It has begun....

So far this entire semester, I have only had two classes. Physiology and History of Medicine. Both of them taught by non other than Dr. Wasser. Arriving in Germany, it took me awhile to get settled into a routine. Typically 4 hours a day was devoted to academics, while the rest I could work out, socialize, rest.. ect. This all changed when Dr. Moore held his first set of classes on Monday. I knew this was coming, but I guess I didn't know what to expect or how to prepare. Since high school, I have always been allowed to use calculators in math classes, which basically made me a beast at solving almost anything as long as I had my TI with me.

My first exam for Calculus 1 freshman year, I pulled out my calculator, not knowing it was against the math departments policy. The TA saw and came over to inform me just as I had done so, which floored me. Needless to say, I got a 27 on that exam and I ended up having to freshman grade exclude the class. Not having learned the techniques by hand, I was doomed. I have since taken the easy way out in my college career, taking all of my required math courses online, where calculators are allowed. This worked flawlessly, until now. All of my years of not studying the hand techniques or the small details has caught up with me. Not only am I taking differential equations, with all of the distractions of being in a foreign country, but since we are just now starting, the course is going to be very condensed. I focused the entire first part of this week on studying for my physiology test instead of keeping up in math, which really came back to bite me in the butt. Today was a huge wake up call for me that I need to step up my game and restructure my time and priorities if I am to succeed in this class. It's going to be tough, but this is the kind of challenge that I need.

On to the current distractions, this weekend a small group of us have planned a trip to visit Amsterdam again. We have booked a botel (yes, a boat hotel) to stay in on Friday and Saturday night and we are going to a huge music festival on Saturday. This is going to be my first legitimate music festival in Europe and I've been jittery all week with excitement!