Ok, This MUST be preparation for the semester. I’m in preterm, but there’s nothing ‘pre’ about it. The time committent is already unreal. It’s a LOCK DOWN day from 8am until at least 6pm, that is if you don’t duck out on any of the mandatory seminars. And honestly I don’t think I would try it since they took attendance in at least one of them today. It’s definitely been interesting these seminars are set up almost like classes but they are surrounding issues that will affect us as students. For example we had one today on Ethics, Columbia has an Ethics Code that it feels very strongly about, so after a lecture on it we were broken up into groups and given mini case studies on different ethical dilemmas which had actually occurred in the past at Columbia, It was an interesting way to bring home the point, but I don’t know if we needed to spend 2 hours on it. A lot of it seemed like common sense to me. I guess you can’t be too careful though, especially since we were told stories of former students trying to lie on resumes and even about recommendations. I honestly feel that unethical people will be unethical and it doesn’t matter what you tell them, but at least Columbia has informed us of the standards we’ll be held to, so no complaining if you get caught violating. It’s serious too, 3 people have been expelled in recent months for violations, so I’m making sure I’m EXTRA careful. J
I’ve met some REALLY cool people from all around the world, and I’ve gotten talked into playing on the Rugby team. Maybe I’ll be able to re-live my glory days as a football player (I played in high school, yeah I was captain J and in college until I ruptured my Achilles tendon, which by the way was the most pain I’ve ever experienced this side of circumcision) I feel kind of like Al Bundy talking about good old ‘Polk High’ and scoring 4 touchdowns in one game J Last chance to do it! Like I was saying we were on campus from 8 until 6 and then there was a boat ride leaving from the South Street Seaport. It was really cool, especially since it took us right (phone call 12:08—back 12:35) by the Statue of Liberty. I had never been that close, Lady Liberty looks pretty good. After we got back to shore we hit up a bar for a drink and some more laughs, I really think this is a great group of people.
Okay, it’s late so I’m off to bed to prepare to get abused again tomorrow.