Observations from the past few weeks
Well, I have thoroughly settled into life in Gainesville and at UF. So far, I’m feeling pretty comfortable here. Classes aren’t too difficult yet (though that will change in a few weeks), I like my professors, and I am interested in the course contents. Teaching’s not too scary. We’re basically given lesson plans and just have to present them to the students. We also hold office hours, but that’s pretty easy, too. It’s only freshman chemistry after all. My biggest stresser right now is choosing an advisor, and the big problem there is that there are so many professors who would be great advisors. This is not a bad dilemma to have. I like not having to drive everywhere–I have two buses to choose from which take the same route between my apartment complex and where I get off on campus. I’ve decided that there’s really no possible way to find a better church than Westside–it really feels like home, and I’ve got a great Sunday School class. Thanks to the scholarship and finally getting my first paycheck, I’m feeling pretty financially secure at the moment –I’ve got money in the bank and no debts anyway. Overall, life is good, and I feel very blessed.
And now for the fulfillment of this post’s title:
- Taking Rusty on walks was a lot easier before he discovered the large population of lizards on the fence behind my apartment (Alex and Nicolas would love this place). Now whenever I open the door, he immediately trys to pull my arm off as he races towards his prey. It should be noted that due to Rusty’s limited ability to see lizards while they are standing still, he is not actually good at catching them. As any veteran-lizard-catcher knows, you have to slowly sneak up on a sitting lizard and then pounce. Rusty’s headlong rush in the lizards’ general direction doesn’t do anything but scatter them before he reaches them. He’s going to have to improve his prowling skills.
- There is a large dog two apartments down who seems to spend his life sitting exclusively in the window seat so he can bark at any animal walking by. He seems to be generally okay with people–he doesn’t usually bark at me when I walk past him to check the mail. However, he always barks if I walk Rusty by him. At any rate, morning and evening, I can’t recall a time when I have looked in that window and not seen him staring at me.
- Wanting to get my money’s worth on my season tickets, I went to the game again on Saturday. Last week I walked to the game, but this week the game started at 8:00PM . Not wanting to take an hour-long walk at midnight and not wanting to deal with campus traffic and parking, I decided to take the “Gator-Aider”–a bus from the mall to the stadium. When I got on the bus, I discovered something: 35 middle-aged gator fans on their way to a football game take up significantly more room on a bus than 35 college students on their way to and from classes.
- When I opened the door to take Rusty out this morning, I was greeted by a pack of barking huskies running straight towards me. I was thus thoroughly awakened even though it was only 6:30AM and I had just gotten up. It was only after I jerked Rusty back inside and slammed the door that I realized that said huskies were actually chained to the tree in my neighbors backyard.