinner with, and as she and I were leaving, Ben arrived and he joined us. Today's spaghetti and meatballs was a major improvement over yesterday. There was nowhere to sit so the three of us stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. But the best part was that by the time we were done we had been joined by like ten other students from our program. 

Tuesday's class is Fundamentals of Database Management with Dr. McDonald. That was a weird class. And at 5:30 to 10:00 it was also a long class. He went over the syllabus and lectured a little. There was a lot of class participation. 

We picked our groups for the group project: I'm with Amanda (big surprise, I'm sure), Peiling (who I've talked to occasionally), and Ying/Michelle (who was alone and we needed a fourth; she's Chinese, she picked an American name like Chinese girls like to do, so I am trying to make sure I remember both of them). So in a class that's mostly Indian, the one white girl ended up with three Chinese girls: it's not exactly ironic but it is pretty weird. 

And we had our first project as a group:

I had to take a picture because I knew you wouldn't believe me. ;) We worked together pretty well, and it ended up being nice that they all spoke Chinese, even if I did feel a little left out. [To clarify: Amanda is American of Chinese descent. She speaks Chinese, but she can't read or write it. And the Chinese spoken in the aforementioned project was just enough to help the other two, for whom English is a second language, understand what we were talking about. (PS: this graduate level program is intense in my native language, I can't imagine how much harder it would have to be for those like Peiling and Michelle.)] 

Dr. McDonald also played hangman with one of the students. On the whiteboard. In the middle of the lecture. The photo I took didn't turn out though, so you'll just have to believe that that one happened. ;)

Home at ten thirty and then an hour to write this post. I'm going to crash now. Ttfn!

August 24

So I've started a new naming system. As you might have noticed I haven't posted in a few days. That would be because nothing happened on those days: watching TV all day and eating in didn't seem worth writing about. So now I'm going to date the posts, that way I can just skip over the boring days- though with today being the first day of classes I don't know how many more of those there will be. ;)

Now on to today's business:

The first day of classes. Though I suppose I should just say "class" as I only have one a day. Monday is "Statistical Foundations for Analytics". Taught by Dr. Javad, who just completed his doctorate this summer. I've talked to him outside of class a few times, he's a nice guy. The class had an entirely different dynamic from the programming boot camp, but to be fair this class is just us MSA students and for some unknown/unexpected reason we all just clicked together right from the start. Anyway first day of graduate class was basically the same as a first day of undergraduate class: we went over the syllabus and expected outcomes and then had an introductory lecture. Today's boiled down to "this is what statistics is and what you can do with it".

Now here's the "cool" part (though I think I've told you this before): because we're a cohort program and we have evening classes, we have access to the lounge on the twelfth floor where they provide us with catered dinners.

Monday is bbq'd chicken and potato salad. It wasn't the best, but it was good. There's quite a lack of seating though. I sat with Amanda and a couple other girls (we all went upstairs together after class ended). And then when the crowd thinned out we went over and joined the loud group from our class, which not surprisingly included Mari, Taj, Jennifer, and Myanka- the four most talkative students in our group. We talked and laughed for quite some time and made tentative plans to go out together over the weekend. 

That's all there is to report today so I'll finish with a picture of the view from the twelfth floor:

(Coming from the mountainous Washington, that flat horizon is a little strange.)

Day 22

Until classes start Monday, I'm free to do what I want. So I watched tv and did some shopping for necessities. 

We went out to PF Changs for dinner. It wasn't the best Chinese food I've ever head, but it was pretty good. The coconut drink I ordered was ridiculously sweet  and would've been a lot better with a shot of vodka in it. The best part of the night: the kitchen screwed up and sent me sweet and sour chicken instead of sweet and sour pork. (The waiter caught it: something about the peppers being different colors.) So I ended up with two entrées for the price of one. Which means plenty of leftovers for tomorrow!!

"Creativity will soon become your greatest strength." A little unnerving as everyone in my business program (that I've talked to about it anyway) thinks that my art degree is a great thing. 

おやすみ！ (Good night!)

Day 21

It may be after midnight, but it is still technically today. ;)

Spent the day working on my final project, barely managing to get it done by the midnight deadline. But now that that's over and done with, I can relax a little while I prep for the official start of classes on Monday. 

Day Twenty

For the most part today went like yesterday: homework and tv. But this evening was the welcome dinner for my program. 

