A new semester has begun at Bucknell University (hence why I have not been writing nearly as much as of late). I moved in last Saturday, on August 20. Immediately I was shown a bad omen from the gods: I got the wrong key from Housing. Luckily, I got that fixed, and was able to move in on Saturday as planned. I tried to put the bad luck out of my head, but then, on August 21, I found an unexpected “guest” in my room that prompted this email:

Housing:

I am writing in regards to a complaint I have about the state of my room upon moving in on Saturday, 20 August 2005. Overall, my move-in went well, but after moving some things around in my room, I was greatly displeased to discover a bottle one-quarter full of spit from chewing tobacco in a corner, and the remnants of a jar of Skoal in my desk. I feel that this is the sort of thing that should be cleaned out of my room before I move in. If the cleaning staff managed to miss a bottle of spit, I can only wonder what other un-hygienic body fluids may have been left in my room. I can also only be led to assume that, if my room was actually vacuumed, then the furniture was evidently not moved in order to vacuum the room.

I know it could be worse. I could have found a used heroin needle or a crack pipe in my room, and for that, I am very grateful; however, I feel that things like chewing tobacco remnants—and the spit—should be cleaned out of the room prior to students returning to campus. The only thing worse than finding a bottle of chewing tobacco spit in one’s room is knowing that such a bottle has been there since the middle of May.

Sincerely,
Michael P. Dippery
mdippery@bucknell.edu

Rest assured that I got a speedy reply back, and the issue was taken care of (which basically means I got not one, but two apologies: one from Housing, and one from the Physical Plant).

Classes began on Wednesday, and as it turns out, for some reason, I scheduled all four of my classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which means that Tuesdays and Thursdays are easy days which will consist mainly of a few tests or quizzes. So far, classes are going well. Here is my course load for this semester, and a quick run-down of the course:

1. HIST 248 History of Imperial Russia: Seems like a good course, and I already have one good quote from the professor: “Later in the semester, we will be watching Catherine the Great, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. One is inclined to ask, just which Catherine is ‘great’?”
2. GRMN 101 German I: Learned a lot in the first day! (Well, reviewed a lot from high school German, at least.) The professor is Austrian and seems to be a lot of fun, and I expect I will learn much more than I did in high school German.
3. CSCI 203 Introduction to Computer Science: The first of my comp sci classes. I’m learning Java, which isn’t one of my favorite languages, but at least I’ll learn a lot of good concepts. The professor is Brazilian and seems pretty cool, too.
4. MATH 201 Calculus I: I’m stuck with a bunch of freshmen, which isn’t a bad thing—kind of puts me more at ease. Seems easier than I had expected, and the professor seems very competent and enthusiastic, which is a good combination.

I must say, for having to go back to class (finally), things aren’t looking too bad. Here’s to the Fall Semester ’05 at Bucknell University!