Haze of Smoke descends on Bozeman

This is normally the view from my front door at my apartment.  We were warned yesterday that the smoke from the fires outside Butte, Montana would be effecting the air quality here and to keep door and windows closed, which is hard to do when it is so hot every day.  This morning I got up, and I couldn't see the mountains at all from my door.  It looked like a deep fog descended everywhere.  There was a little bit of ash on my car, and some drifting around in the air.  It is so weird to think that we normally can see the mountains and now you would have no idea the mountains were there.

First Day of School

Soooo.....in typical Sarah fashion, I was up until 2 AM working on my lesson plan!  Then back up around 6 am to go go school.  I got there and found a fairly good parking spot, only to realize that I had left my lesson plans and textbook at home! (duh! moment #1)  So I went racing back home (thank goodness you can get away with driving 80 on the highway here!), said 'hi' to the bunnies and picked up my lesson plan and books, and dashed back to school.  I had to park at the back of 'F' lot, which is out in the boonies in a gravel lot, but at least I got a spot!  Ok - headed up to my office to meet my new office mates and see my office (that is the picture above - my desk is the one with the blue chair - see how clean it is?!  I am in the old offices, but I like them better - they have a 'lived in' feel and close to the department office and printer room and copy machine) My office mates are all nice, but lightyears ahead of me in their studies!  They helped me get my class roster...well almost get it.  It kept printing pages 1 and 3, but no page 2, and finally I asked what the deal was, and one of the them says - it prints double-sided!  Page 2 is on the back on page 1.  That would be duh! moment number 2.  Ok - I got a class list, I headed down to the classroom, got started, put stuff on the board, and then started roll.  No one on the roll list was actually in the room.  that's when the instructor for that section showed up (5 minutes late) and said there had been a mistake and I was over in a different building.  Fortunately he had a map on him, and knew what room I was assigned.  I go dashing over there and my students were all waiting for me, which was nice.  They seem like a great group of kids, and the new room has windows!  The lesson went fine, which was a relief.  But wrong classroom, that would be duh! moment number 3.  then I had a quick break, went to pay my student bill and it was THOUSANDS of dollars!  I nearly had a heartattack, but told myself to take a deep breath, there must be a mistake.  (turns out there is, and they are working on getting it straightened out!)  I went to my first class, and it went really well.  It was all supposed to be review - and thankfully, it was indeed review for me!  So hopefully that means I am in the correct class and not in too far over my head!  After that, I spent the rest of the day working on taking care of all the little details, checking the pre-requistes of my students (making sure they have enough math to be in my class), meeting with the Core Supervisor for College Algebra, figuring out office hours, and other such details.

Drawings on an office mate's chalkboard - see the train on the left?

My first 'official' weekend in Montana

So....I got done with orientation around 1 PM on Friday, went home and crashed.  I worked for awhile, took a nap, worked for awhile, took a nap....and did that pretty much all weekend.  Didn't even leave the house on Saturday!  I guess all those long hours at Howarth finally caught up with me!  Jack and Pi were their usual entertaining selves!  Wish I could post some pictures, but having trouble with my iPad and posting....Will get some pics up soon for y'all though!

The First Week...Moving and Orientation

Hi y’all!  Welcome to my adventure at Montana State University Graduate School (in MATH!)...

Friday – Aug 17 ~ We left at about 10 AM and drove to Elko, NV.  I was so exhausted from work and packing that I slept in the moving van until Lake Tahoe.  Then I switched off driving with my mom.  We stopped at a rest stop at Donner Pass.  The chipmunks there are as bad as the squirrels at Howarth!  And shock of all shocks I ran into Debi Leoni (who used to work for Rec & Parks) while at the rest stop!

Sat – Aug 18 ~ We arrived in Belgrade, MT late in the evening.  No power in my apartment!  We didn’t move much in, just enough to crash on the floor.  From what I could tell by flashlight, the apartment seemed pretty nice.

Sun – Aug 19 ~ Spent the day unpacking.  My mom and dad and I were utterly exhausted.  They opted for a hotel room as there was no room on the floor to sleep once we had gotten most of the boxes into the apartment!  The bunnies are happy to be out of the car and in the kitchen.  Although I know Jack would LOVE to explore more!