That was just amazing. They decked out the third floor lounge and brought in catering. Because of the unreliable traffic in Atlanta I got there half an hour early, and it's a good thing I did: less than fifteen minutes later it started raining. Amanda was also there early, so we chatted until the photographer arrived: part of the event was "free" professional head shots. I don't have them yet (obviously) but here's a selfie:

By the time Amanda and I had finished our photos others had arrived, and I managed to be social until the event started. :) The catering staff came around with appetizers while we talked. That was new for me, I'd never been to a party that fancy before. 

The event started late: the pouring rain stranded a bunch of people at the train station a couple blocks away. A couple of the students gathered up a collection of umbrellas and went and rescued them. The guest list included: this year's students, last year's three students, the faculty (ie: all our professors and the support staff), and a couple other guests of honor (for lack of a better phrase).

Dinner was nice, but my dairy-less entree was not nearly as nice as everyone else's. :/ My chocolate-cherry brownie/fudge thing was way better than their fruit custards though. ;)

There were a few speakers throughout the evening. Starting with the dean of the college. That's right the dean of the entire college of business came to our welcome dinner. ;) We also heard from the men that designed our research lab (which is the best in the country), and one of last year's students (they graduate at the end of the semester). And I forget the guy's name (David-something), but he's like the head analyst for the company that owns holiday inn, so we got to hear from someone who actually works in the field we're going into. That was pretty great. 

It was still raining at nine when the event ended. It looked really pretty. Here's some pics:

And that's it. Goodnight all!

Days Eighteen and Nineteen

I forgot to post yesterday, but today and yesterday were pretty much the same, so I'm not going to bother making separate posts. I alternated between working on my final and watching tv. This final project is a pain in the @ss; every time I think I've figured something out the professor posts a q and a on the website and I end up spending just as long fixing things as I did doing them in the first place. @_@

Day Seventeen

Today I went shopping with Aunt Sarah. We went to two different malls and I didn't manage to find a single thing to buy. :/ To be fair though I mostly shop at two stores and neither of them were in either mall. The best I get is this:

It's "coming soon." @_@ Now if I can just figure out where the heck Maurice's is I'll be good...

According to the pedometer in my iPhone I walked five and a half miles. So at least I got some exercise in. 

Spent the rest of the evening napping and watching tv. I just couldn't motivate myself to start the final from my class. Hopefully tomorrow's focus will be better. 

Day Sixteen

Today was a long day. Class was slow, then we discussed the final project. But the data we're supposed to analyze hadn't been assembled yet (actually I think "created" is a better word: Dr. Bauer did say he was going to make it up), so he extended the deadline by thirty six hours, since we won't actually be able to start it until tomorrow. 

After class I had some things to do on the main campus downtown, so I hopped on Marta and went exploring. Only the buildings I had to go to required scanning an ID card to access, and I don't have that yet (they took our photos at orientation for it, but haven't gotten them to us @_@). So I didn't get any of the things I needed to do completed and it ended up being a big waste of time. 

So my opinion of the main campus: let's start with how glad I am that I'm on the campus up in Buckhead. The main campus is in the heart of downtown Atlanta, I don't know what you all picture in your heads when I say "downtown Atlanta", but it looks exactly like I picture it: tall buildings that aren't in the greatest condition, graffiti, stores I'd be too scared to go into alone, people everywhere. The like four square blocks of the campus are nice, but the walk from the Marta station to the campus was ... I don't know what the right word is, but fortunately I have a lot of practice with it from my travels in Europe. 

That Marta station is the station where the four train lines intersect. Here's a comparison only a few of you will get: it reminded me of that metro station by our hotel in Rome, the one below the central train station. 

Got back up to Roswell, where I went on another expedition- this time to find a grocery store that carries soy cheese. And when that was completed we made homemade pizza. There's a grocery store chain down here called Publix, and in their deli section they carry fresh made pizza dough. It turned out really good. 

Then we watched a couple movies. 

The Lake House was cute, but it was only ok; I don't think I'd choose to watch it again. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel was different. Sarah and I decided the best word to describe it is "strange". It was definitely not what I was expecting. 

Until tomorrow!

Day Fifteen

Two weeks in Atlanta have come and gone. It's been crazy. 

Today was the usual class and homework. Lunch at Costco, that's the same everywhere. I also got dragged around to several different stores to help Uncle Nick buy a printer. It was exhausting, but at least there's now a printer in the house. 

Well tomorrow is the final day of programming boot camp. I'm ready for it to be over.  

Day Fourteen

Big day today, what with orientation and all.

So class this morning started with an hour long review of the material from the day before. Then there was a half hour long discussion on the best places to eat in downtown Atlanta. A tangent started by the professor no less. Which left us with only an hour and a half to go over the entire day's lecture.

