Classes and Asses

Most of my classes are combined graduate and undergraduate, but as a graduate student I have an additional work load, as well as some additional meetings with the other grad students. This means that most of my experience so far has been with very large class sizes. Most of my professors seem nice, though.
The student populace is of a sort that I have rarely had occasion to come in contact with. People here wear a lot of makeup, even at eight in the morning. Today as I walked through the common square there were students at work on a large chalk mural on the ground. Free Mumia? Free Palestine? U.S. out of Iraq? No, in festive 6-foot letters they had written "MTV!!", "XBOX", and "FUN!", accompanied by various hearts and smiley faces. Olympia it ain't. I'm trying not to let the culture shock get to me, but I have my moments.

First Day of Classes

I had my first class today. I worried about being unprepared, not having the proper student gear and not having my books. I shouldn't have, because apparently these days college is structured to support the lowest common denominator. There were typed forms in which we were to fill out our lecture notes, quiz-style, as answers to specific questions. At the end of the class we turned in our notes for class credit. In other words, part of our grade is based on showing up to class and writing things down. As I was leaving I peeked at the notes of the girl sitting next to me. Her name was Brittany and the dot above the "i" was a little heart. For reals. I wonder if she signed the back of her driver's license that way. To be fair, this was an undergrad class that I'm taking to brush up on my design skills, so I was prepared for a room full of young, slack-jawed, vaguely bovine creatures. It did not disappoint. Most of the students here have a sort of vacant, overfed, Old Navy-esque appearance. I can't tell if their dull-mindedness is heartfelt or affected. Later today I have my first graduate seminar, so I guess I'll know more about what I've gotten myself into after that.

First Night In Corvallis

The water in my new apartment is hyper-chlorinated. When I do the dishes, the kitchen smells like a pool house. I only get one channel on the television, PBS. I'm watching The War right now. It doesn't seem that different from all the other Wars on PBS.