And So It Begins

I have my last orientation session this afternoon, then it's full-speed into graduate school. I'm already feeling overwhelmed, but that is partly general freaking out over figuring out my schedule.

I am disappointed (though not surprised) to discover that the class I am TAing for meets 5 days a week, which means I meet 5 days a week also. I have to sit in on the lecture 3 days a week and lead lab sessions 2 days a week. I was surprised to realize that I would have to do 2 labs, but I hope that things will calm down and start making sense once we get into it. I am happy to report that we have a meeting between the professor and all 4 TAs (two first year and two second year who have taught labs under him before) on Fridays so we can go over the labs for the coming week, etc. The professor, whom I will call D, seems pretty organized for an academic, but as you might expect, is not quite up to the highest levels of organization with which I have become familiar in industry/government. I'm still a bit confused by some things, but that is somewhat my fault for not coming to the first meeting this morning prepared to ask questions. Also there were some things assumed by the others that I did not assume, but I was able to ask questions of one of the dept. admins and get set straight.

I also have a ton of keys now.

I got my books from the UPS guy just now, including the neuro one that I have been leery of. Chapter 1 for tomorrow covers the introduction to the nervous system. Joy. I'm just not super interested in this kind of science, and am choking a bit on the memorization that's going to be involved (am I pre-med?), but I'm trying to keep an open mind (brain?). I am at least a bit interested in the executive functions - planning actions, information use, etc. - and I'm sure other things will become more interesting as I learn enough to think about any of this stuff.