Then the MSA half of the class went to orientation.

It was long, but it was nice to officially meet everyone. There are 34 students in my program: 65% are international (and most of those are from India), it's about 50-50 male to female, the average age is 27, and (apparently) we're the top students in the business department. And from our bios we all like to travel; someone joked that we should all take a trip together to celebrate graduation. I chatted a little with Amanda, she's a Chinese-American from the Atlanta area. (Which reminds me, because people keep asking: Ben is from North Carolina, Alex is originally from Russia but has been in the US since junior high.) Aside from meeting the other students, we got talked to about all the other important start of school type stuff: the technology available to us, financial aid, etc. Here's one of the awesome things: on nights when we have class, we have access to the catering lounge where we can eat for free (well relatively free, considering the cost of the program).

We got our access cards to the building; they give us 24-hour access to the building, access to the study rooms, and access to the sixth floor lounge where the vending machine type snacks and drinks are free. We also got out textbooks:

(The lipstick tube is there to illustrate how thick those books are, though at the angle of the photo you still can't really tell '~'.) 

I left at the same time as some of the other girls and we walked to the train station together (which is only like two blocks from the building). Mari was headed the same direction as me, so we sat together and talked the whole way. She's from Brasilia, Brazil and is one of those people who is really easy to talk to. We talked about where we're from and the transit systems in various places we'd been. It was nice to have someone to talk to on the ride.

Aunt Sarah picked me up at the station and we went to dinner. It was a little Thai place called Rice, located on Canton Street, which is something along the lines of downtown historic Roswell. It's just a couple block stretch of artsy shops and "hole in the wall"-esqe restaurants in old storefronts and remodeled houses.

(That's Rice in the pic.) The atmosphere was great; we sat outside, the weather was great: 87 degrees with just enough of a breeze to keep the air moving. The food was really good, best Pad Thai I've ever had. And it looked amazing too:

Got home around eight thirty. Started and finished my homework. And now that this is done I'm off to bed. Good night!

Day Thirteen

Today went pretty much the same as yesterday. Nothing new to report. But tomorrow afternoon is the orientation for my program, so if nothing else I'll at least be doing something more than homework. 

¡Hasta mañana!

Day Twelve

Today I went to class, did homework, and watched tv. It was so exciting. @_@

I met one of the girls in my program, but I can't for the life of me remember her name. Oh well, there's plenty of time to learn it again. ;)

I'm off to bed now. Goodnight all. 

Day Eleven!

Today is a day for pictures.

Let's start with the most bittersweet one:

I finally found my name! And then the vending machine screwed up and gave me the wrong bottle. >.<

Now, back to the beginning of the day. ;)

Pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Then Aunt Sarah and I went to Kohl's and picked out a bedding set for my room. (I also got another sweatshirt. Woot!) After that we went to Home Depot and picked out a shade of paint that would coordinate with the bedding. We got back to the house, realized we forgot something and went back out, to a different Home Depot. (We drove by at least five different ones during the course of the day.) When we finally got back we were expecting to have to help Nick move the junk out of my room. Only he had already done most of it. Which is why my before picture is of an empty room.

So while he finished that up I did some work on my midterm project. Then we went to Costco and got a bed (no more air mattress, yay!). That was an adventure of a different kind. @_@ We found the mattress we wanted, then we decided to go with a full size rather than a twin. Only there was no full box spring. We had to track down an employee, who had to page for the forklift, which took fifteen minutes to come. *sigh*

Dinner at Panda Express, then Nick was supposed to start painting while Sarah and I went back to Kohl's. To exchange the bedding set we had just bought that morning. Only it was a different Kohl's, there are three within shopping distance from the house. There are also three Michael's, at least two Hancock Fabrics, a Joann's, and a Hobby Lobby. And by "shopping distance" I mean closer than driving from the valley to Northtown, probably comparable to the distance between the Valley Mall and Costco. 

Anyway, we got back, then Uncle Nick started painting. Sarah assisted him a little, while I finished my project. I got it done and it works!!! Whew! When they finished and the paint had dried enough, we put the furniture back in the room and set the bed up!

It looks so awesome!!!

Now it's time for bed. And since I had Chinese today I'll leave you with this:

"If you continually give, you will continually have."

