A Day in the Life...

I thought I'd take a section here and describe a day in the life of a graduate student. I got this brilliant idea from a good friend of mine, Gregory Bowman, who is living in Indonesia and sent an email about a typical day for him there. I loved it (of course) because I think so often we are searching for ways to tell people about grandiose or epic things going on in our lives when in reality, a lot of times it is just nice for people to know and be a part of the every day, sometimes boring, things that happen to us. I know that as I am experiencing so many great new things here, a big part of me simply desires a person who knows the basics of what my day looks like...So here you go. Thanks for being a part of it! (And thanks Greg for the inspiration!)

My day gets started at a decent hour, usually between 6 or 7, depending on how motivated I am to workout for the day. We have a little gym at my apartment, so I really have no excuse, but I think that I prefer to run outside where you are actually moving and gaining distance than just standing in one place staring at a television. But, the heat in Texas is more than I can take so I end up in the gym if I'm disciplined enough to get up!

Anyway, on most days I start the day off at my job in the Student Activities office. I work in an office with 5 other graduate students, and that has been pretty great. We have a disco ball in the center of our small room (we've yet to break out into a dance party) but the real entertainment comes from two of my fellow graduate students: Dan and Cason. They like to pretend they are police partners. They have their desks set up to face each other so they feel like real partners, once in awhile one of them will pick up the phone and yell, "Quick, give me the chief!" without dialing it, they have talked about wearing ties to work with the tie loose and their top button undone, and of course they try to have remnants of a powder donut on their shirt with a half drunk cup of coffee on their desk. And yes, they do have a pretend gun and badges.

Needless to say, it is entertaining to come to work everyday. Not always productive, but definitely entertaining. I'll work on getting a picture of them at their desks ASAP.

Breaks from work are always a nice thing, and we are lucky enough to be situated across from the bear habitat on campus. I was surprised to know that there were live bears on the Baylor campus. Since they arrived last week, it has been hard for me to resist walking around campus yelling "HEY, Bear" with bells on my shoes (to warn them I'm coming), and a few people have been looking at me funny when I tie my lunch up in a tree before I go inside for class. They seem to think that live bears are not dangerous. I'm not really sure. I think I'll stick with the bells.

I usually have lunch in the Student Union Building (SUB for all the hip college folks) and then head off to class in the afternoon/evening. Classes are 3 hours long once a week which actually isn't that bad. I enjoy all of my classes and love the fact that they all are about things I'm actually interested in. One class has the potential of having a "pop exam" every week which can be a bit stressful, but I'm starting to get used to it by now.

After class I usually head to the library to get some studying done if I have a meeting in the evening, or I head home to make dinner and see the roommates. Most likely, I'll end up at a bookstore or Starbucks with some fellow students to finish up any reading I've missed out on.

Anyway, the days are full but good and I am so excited to be here. I hope that gives you a better picture of what is going on with me. I would love to hear from anyone about how life is going! Thanks for the comments! Besos