That Nightmare
You know the one.. you come to a class final only to realize that you haven't attended a single class that semester! Most of us have had the dream but today... today... I lived it.
Graduate school classes started on September 7th. That's a Wednesday. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday classes ran last week, with Monday and Tuesday classes joining in this week. Does this mean that the Monday and Tuesday classes go one week less because they start later? No. Monday and Tuesday classes must meet the week of Thanksgiving, whereas Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday classes do not.
Still with me? Good.
I have a Monday class and a Tuesday class. At least... I thought I had a Monday class. Some classes can be taken at my work (JHU/APL). There is a building next to minewith classrooms in it and if you are sufficiently swift you can register to take classes there, having not so much a commute as a brisk walk to school. I registered to take classes at APL, and those classes were on Monday and Tuesday.
Still with me? Good.
The classes taught at APL fill up very quickly because every working schmuck in the program, like me, wants to take the classes where tey work. By the time my paperwork cleared, the classesI wanted to take at APL had filled. I needed to take them at a different campus, about 10 miles up the road. Both classes were at the same times, and appeared to be on the same days, just at different locations.
Still with me? Good!
I get a registration slip in the mail. It lists my class names, times, and days they meet. Next to one is a T which, I presume, stands for Tuesday. Next to another is an M which, I presume, stands for Monday. All seems right with the world.
Today I ready for my first day of class. I leave work at 4pm, get tothe place by 4:15pm, ready for my 4:30pm class. I go to the "front desk" of the satellite campus and ask the receptionist in which room my class meets. She takes my class number, looks on her list, and informs me "I'm sorry, sir. We don't have that class here".
Still with me? Because this is where the ol' nightmare begins.
I hand her my dot-matrix-printed, carbon-transferred copy of my registration receipt, showing my class names, times, dates, and locations. After a ltitle research we discover that my Monday class is not a Monday class. It is a Thursday class. How did we finally noodle this out? The M on the registration sheet was not an M at all. It was an H. In academia, an H apparently means Thursday. On a carbon-transferred dot-matrix printed receipt, I gotta tell you, an H looks alot like an M, especially when you were expecting an M in the first place.
No problem! Thursday is a fefw days away. I'm not late. I'm early!
No. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday classes started last week. I missed my first graduate class. 1 out of 13. A 3 hour course, gone. Holy crud, cue Psycho music.
Then a moment of salvation, a cosmic coincidence that pulls my butt out of the fire: The class through some freak accident, is being taught by... a coworker of mine who sits directly across the hall from me. We were both on the same flight software team.
Yes. I randomly go to graduate school, pick a class, lose my first seating choice, get assigned a different location and happen to get a teacher who is on the same flight software team as myself. The class? A generic core class: the fundamentals of computer architectures. Holy wow, batman.
So I drive back to APL, stop by his office, and relate the above. We have a good laugh, he tells me what I missed. He further tells me he made a scheduling mistake so the homework that was due on the 2nd class won't be due until the 3rd class, so I have no homework. He also happens to have copies of all of his handouts and presentations. He tells me he will see me on Thursday.
Why haven't I blogged lately? Trust me, this is the least of the bizarre that hasbeen going on.
-Ed
Graduate school classes started on September 7th. That's a Wednesday. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday classes ran last week, with Monday and Tuesday classes joining in this week. Does this mean that the Monday and Tuesday classes go one week less because they start later? No. Monday and Tuesday classes must meet the week of Thanksgiving, whereas Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday classes do not.
Still with me? Good.
I have a Monday class and a Tuesday class. At least... I thought I had a Monday class. Some classes can be taken at my work (JHU/APL). There is a building next to minewith classrooms in it and if you are sufficiently swift you can register to take classes there, having not so much a commute as a brisk walk to school. I registered to take classes at APL, and those classes were on Monday and Tuesday.
Still with me? Good.
The classes taught at APL fill up very quickly because every working schmuck in the program, like me, wants to take the classes where tey work. By the time my paperwork cleared, the classesI wanted to take at APL had filled. I needed to take them at a different campus, about 10 miles up the road. Both classes were at the same times, and appeared to be on the same days, just at different locations.
Still with me? Good!
I get a registration slip in the mail. It lists my class names, times, and days they meet. Next to one is a T which, I presume, stands for Tuesday. Next to another is an M which, I presume, stands for Monday. All seems right with the world.
Today I ready for my first day of class. I leave work at 4pm, get tothe place by 4:15pm, ready for my 4:30pm class. I go to the "front desk" of the satellite campus and ask the receptionist in which room my class meets. She takes my class number, looks on her list, and informs me "I'm sorry, sir. We don't have that class here".
Still with me? Because this is where the ol' nightmare begins.
I hand her my dot-matrix-printed, carbon-transferred copy of my registration receipt, showing my class names, times, dates, and locations. After a ltitle research we discover that my Monday class is not a Monday class. It is a Thursday class. How did we finally noodle this out? The M on the registration sheet was not an M at all. It was an H. In academia, an H apparently means Thursday. On a carbon-transferred dot-matrix printed receipt, I gotta tell you, an H looks alot like an M, especially when you were expecting an M in the first place.
No problem! Thursday is a fefw days away. I'm not late. I'm early!
No. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday classes started last week. I missed my first graduate class. 1 out of 13. A 3 hour course, gone. Holy crud, cue Psycho music.
Then a moment of salvation, a cosmic coincidence that pulls my butt out of the fire: The class through some freak accident, is being taught by... a coworker of mine who sits directly across the hall from me. We were both on the same flight software team.
Yes. I randomly go to graduate school, pick a class, lose my first seating choice, get assigned a different location and happen to get a teacher who is on the same flight software team as myself. The class? A generic core class: the fundamentals of computer architectures. Holy wow, batman.
So I drive back to APL, stop by his office, and relate the above. We have a good laugh, he tells me what I missed. He further tells me he made a scheduling mistake so the homework that was due on the 2nd class won't be due until the 3rd class, so I have no homework. He also happens to have copies of all of his handouts and presentations. He tells me he will see me on Thursday.
Why haven't I blogged lately? Trust me, this is the least of the bizarre that hasbeen going on.
-Ed
posted by Ed at 10:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home