September

Wow, I can’t believe is has been almost a month sense I last posted something. Life is Boston has been pretty good so far, though I am still having to adjust to some things; being completely on my own, having a roommate, not getting my evening talks with my Mom or picking on David (or Mom) with Dad. Yet overall I am having an amazing time.

Classes. I pretty much love all of my classes. My favorite would have to be (drum roll, please) my MA 127, i.e. Enriched Calculus, a review of Calc I and II, anyone surprised? Me neither. In order to graduate from CAS (College of Arts and Sciences) there are certain general requirements we are required to take. There is two ways to do this; through the divisional studies route, in which you there is a wide list of classes that would fulfill each requirement and you choose from there or you can participate in the Core program (which is what I did). Core is a two year program in which the first year you take humanities and natural sciences and then your second year you take humanities and social sciences, this covers all but your math and language requirements. So far I love both my Core classes, right now I’m in Ancient World (humanities) and Natural Science both are a blast but I think I like the humanities one a little more because the majority of it is us discussing our reading (two hour and a half discussion periods each week), it kind of reminds me of Dr. Boeke’s class a little bit only on a bigger and slightly more in debt scale (just ask my mom she has already had to read two of my papers). The science isn’t too bad it is a nice refresher to physics but a lot easier. I’ve only had lab once in that class so it is nice compared with all the other kids who are taking Chem. 101 and have to do a long lab report every week. : ) I’m also taking Italian, which I’m enjoying the learning and the talking that we do but I my first test wasn’t so great. The nice thing is that BU has an Educational Resource Center (ERC) and I signed up for a tutor to help me with the memorization stuff and spelling… yuck! My last class is my Intro to Naval Science class taught by our 4/C Advisor. That class has been interesting it is basic information that we will need to know for the rest of our careers as well as current events. That pretty much raps up classes… no I’m not done yet.

NROTC. The biggest adjustment to college has been getting use to the schedule and responsibilities that come with NROTC. We have lecture twice week for an hour and half and lab once a week were the entire Battalion meets for two hours. In addition to the class time we are required to do PT at least once a week with either the Battalion, or School or the Company do together depending on the week. We had an iPFA (a practice Physical Fitness Assessment) which consisted of a mile and half run (I ran 13:22- which passed but is defiantly something I need to work on this semester) 2-minutes of push-up and then 2-minutes of sit-ups and my all time favorite of the sit and reach which consists of touching your toes and that is it (the best test of them all). I passed the iPFA but will probably have to do extra PT once a week which will actually be good for me so that I actually go out and run. J As 4/C MIDN (fourth class midshipman) we are required to do BDO throughout the year. In other words we have to stay at the Unit and answer the phones and ensure everything is locked up after hours, ie we are there to insure the office can stay open for MIDN after hours and on the weekends. Each shift is about 4 hours and then on the weekend there are two shifts each four hours. BDO is pretty boring, you walk around the unit insuring everything is secure and then you do homework or answer the phones. I am also doing community service with NROTC so we will go and do community service throughout the semester. I actually already went to Harvard and handed out programs which was pretty fun, though it got a little chilly. Thankful there was hot cider; it works wonders to warm you up. NROTC has been keeping me busy but I have made some great friends.
Let’s see I’ve talked about classes and NROTC, truth to tell my social life hasn’t been as wild and crazy as people expect college life to be. Most weekends I have been hanging with some of my friends from NROTC. Unfortunately the weather has been rainy on the weekends so every time we make plans to go out it ends up not happening because of the weather.
Last weekend I went apple picking with Teri. Saturday morning I had to get my military ID but then that afternoon I went with Teri back to her house. PJ was adorable and there was kids running around everywhere so it felt a little bit like home. I did some homework and we made our own pizza. The next morning we went apple picking. Being from Colorado I’ve never been so it was a lot of fun and they had amazing apple cider and apple donuts. I’m surprised that I still have some left but they won’t make it to next weekend.
I think the biggest lesson I have learned is that when it says it will rain in Boston then it will rain in Boston.

Ok so that wasn’t as long as I thought it would be but I should get back to homework now… Midterms are just around the corner.