First Week at UGA: Memory MONDAY

Before I start talking about classes and my day on the 17th of August, let me mention a little thing I went to before school even started: a PARTY! It's called "Phi Slam." (www.phislam.com) Phi Slam is a privately owned and operated fraternity (Phi Sigma Lambda). A group for about 7 guys lives in this fraternity and about 2-3 times a year they put on a party that is open to any student that wants to attend. These parties are alcohol free and are an alternative for students, particularly freshman, who want to avoid the college drinking scene. Friday night, August 14th was the back-to-school pig roast. And they did just that...roast an entire pig. There was barbeque, chips, pickles, and to drink...gatorade! Just looking around, I would have to say that there were at least 500 students, most of them freshman. I met so many people that night, and I was very encouraged by the number of professing Christians that were there. I went home so excited because even though this is a liberal, secular college, there are still people, my age, that are hungry for and seeking after the Lord!

This is the first part of a 5 part blog entry that will capture all my experiences during the first week of UGA. So begins, Monday!

As I left the house to go to down to the UGA campus, my mom said "you're a little bullpup." Even though as soon as you go through orientation at UGA they give you the title of a "Bulldawg" (that is correct spelling in Athens), I feel so young and inexperienced at college life, "bullpup" is a more correct title for me, for now.

Monday afternoon at 12:20 marked the beginning of my college career. It was very appropriate that my first class turned out Math, my favorite subject. Because I have not had any math since my junior year in high school (a grand total of 2 1/2 years ago), I scored very low on the math placement test. The result, being placed in pre-calculus. But after 3 days of it this week, it is starting to come back to me.

After journeying from Hardman Hall, the Air Force ROTC building where my math class is located on Soule Street , I walk down DW Brooks Drive where it deadends into the Chemistry building, the place I will be spending most of my time in the next 4 years because I am a Chemistry major. However, at this particular time, 1:25pm, I am not attending a Chemistry class. Until 2:15pm, I will be sitting in a small conference room with 15 other students in a freshman seminar entitled "C.S. Lewis: Science and Scientism." This class explors C.S. Lewis's views on Science by reading his book That Hideous Strength, the third book in his space trilogy. Being a big C.S. Lewis fan, I did a paper on him in my freshman year of high school and am already thinking about studying abroad at Oxford where he studied and taught, this will most likely be my favorite class of this semester!
2:15. I take a right out of the Computational Chemistry building and start walking down Cedar Street. I eventually turn right onto Sanford Drive, the street that is home to the ever popular Sanford Stadium where the Bulldawgs play "between the hedges." Memories of earlier days start flooding through my mind. Like how, in Wisconsin, every Saturday when there was a Georgia football game on TV, my mom would be playing all the Georgia fight songs on the kitchen cd player as she mopped the floor or cleaned up the breakfast dishes. Although I was annoyed then, thinking my mother was insane for being so obsessed about GA football, I am now greatful for those songs being forcefully carved into my memory. Now, when I attend my first GA football game, I will being able to sing and cheer along. As I look down onto the field (I am not the only freshman doing so), I see the workers cutting the grass, cleaning the bleachers, and testing the lights. Again, it takes me back to high school when my mom and I walked around campus one game day trying to get tickets from those that were selling them (it's hard, by the way). Games are usually sold out! The thought never crossed my mind that 4 years later I would be walking the same route as a student and passing by that famous place every day on the way to my classes. God certainly has a sense of humor!

Sanford Drive takes me right to the entrance of Park Hall, where the English and Classics Department is located. It's 2:30 and time for Greek 1001 to begin. I have wanted to learn Greek for a while, mostly for the ability to be able to read the New Testament. First assigment of my college days, memorize the Greek alphabet, pronunciation and letters, both capital and lowercase. It took me almost two hours that night to do so, but now, I can drive down the streets of Athens and know what each fraternity and sorority are called just by a little glance!

At 3:10pm I go, no where. The next and last class I have on Monday is English Composition in the same building. After walking all over campus from class to class, I am glad to have 15 minutes to just sit outside the classroom. I have really begun to enjoy writing, which is probably one of the reasons I started this blog. Academically, IMPACT was mostly reading and writing, and I'm hoping that doing it a lot this past year helps me in this course. This class was also the first place I was able to talk about God outloud so far this day, the rest of the day I hope I was speaking through my actions.

4:25pm. My day ends with a mile walk down Lumpkin to 5 points and a little up Milledge to a neighborhood where my car is parked (I haven't yet received a parking permit). As I think about all that's taken place in the last 4 hours, I am a tiny bit overwhelmed. I hate the first day of any class because the dreaded syllabus is handed out. My "achiever" mind thinks "I have to do this all right now," completely forgetting that the semester doesn't end 'til mid-December. "Oh wait, no, I have 4 months; take it one day at a time."

Time management is going to be a big thing to get a grasp of this year. I am not working a job this semester, and I am being very careful to what I commit to doing as far as activities, groups and clubs go. I will save that 'til Spring, after I get used to what being a college student is going to be like.

1 day down, 4 more to go...