SOAR Day

Today's the day for people like me, who are unable to make it to the earlier summer SOAR (Summer Orientation And Registration) dates, to finally learn about and register for our classes. Being a Letters & Science Honors student (I like just randomly saying honors student to see how it rolls off the tongue. What's the point in being one if you can't brag about it, right?) , I went with that respective group to understand more about what it means to be an honors student, seeing how I just blindly signed up for anything with the word 'honors' in it.

Basically, among all the courses and lessons offered at UW, there are some which are 'Honors Only', and 'Honors Optional'. Among the 3 broad Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences areas, one has to take 12 credits in each area (one class is around 3 credits, so that's 4 courses in each area) by the end of the year. This is apart from the major you'll be choosing, but you won't have to declare a major till year 3. For honors students, 6 of the 12 credits from each area has to be 'Honors' classes, meaning you go to the same lectures, but attend separate tutorials, taught by professors instead of graduate students, and fulfill extra projects or homework. After completing all the 120 credits, and maintained a 3.3 cumulative GPA, an honors student would graduate with either a Bachelor of Arts (that's me) or a Bachelor of Science (over my dead body).

The major I declare wouldn't even be shown on my Bachelor of Arts certificate, actually, which leaves me the freedom to choose any weird major I want. I could do an English major, with a Criminal Justice certificate, and go on to do Law in graduate school. That's the beauty of having such a flexible system working for me.

So, to fulfill my various credits in my 3 'Breadth' areas, I have:

Humanities

- Linguistics (Human Language)

- English (Shakespeare)

Social Science

- Psychology (Intro to Psychology)

Natural Science

- Geological Sciences (The Age of Dinosaurs)

- Geography (Global Physical Environments)

I know what you're thinking - The Age of Dinosaurs?! Pretty awesome, eh. I was lucky I chose it early - my suite-mate wanted to get it too, but he was too late and all the seats were filled. I really do not want to drop this, so I'm hoping it's time-slot wouldn't clash with anything I already have, as they have yet to announce the class schedules for this course. I also never thought I'd do Shakespeare again, and yet here we are. Time to revisit all that hidden imagery, soliloquies, rhyming couplets and morbid murderers again, and I have to say, I'm pretty excited about it. Not taking literature for 2 years in JC were kinda strange for me. Felt as if I've abandoned the natural artistic side of me to embrace the darkness of science.

Ah, science. They gave me quite a fright when they said that we have to do sciences as well as arts. Thankfully, they consider geography and geosciencs as physical and biological sciences, or I would seriously just have died on the spot if they wanted me to do physics again. Never again would I even step into a classroom poisoned with the noxious, evil aura of physics.

Well my classes and schedule just looks awesome, and I'm really excited to begin. Classes officially begin on Thursday, but my Thursday doesn't have any lessons scheduled on it, so naturally I slotted in a facial appointment. My very absolute first lesson as a college student - ever - is Shakespeare Discussion, at 9.55am on Friday. A really significant lesson, I'll say. Truly marks the point where I begin my foray into higher learning.

They want students from foreign schools to take the 'English as a Second Language' test tomorrow. How utterly insulting to insinuate that my English standard is anything but stellar, and so arrogant of them to assume that any high school outside of the US wouldn't use English as its primary language of instruction. They're seriously just asking for it. Summary writing? Seriously? Like as if our GP lessons haven't drilled that into us? I'm even gonna paraphrase their little essays for them.

I do understand why they want us to do those tests, though. I have encountered Chinese students here, whose pronunciations just make me want to kill myself. Its honestly so slow that i would have already forgotten the first part of the sentence by the time they get to the second. Not being judgmental, I know their math abilities are to die for, but it just pains my heart to hear them struggle like that. Makes me wanna put my hand down their throats and just yank out that elusive word they've been gagging to spit out.

In unrelated news, I've been cooking up a storm since arrival, and have made till now - baked chicken with sweet potatoes, aglio olio, Mexican scrambled eggs, spaghetti bolognese, dumplings, Betty Crocker chocolate cakes, and Rocky Road crunch bars. I think it's safe to say that I won't be starving myself for the next couple of years. I absolutely refuse to punish myself gastronomically, when I know school's gonna be punishing enough mentally. I'm thinking of distributing crunch bars around the level, just to say hi to my neighbors. Everyone's been so friendly, makes me kinda feel like I'm not being sociable enough.

Back to the kitchen!