Second year, first semester

[cosmolinguist]

I finally got my uni timetable for this semester and it's so weird.

I had two-hour lectures once a week last year, except for one class that had them split up into one hour on Monday and one on Thursday or some such. For that subject, intro to semantics, I think the split actually helped with retention of all the technical jargon because my brain never had a whole week in between to forget everything.

This semester all three lectures are one hour on two days. All three are Monday and Tuesday, so it's still almost a week until the next lecture.

But what's really bad is the times they're at. 10am, noon and 4pm on Mondays, and 9am, 11am and 4pm on Tuesdays.

I'm not at all sure what to do with such a big gap in the day. Staying in the library for three or four hours hasn't really worked out for me so far, but I know if I go back home after the second lecture and face the prospect of casting myself on the mercy of the 197 (not the most reliable bus) and dragging my ass back in for four o'clock...when before the end of the semester it'll be dark by then...that does not bode well.

Then after Tuesday I only have one semimar each day for the rest of the week. At 9am one day and 11 the other two. I don't mind mornings, I'm always up early (though the 9am days mean rush hour buses and traffic which are not fun) and at least they'll be out of the way and make it easier to do things the rest of the day.

Despite the unenviable schedule I now have facing me until Christmas, and the fact that some of my classes were chosen at random because I wasn't given much information about what I could expect and I'm concerned about the fieldwork-vs-abstract stuff balance (and I was interested in a lot more second-semester classes than ones offered in the first semester this year)... I'm still excited about being back at school.

Between two parental visits, a new boyfriend, a ton of Lib Demmery (obviously culminating in conference taking up half the intervening time between now and uni) and a lot of personal stresses for people close to me, it has been a very busy summer and being a student feels like something I did a million years ago instead of a few months ago. It'll be nice to get back to it.

Comments

[ewt]

Is there anywhere other than the library that you could spend some time those two long afternoons? Is there anyone else who's going to have a similar schedule that you could and would like to spend time with?

[cosmolinguist]

I don't have friends at uni (I didn't expect or put any effort into acquiring any) but I do have a friend who reminded me he works from home a short walk from where I'll be, so I'll have lots of chances for lunch and suchlike with him.

[meepettemu]

Oh that’s really annoying!

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah! Like in the grand scheme of things I know what a tiny problem it really is, but also I know how much stuff like this has an effect on my mental health.

[barakta]

Do any nicer buildings have decent public access computer rooms which you can hole up in?

Are there any spaces with assistive tech in the library you can routinely book out and nobble some stuff that's stupid but still a use of time?

Gappy annoying timetable is gappy! But hope you find the content interesting and joyful!

[cosmolinguist]

There is a special library room I can access, (student card has been specially programmed to work on its swipe lock, oooh ;) ) that has computers with magnfiers and stuff, so I thought that might be an option sometimes too. I also might start bringing my laptop with me more so I can do reading and stuff (assuming I get pdfs!).