Start of the new school year

So yesterday I had my first class! It was Advanced Japanese and it was nice seeing everyone again. Although, most of the people I knew were from last year, there were a couple that I remember from the first year which was also nice. Still, there were a LOT of new people and people that I hadn't had in classes before.

About half the class are people like me who've taken Japanese at NYU and have been here for both Elementary and Intermediate Japanese. And then there are the other people. The ones that have taken Japanese in other colleges, the ones that have been abroad in Japan for the last year and those were the scary ones. They talk fast, they seem to know a lot of Japanese and they seem to be way better at it than I am. And seeing as I'm probably one of the worse students in the class, I'm feeling very scared...

First day of Japanese wasn't too bad. We had to introduce ourselves and we talked a bit about our summer which was expected... We already have a reading assignment so yay for that. I've already gone through and did what Hanawa-sensei wanted us to do and just write down all the words we don't know. If I have time tonight and if I'm not feeling too tired, I'll look up the oniyomi for the kanji that we already learned before. I should know them already and I know some of them (or have a vague idea about them) but I'm not totally sure about all of them... At the very least, I should do that.

But more importantly is that I do my reading for Immunology. I meant to read the first chapter last night but I fell asleep watching Eureka (felt really bad about that... T_T) so that kinda killed that idea.

It was weird because Janet started turning all the lights off... I guess she did it as a favor seeing as I was asleep but it's a bit creepy when someone starts changing my environment while I'm sleeping... And seeing as we don't really pay for electricity, I see no reason to really turn off any lights. And not only that, she didn't pull down the blinds which I probably found more annoying. Or would have hadn't I woke up in the middle of the night to actually do it. Open blinds are a pet peeve of mine because there's this thing in space called a sun that rises in the morning. A moving light, open blinds that let that light move over your face...yeah, I find it distracting when I'm sleeping. That's why I make sure all my blinds are closed when I go to sleep. Lights being on when I sleep, no so much because they don't move. They're uniform and when you fall asleep with them on, you're already used to their presence. Not so much so with a rising sun.

Anyway, it wouldn't have happened if I just didn't fall asleep and that was my fault. I let my blood sugar get too low by not really eating a proper lunch and then waiting until it was really late to make dinner. And then I ate something high in carbs which sky rocketed my blood sugar levels, causing me, who had the bright idea to watch TV in bed so I would be really comfy, to fall asleep. It was more or less inevitable. Hopefully that won't happen today seeing as I made sure to eat something more for lunch today -- the reason I came back actually. And I plan on making either pasta or soup noodles for dinner at the appropriate time tonight for dinner.

I had two classes today, my computer class which was a total bore and my Microbiology class which was also a bore but less so. I didn't realize he had placed slides for us but from what I've seen, he teaches off of them almost exclusively. That makes me want to fall asleep in his class. But seeing as it's only a class of about 25 people, I don't think I'll go unnoticed. Same for the computer class. What's weird about is the fact that it's taught in a classroom and later on, we go out and do the work on computers by ourselves... I find that a bit annoying but hopefully it won't be too bad... And I think I might have to buy at least two different books for the course -- the one on Photoshop and the other on Dreamweaver... Apparently, my professor will be referencing them entirely for most of the semester. Yay, more money spent on books. *makes a face*

What else? Well, I had planned on getting lunch on campus today and then studying until 2:30 when I have my first experiment... But then when my class let out early, I realized that I could catch the first bus back to my dorm, be able to get a seat on the bus and have over an hour to make and eat lunch. Score! No money spent today and I'll go back to campus to earn at least $21. I'm hoping for at least $10 but who knows, that's all I might get. I'll be content with it -- any money is good money. After all the money I spent replacing everything, I think I need it. :\

So before I leave today, wash dishes and read a bit more for Immunology. The two chapters are only 50 pages all together but they're surprisingly dense and I'm finding it a bit hard to concentrate on it exclusively. I think I'll have to read it again tonight to really cement it in and I think I might have to take notes on it. The fact that the class is tomorrow at 8 AM has prompted me to take out my coffee maker in preparation. I know I'm going to need something to wake me up, although I probably will be buying it on the street rather than making it myself. Okay, I have 30 minutes. Hopefully I can get through another section in my book...and not fall asleep. *yawns* For some reason, I'm feeling a bit tired even though I got a lot of sleep... I'll be definitely glad when my week is over tomorrow after Japanese...

Score!

So I went to my two experiments today and I did better than I thought I would!

So, first experiment was picking between two slot machines that have different, changing values for payouts and you could tell the difference with a line that represents the payout. I ended up making $23.12 which is pretty awesome. Any time I make more than $20 is great.

The first experiment ended early so I was able to go and print off every printout for Microbiology for the next week and for the whole month of November for Immunology. Now I don't have to do it tomorrow, yay! I can just come back and sleep, eat or study tomorrow after my two and a half hour long class. If I factor a half an hour bus ride, I should get at least four hours to myself tomorrow in between classes.

So, the second experiment was a bit different. Instead of having to make a ton of different decisions, this one was just one and I wasn't quite sure I liked that. It meant that one decision would determine all the money you make. Basically you get assigned a container with three balls all with the same letter. There are three different types of letters altogether and randomly, one of those letters would get you $30 while the other two types get you nothing. You get a show up fee of $8, that is if you don't decide to exchange one of the balls in your container for one of the other letters (or both). It cost you $1 for one ball and $2 to get one of each type of letter.

I got X balls and I exchanged one for a green Y ball. I wanted to hedge my bets and get at least two different types of balls and green is my lucky number so... I spent $1 to get a container with two X balls and an Y ball.

After that, the computer randomly chooses one of the balls in the container and if you get the right letter worth $30, you get that amount of money. In mine, the $30 letter was X. *head hits desk* I still ended up drawing the X ball so I did get $30 but I could have guaranteed that I get $38 if I didn't end up switching the ball. And I so thought about it! I mean this was a weird experiment and when I saw most people getting their $30 + money left from the show up fee, I knew I was right. It seemed like a gimmick that got you to try and buy more balls when the most you could make is when you don't buy any. *sigh* I'm so upset over it, even though it was only $1. But that $1 could have been mine! URG!

Oh well... I'm trying to let it go... One dollar, one dollar, it was only one dollar... *takes a deep breath* I think I need to give it time.

But overall, I think I did magnificently! Altogether, $61.12 for an few hours of experiments... Not bad, not bad at all! ^^

Okay, now... Do I want to take a nap and then eat and study or do I want to forgo the nap, eat and then study... Hmm... I have a floor meeting at 9 PM so I feel as though the nap might be a bad idea... :\