Day Ten

Today was ... well blah for a Saturday. I slept in by about an hour and then did homework all day. My project is done; in a rough draft sense. It's complete, but it doesn't work. Computer programming really sucks sometimes. (I'm working in Python btw.) Oh well. Maybe inspiration will hit in the middle of the night again- that's how I solved yesterday's issues. ;)

Went to Panera for dinner tonight. I had the BBQ chicken flatbread sandwich. It was reeaaalllly good. Aunt Sarah's panini looked amazing too. You lot in Spokane should all go eat there when the one they're building by the mall opens. ;)

I've decided to stay here (for awhile anyway), so tomorrow Uncle Nick is supposedly going to clean out the rest of the junk in my room and paint the walls.

And that's all she wrote. (Haha)

See you all again tomorrow. ;)

Day Nine

Today is another case of there not being anything worthwhile to report. 

My two week long class hit its midpoint today. Which means that this weekend we have a midterm-level project to do. After spending all afternoon and evening on it, I can report that I'm halfway done with it. Technically I'm two thirds done, but the program has errors and won't run, so I had to dock myself a little. Hopefully my classmates are having the same issues as I am, and Dr. Bauer will post some tips on the class website. He's done it with all the assignments so far, so I can't see why he wouldn't for this one. Unfortunately the school's class website system is down for maintenance tonight, so I won't be able to get any help until it comes back up. 

And that's it. That's all I did today. Dinner was leftovers. Lunch was drive thru McDonald's on the way home from class: I wanted fries and pop, and McDonald's has Diet Dr Pepper, only the one between here and school DOESN'T!!! Guess I won't be going there again. >.<

Day Eight

Stupid blog editor just crashed and erased my almost finished post. @_@

Today's homework only took three hours. I wasn't as perfectionist about it as I have been though, so hopefully my grade will still be ok. 

I spent the rest of the evening watching Netflix and enjoying having some free time. 

But that's the end of the day, let's go back to the beginning:

Class today was easier and therefore more boring. But I did meet Alex and Ben (the guys I sit next to) during the break. They're in my cohort so I'll be seeing a lot more of them. [For those who don't know: the college of business at GSU is really into the cohort experience. Basically what it means is that everyone in the same program takes all the same classes together. So I'll be classmates with the same 24ish people for all my classes for the next year and a half.]

Dr. Bauer ended class early today. And by "early" I of course mean "on time" as he has a tendency to run half an hour long. They took the baby off the breathing tube during class, so he rushed right over to the hospital when we were done. 

Because we got out early, I wandered around Buckhead a little. Here are some pics of the building I'm in and the park across from it:

There's a shopping center just two blocks away from the building. What I should have done is go shopping for another sweatshirt. The A/C is cranked up so high indoors that I've been wearing jeans and haven't taken off the lone sweatshirt I brought.

Uncle Nick took me to Captain D's Seafood Kitchen for lunch (yet another chain we don't have in Spokane). The food was good. I had my first hush puppies (they literally came with every item on the menu). It was weird though: my dad's brother reminds me a lot of my dad, except that he likes all those foods my dad can't stand: of which seafood is a major one. 

It had been grey and cloudy (and very humid) all morning, and while we were eating the thunderstorm hit. It POURED for almost half an hour and then abruptly stopped. It was the kind of pouring where I got soaked walking the five feet to the car. (I have video, but I haven't watched it yet. Maybe I'll post it once I do.) << The lightning started again about fifteen minutes ago, and as of five minutes ago I can hear the rain just pounding on the roof. 

Which leads back to homework and the evening. I'm headed to bed half an hour early tonight, ah the simple pleasures. 

Day Seven

My fifteen hour day in a nutshell:

Three and a half hours of class followed by nine hours of homework. Plus three hours for eating, showering, commuting, etc. 

Thus I'm posting solely for keeping up the habit of posting everyday. 

This qualifies as news, even though it's technically not mine:

Dr. Bauer, my professor, has a five week old baby. That baby has been in the hospital with a viral infection for the past two weeks, and has been intubated for something like ten days because he can't breathe on his own. They hope to take the baby off the respirator tomorrow. So hopefully/prayerfully everything goes well and the baby will recover and they'll get to take him home soon. 

Day Six

Well today is over and done with. Just about, anyway. 

It's 11:30 and I literally just finished my homework assignment that I've been working on since 2. That's 9 and a half hours for those who don't want to do the math. Graduate level Intro to Programming is really starting to suck. 

The only "adventure" I had today was lunch at Chick-Fil-A, another chain we don't have back in Spokane. The food was good and they have Diet Dr Pepper. Yay! 

Grocery shopping with my uncle was sort of an adventure, but it's nothing worth sharing. 

