First Week at UGA: Taco TUESDAY

My first Tuesday at UGA began by meeting a few friends for lunch. At 11:45am, I walked into Barberitos, a southwestern grille and cantina, at 5 points in Athens and was greeted by friendly faces. One of those faces was a fellow IMPACT360 alumnus, Zak Ellison. As was tradition on every Tuesday at IMPACT, Zak wore a plain gray shirt with the word "Tuesday" spray painted on it. Not one to break tradition, Zak, once again, wore his "Tuesday shirt" this day! He said, and I quote, "in a world of uncertainties, it's nice to have a constant." Zak, who is from Athens, is attending Columbia International University (CIU), in South Carolina, this fall.

One of the things that IMPACT likes to see happen is for their students to spread all over the globe. The class of 2009, my class, is doing a great job at that. With Zak at CIU is Mark Barrett. He and Zak were roommates at IMPACT360. We have two alumni that are going to Liberty University, Emily Rettig, from Maryland and Cameron Ford, a Missionary Kid from Ukraine. Bekah Babb, also a Missionary Kid from Ukraine will be attending Taylor University. My roommate, Morgan Reynolds (Sharpsburg, GA), will be at Lee University in TN. From the class of 2009 there are three students attending the Kings College in NYC, Corinne Cordasco (Virginia), Tiffany Owens (NC), and Bethany Pickett (TX). Also joining those three in NY are two alumni from the class of 2008. Brittany Shadburne (TX) will be attending Berry College in Rome, GA. Ashely Culpepper (Hamilton, GA) will be at Moody Bible Institute. Her roommate, Katlynne Shields (KY), will be at Union University, along with Josh Whitson (McDonough, GA). Amanda Sanderson will be staying in her home state of TX the rest of this year and will be joining the Navy next year. Catherine Olson (IA), Ali Erickson (Hamilton, GA), Katie Hamrick (FL), Bekah Hagan (AZ), and Nathan Cook (Marietta, GA) will be staying in their home states as well for college this year. Alex Berner (Tyrone, GA) will be attending College of the Ozarks in Missouri, and I, of course, am at UGA! As for our Student Living and Learning folks, Brian and Bethany...they got married!!! I was honored to attend their wedding in June, and a few weeks ago, they moved into their apartment in Marietta, GA. Brian will be working at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta while Bethany attends graduate school.

Now that you have the 411 on my IMPACT class of 2009, how about my second day at college. After lunch was over, I studied for a while before my Greek class at 2:30. I once again had trouble finding a place to park. Today's spot: a small neighborhood off of Baxter street where many other cars were parked, so I assumed it would be okay; I took the last spot. After Greek, a friend from church who is also in my Greek class, invited me back to her dorm room. Once I arrived in Church Hall, her dorm, we both dropped Greek and added different classes. Why?, you might ask. Well, we got a second look at the work load and decided that it was going to be too much for us to handle our freshman year and with all the other classes we were taking. We both decided to take it at a later time when we could devote more time to it. The class that replaced it for me: Intro to Athropology. I will talk about that class on Thursday.

6:30pm. I enter a HUGE auditorium where at least 300 people are seated. This is my Chemistry class. I'm excited because I loved Chemistry, but I also know it's going to be hard work. At 7:00 there are still 45 minutes left of class. The professor is already finished with all the syllabus explanation, and he begins to lecture. Even though I haven't had any science since my junior year in high school (at least 2 years ago), all the stuff about molecules, atoms, elements moles and joules starts slowly coming back to me.

It's 8:17pm. I walk in the door, hungry, sweaty, and tired. First a bowl of cereal, then a nice hot shower, and I'm in bed.

2 days down, 3 to go...