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.