Other than that I went to class and did homework. Ah the thrilling life of a grad student. @_@

As promised, here are some pictures:

The view from the classroom window. 

The classroom. My home for the next semester (all of my classes are going to be in that same room). 

And that's all she wrote. Maybe something more exciting will happen tomorrow. 

Day Five!

Well the first day of classes is over and done with.

But not really. Technically the first day of classes is the 24th. Today marked the first day of my program's two week intensive programming "boot camp". There were about 60 students in the class: half from my Anaytics program and half from the Risk Management program (with a few students from other misc. programs). From where I was sitting, and therefore as far as I could see, I was the only white girl in the class. Having come from the very white Ellensburg, where I did my undergrad, that was definitely weird.  Not a bad weird, just different.

Dr. Bauer, the professor, is German; he doesn't have much of an accent, but you could definitely hear it in certain words: he often pronounced "java" as "yava".  He was fun to listen to and reminded me a lot of Brian back home. The three hours of class went really slow. And no one said much of anything, we all just sat there and listened to the professor talk.

After class it took me FIVE hours to get the homework done. We had to write the same program in five different programming languages: C, C++, Java, Python, and Visual Basic. That was a pain in the @ss. Fortunately the assignment will be graded on completeness and not on elegance.

The other adventure of the day:
My uncle took me to Bojangles for lunch. (For those who don't know, it's a fast food chain similar to KFC; we don't have any up in the Pacific Northwest.) I was the only white girl in that room too. The food was good: best coleslaw I've ever had, and their seasoned fries were really good.

I'm off to bed now. Maybe tomorrow I'll remember to take pictures.

Day Four

Short and sweet:

Today Aunt Sarah took me shopping for some of the necessities I wasn't able to bring with me (laundry basket, shampoo, that sort of thing). The Walmart here in Roswell wasn't any different from the Walmart I shopped at back in Spokane. Which leads me to a couple other comparisons: gas is 60 cents a gallon cheaper here, and a two liter of Diet Dr Pepper is 15 cents more expensive.

I spent the afternoon reorganizing my jewelry supplies. Uncle Nick grilled hot dogs for dinner. And we spent the evening watching Big Bang Theory.

I'm off to bed early tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep. Tomorrow is my first class as a graduate student!

Day Three!

Not much happened today. We took the train down to the Buckhead area and located the building where my classes will be. It's a gorgeous area. I didn't get any pictures, but seeing as I'll be there basically everyday it's not like I won't get another chance. ;)

(The specific area I'm referring to is hiding behind the trees, so you can't actually see it.)

Also the train system: MARTA (the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority). It reminded me a lot of Japan's train system, with how clean it was, and all the rules, and how it runs on time. At least on a Saturday (it runs on a reduced schedule on weekends), so I guess I'll find out soon if it's the same on weekdays...

After that we walked down the street a few blocks to the Lennox Square Mall. OMG that place is HUGE!!! I don't know if I can properly describe it, but for anyone familiar with Spokane: if you took all three malls (Valley, Northtown, Riverpark Square) and combined them into one big mall, it would still be smaller than this one. And they were all really expensive stores, places I've seen before but never gone in because I could never afford to buy anything there. To illustrate my point: I saw a cute skirt in the window of one of the stores (Neiman Marcus to be specific) so I went in to look at it closer and it was 300 dollars! Who in their right mind would actually pay that much for a skirt?!? Anyway... there were only two stores in the mall that I would actually shop at: Gamestop and Wet Seal. Three if you count Auntie Anne's Pretzels. (I'm kind of a poor excuse for a girl, huh?)

This evening Aunt Sarah (yes I know she's not really my aunt, it's just easier to say that way) and I watched Gone Girl and Charlie St. Cloud. They were very different movies (kind of an understatement, I know).
Gone Girl was ... weird. And that's coming from someone who likes to binge watch Criminal Minds, so you can make of that what you will. I think the scene that will stick with me longest is *Spoiler alert* the scene where Neil Patrick Harris' character dies.
Charlie St. Cloud was a really cute movie (and in a redeeming "girl moment": Zac Efron is hot). I have rules about movies made out of books: if I liked the book I won't watch the movie, and if I liked the movie I won't read the book. Otherwise I just end up disappointed and feeling like I wasted my time. However, watching that movie makes me want to read the book it's based off of.

And a couple random little notes to finish off this post:
I'm still getting used to the time change. It's after eleven right now, but it only feels like nine.
And I am loving the weather: especially the humidity.