One Week in and Still Alive!

I just finished my first full week of classes (not counting last Thursday and Friday)! Plus I'm about two weeks into my official resident advisor responsibilities. I finally know all my residents' names (although I'm iffy on a few), and it seems like no one hates me so far. Always a plus. ;)

Last week was Fall Welcome Week, with a bunch of events for the new freshmen to get them ready for classes (plus a ton of meetings for me). Classes started on Thursday, which was also the day I finally took my driving test! I passed, of course. Nice way to start off the year! My classes are going really well so far - I'm taking Arabic, Bio, Cognitive Psych, and International Law as well as a couple of 1-unit seminars (so 19 units) - except that I'm a bit behind on my reading already. I can tell that Arabic is going to be a challenge. The homework load is doable but we're speeding through the characters and vocab, so it's a struggle to keep on top of everything.

Schedule-wise I'm doing fine - it's definitely a challenge balancing the RA job, academics, and my other activities, but I'm used to it from last year so I can handle it. This week I've been running around - I'm either in class, a meeting, the lab, or tabling for my fraternity (since rush is next week). Not much time for sleeping or meals! Like I said, I'm managing though. I'm eating dinner with my residents as much as I can, since the more I talk to them the more I realize how awesome they are! (And how incredibly lucky I am.) I've been trying to squeeze a social life into my busy schedule - saw Thor with a friend last weekend and went to see a campus production of "Midsummer Night's Dream" as well - which is also tricky but helps me to stay sane.

This weekend things should be toned down a bit since I'm the RA on-call! This essentially means that I am confined to my living area for the duration of the weekend so that if students lock themselves out or have any kind of crisis, I can be there to assist them. Not exactly my favorite part of the job, but it's an excuse to stay in the residence hall and catch up on studying. Hopefully I can catch up on sleep too!