First Week of School

So, I have had an entire week of school now.

When I opened the email with my organic chemistry syllabus in it on August 30th before I went to bed, it felt a little like someone had dropped a bomb on me. Class material has started pretty slow and I anticipate it picking up speed very soon. I have three chapters (very long chapters) of background material and concepts we are supposed to know which I need to work on while also working on our current class chapter. I also had to read quite a bit in preparation for the first lab on September 3rd - I don't know if I will always have as much prep reading to do for lab. For the first lab we did not have an actual experiment, but we have a large assignment for analyzing IR and GC/MS data which also made me feel overwhelmed and which I will need help with. For organic chemistry we have to write pre-labs in our special duplicate paged notebooks which include an abstract, information about any chemicals to be used, and a clear outline of the procedure and any special arrangements of equipment (for the first lab we did not need to do this, so I do not yet know how hard that might be). The pre-lab is considered in our lab grade along with notes taken throughout the experiment, technique, safety, and post-lab assignment. We also do not have lab partners anymore. I have permission from the Learning Commons to access tutoring, so I applied for a "one-on-one" tutor since drop-in tutoring (which I have gone to in the past) happens during symphonic chorus and I will see if that works out.

Intro to Jewish Studies will probably be less labor intensive than the Holocaust class.

I do not know if I will be able to keep playing in String Ensemble; I will hopefully make it until the show concert on October 14th. Gymnastics and chorus have not started yet. I expect to eventually acclimate, but I will not know how much time or effort everything will take for a while as my routine settles.