First day of school. As for now, everything went fine except this beating in my head. My headache seems to attack me pretty frequent recently. At this moment I'm writing this journal while my body is bedded.

So, there goes my first day of school. I take 16 credits this semester, expecting a tough semester ahead as then I just managed to earn mostly 12 credits. My classes bagin as early as 8:00 every morning. End around 10-11. And then I'll have a class in the afternoon.

There are some improvements around the campus. New buildings like the new ITS building is now up and online. The most sophisticated building in Penn State as far as I know. Follow this link for the pictures. But it is not ready to be occupied by the computer engineering deparment staffs yet.

Apart from visual upgrades, Penn State also introduces the new College Napster for its students. This allows student to download songs from Napster.com database for free. Yes.. all the 99 cents per song songs are now available for on-campus students for free. Luckily, Penn State is the first university that allows its student to download copyrighted musics (a different case from MIT, which bought all the songs and copyrighted them under its name)

For more news about Penn State and Napster, follow this link

For most students, the first day isn't about studying the first chapter, it is about understanding the instructors and the courses. I just knew that Americans use the term shopping (in college term) to define this effort. Students will spend their first day going or shopping to every class they can, eventhough they didn't register for the classes. They will be visiting lecture halls and labs from one to another in order to choose the best courses or the best sections that fit their schedules (or whatever) the best.

There are so many things that differ from what I used to in Malaysian colleges. Dropping/adding subjects electronically, using my own credit cards to buy textbooks, using three-holes binders, taking exams online, emailed grades, vortal (online forum); just to name a few for which I supposed much are influenced by the overwhelming United States technology.

Most of them did make things simpler and easier. Studying is no more than a click away. Everything can be accessed at home. Advisors have much time to relax than before and ques in registrar offices are often shorter than ques in dining halls.

Enough of that. I should focus on my studies from now on. Or else I would end up being a loser. Being rejected by a dream girl is better than losing a couple of semester credits.

I am now industrially motivated. The whole major preference process did motivate me to be more serious. And I am glad that I started okay. I hope I will remain motivated till the final week.

Posted by Ahmad Fadzli on January 13, 2004 at 9:59:00 AM | Permalink