Thursday, August 23, 2012

Adjustments


It’s hard to believe that I have now been in the states for over 3 weeks, and that my first week of classes is over!  Honestly, I’m not sure reality has sunk in that this is all happening, but slowly, slowly I think it will.  Overall the adjustment has gone well so far, allow me to highlight a few things…  J

School:  Ok, so driving myself to college on the first day (Monday) was a little strange.  Thankfully my mom and I had gone in ahead of time and found out where all my classes are, so at least I had a little bit of an idea of where I was going.  My first class was biology… maybe not the best class to begin my college experience with, but a class none-the-less!!  Right after that I had biology lab where we started memorizing all of the bones of the skull.  Nothing like jumping right into it!  Later that afternoon I had my Sociology class, which wasn’t too painful.  J  Tuesday brought about another set of classes, this time Chemistry, Chem lab, and speech, all of which went pretty well.  Wednesday and Thursday brought about another round of the same classes.  I must admit, college isn’t quite what I expected, but I am kind of enjoying it (so far) and not feeling too overwhelmed… yay!!  J  I have also met quite a few cool people and gotten to reconnect with friends, both from teams, and people I’ve known for a while.  Crazy who all you meet at college!! 

Housing:  Sunday evening I made the move into my new room/house and started to make it my own.  I really didn’t bring that much stuff back with me, so unpacking wasn’t too big of a deal and went pretty quickly.  I think I was most excited about opening up all my school stuff and getting all of that organized and ready for the next day!  I do have the room feeling like it’s “my” room a little more-so now, and I’m enjoying sleeping in a bed again, after 2 weeks on different sofas!  J  I’m also adjusting to having brothers and a small dog around instead of sisters and a big dog… but that adjustment will have to be a longer-term thing!! 

Goodbyes:  So, how was it saying goodbye to my mom and sisters?  Honest truth?  I’m not sure yet.  Monday evening (after my first day of school) we went out for supper together and then said our goodbyes from there.  I think I was at a point where I was just ready to get goodbyes over with, and reality hadn’t really sunk in that this was THE goodbye.  Truth is, I’m still not completely sure I’ve said goodbye to them (even though they should be landing in Guate soon!!), and I’m not sure I’ve said goodbye to my dad either!!  The great thing is that we have all the technology and can keep up to date through texting, Skype, FB, etc.  Gotta love modern technology…  J

Other little Things:  There are still a few things that I find myself being caught off guard by.  One thing is that the grocery stores still seem huge and overwhelming.  Seriously, do you need all those options of cereal?!?  The driving is also still a bit of an adjustment… I need to watch those stupid speed limits, use my turn signal, and stop at stop signs.  It has been nice to be able to just hop in the car and go do what I want though!!  Oh, and why do they always put the trash cans so far away from the toilets in the bathrooms???  Wait, I guess you really CAN flush toilet paper here!!  And one final thing that I need to re-adjust to seeing is squirrels… crazy, but true!! 

I think that about covers most of the main adjustments and things of life for me right now.  The adjustments continue, reality keeps sinking in a little deeper, and life keeps changing, bout overall it’s going well.  Thank you all for your notes of encouragement and for your prayers!!!  

2 comments:

  1. Hi Maredith,
    I was wondering how your week went. I saw you on Tuesday walking to your car as I went up the driveway. Sounds as if you did well for your first week! Glad to hear you are making some friends as well. Have a great weekend and don't study too much, have some fun! Mary Liz

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  2. AWW I so enjoy you are updating!! YAY! .. Well comment back:

    Clases: I loved chemistry (of course I had to) and biology, but more than that the labs!! Nothing I enjoyed more that being with the googles and doing the stuff I learn in theory...

    An on the other little things :) Proud that you are so Chapina!! And you know what we say here, if you can drive here, you can drive anywhere... OHHH an that thing about the toilet paper!!! Really What is that all about!! jajajaja it happened to me in the hotels in houston... and I did not know!! :)

    Enjoy.. BTW I have my Tablet now, and skype, so we can skype whenever you can...

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