Mon – Aug 20 ~ I was super nervous last night about classes and meeting people and ACK!  I think I was just so tired that I was more stressed than I should have been.  And in typical Sarah fashion, I didn't have a school map or directions to the campus, and was fretting that I would be late to the first day of orientation.  However, I just kind of flew by the seat of my pants (literally since the speed limit here is 75 mph!!!)  I arrived on campus and just on time and everyone was friendly.  I made friends right away which was nice.  However, tomorrow I have to do a 5 minute teaching thing.  Goodness knows how they can expect us to teach an entire concept - intro, lesson, and conclusion in 5 minutes on the dot!  We also had a group advising session.  They asked what I was taking - I told them (1) Numerical Linear Algebra & Optimization and (2) Probability and Stats (graduate level).  The prof whipped his head around and was like WHAT?!  WHY?!  (Apparently math people don't take stats often?  LOL).  I confidently responded back I was swapping out one of the qualifying exams for the one in Prob/Stats.  He asked if I could handle the course.  Yup - I can!  :)  LOL....  Rare for me to be that confident, but I was  :)

However, I then spent several hours running around trying to get them to clear my immunization records (which they had but couldn't figure out why the wrong box was checked on the paperwork!) so that I could register!

Tues – Aug 21 ~  I did my lesson on the Chain Rule (from Calculus)!  Thanks everyone for words of advice and encouragement.  It went well!  I also said goodbye to my parents at lunch time - they are headed out down the road a bit.  That was sad, but I can't live by them the rest of my life.  Well I could, but.....  I opened the kitchen gate for Jack and Pi.  Jack came exploring, but then back to the kitchen!  Pi woke me up in the middle of the night.  As soon as I got up and said I was getting Cheerios, he goes racing back to the kitchen to wait for them.  LOL!  Silly rabbit!

Wed – Aug 22 ~ I am teaching College Algebra!  That should be fun and relatively easy for me.  I have taught that class before!  :)    I also drove up to where my parents were camping.  We saw the Missouri River Headwaters (the start of the Missouri River).  The water looks cool and inviting...We heard from the ranger that someone had left their car their for 2 months while boating down river to the Gulf!  I had dinner with my parents and then said goodbye for real this time.  They are driving further away.  It was sad.  I cried most of the car ride back to my new home.  

Also - Jack was a much more adventurous explorer!  I searched and searched for him and found him the next morning hiding beside my bed upstairs!  Was almost late for Orientation because I had to catch him and put him back in the kitchen!

Thurs – Aug 23 ~ Sigh.  More welcome to being a Graduate Teaching Assistant seminars.  Not too bad.  They actually get done earlier than they say they will, and we get a fair bit of breaks, and the gal running them is pretty charismatic.  Some of the better work trainings I have been to.  I ‘get’ to take another anti-harassment class.  Online though instead of in person in a classroom like other jobs I have had!  Still.  I wish you could transfer those things from job to job, seeing as how I took that class at my last job not that long ago.

Went and got my books.  Turns out the MSU bookstore is a CO-OP, so the prices for the books are pretty much what you would pay online, so it is nice to buy them at school instead of searching all the online sites looking for the cheapest texts!

Our schedule had a Wherry Book Giveaway listed at 4 PM.  After picking up the key to my office (Yes!  I have an office – although I share it with 6 other grad students!) 3 of us graduate students tried to find the book giveaway.  We asked at the Math Department, the Graduate Offices, the ‘Ask Us’ Desk at the student union, and the library.  By which point, we were convinced we were on the modern version of a ‘snipe’ hunt.  We were certain a picture of the three of us would be put up in the math office as the three most gullible graduates of the incoming class of 2012!  However, we were laughing and having a great time trekking all over campus.  We finally were referred to the reference desk in the library and found someone who did know about it!  Turns out the giveaway was due to a large donation to the school, and they had to finish going through the books before they could give them away!  However, we had a delightful time getting to know each other in the process!