Hey! I'm still here. Haven't forgotten about this. More info coming this week. Max will be 1 in a couple of weeks!

Well, the first full week of real classes have gone by! Only 300 or so more weeks to go! Yay! What can I tell ya.... One thing I've learned after only a week, is you've got to stay on top of this stuff. If you get too far behind or can't figure something out and you don't fix the problem right away, you could be in trouble. So, I'm trying to stay on top of it. But, enough about school.

Shawna has been pursuing many job leads. We've got about a month left of maternity leave pay, then we've got to cash in somewhere else. Still can't decide whether we should stay in Portage or move to Winnipeg. Costs will be close to the same, so the only issue is finding a good daycare in winnipeg and having the family support in Portage. Of course, knocking 2 hours of driving out of my day would be nice too. Decisions, decisions.

2nd day of classes. 11:30am-2:30pm. Physics...English...Biology. Physics was introduced to us by an East Indian prof who was difficult to understand because of the thick accent. Luckily he was only filling in for the day and our regular prof will be there next week. Looks like I have a good prof for english, but I'm still not looking forward to it. Writing essays is not my kind of thing. Unfortunately that is what this course is all about. Too bad you are required to have an english course within the first 2 years. Biology should be interesting in a way. The entire lecture part of the course is taught from a video. We'll only be dealing with a professor in the lab part of the course. Weird. There are apparently 15 different classes of first year biology, so there aren't enough teachers to go around.

The 2 days of introductions are over now and the true work begins monday. After going through the outlines of each course I'm really starting to understand how difficult this may be. There is a lot of material to cover. But there are tons of people in the same boat I am (kind of). I'm guessing english will be one of the difficult courses, because of the essays. Chemistry may also be tougher than the others, just because they are expecting you to have retained a lot from high school. Sorry, but I've blocked out most of my chemistry in the last 12 years. We'll see. I'll just have to have some discipline. All the instructors have said...'If you keep up with the readings you should be all right'. I expect I'll read more in the next 8 months than I've ever read in my life!

I think the part time job thing is probably out the window...at least for now.

First day of classes. 8:30am-11:15am. Chemistry followed immediately by Psychology. Starting next week I should also have a Biology Lab in the afternoon, but you have to have a lecture before you can have a lab. First biology lecture is tomorrow. Things went pretty well today. Squeezed into class just on time. For both classes most of the lecture consisted of an overview of what we'll be doing for the year. Should be the same thing tomorrow as I have English, Physics, and Biology for the first time. Psychology looks like it could be really fun. My professor was voted best teacher by the students last year, so that's a good sign. He greeted everyone at the door and shook their hands on their way in. He also did a little telepathy that I was involved in which was quite impressive. He had a deck of 50 cards consisting of 5 different 'suits'. He dealt them out to 10 people (5 cards each) and said that mathmatically we probably each have one pair of the same suit. He then proceeded to tell us what pair each of us was holding. He got 9 out of 10 correct. Apparently my mind is very easy to read, because he seemed to have the least trouble with me. Interesting trick to start off. There are almost 300 people in my Psychology class and close to the same in the Chemistry class.

Day 1 and Day 2 consisted of orientation and some seminars. The first day we all went to a homeroom and were given various tips, etc on how to succeed in university. Then came part 1 of the outdoor tour around campus which led to a presentation/greeting for all the newcomers at the gym. Part 2 of the outdoor tour around campus followed. After that there was a bbq and outdoor concert in the 'quad' (my first university term). Day 2 consisted of a bunch of 1 hour seminars you could take to improve various skills. For example..."Good Notes=Good Grades"..."Doing A+ Research"....This was followed by 'quadfest' which was a concert and prize giveaways. So, it was a nice easing in process. Got to see where all my classes would be and have a pretty good idea of the campus now. Classes start tomorrow!

2 days until school starts! Saturday shawna, max, and I spent the day at ditch lake (near clear lake). My mom has a cabin up there. My nephew bailey and my sister were also there. Today we went to spruce woods provincial park where shawna's sister and her family were camping for the weekend. I'd never been there before, but we definitely plan on camping there next year. There are tons of bike trails, a beach, and lots of stuff for the kids to do. Pictures from the past weekend will be online soon at the usual place....www.photo.epson.com...type in my e-mail address in the 'visit albums' section.