A whole new world

He's my little green car. Very grateful I have it!

My apartment building...mine's the one straight ahead.

The view from my front door. Isn't it majestic...well, minus the cars.

Hello friends...I have survived another crazy day. I taught my first class (Psych 11) this morning. I went really well. I think that I will really enjoy teaching if I can keep up with my own reading assignments! :) So today's new shock to deal with was finding out for the first time that I have another class to teach...that it starts tomorrow morning and I have no book or syllabus. Evidently, I'm supposed to be teaching a student development class. So I will be teaching every morning at 7:30am (ugh...so much for sleeping in ever). Fortunately, I found the right book and an old syllabus and put something together so I can look competent for the kids tomorrow! That's what it's all about right? As long as you look competent you are! I do think this class will be fun to teach if I can get some lesson plans together. So after dealing with that crisis, I had my first client. I will be doing some assessments for this client, which are probably one of my least favorite things to do but this is also one of the reasons I wanted to do this clerkship. I knew I would be forced to get some good assessment experience. So I will administer my first assessment tomorrow afternoon.

I got to go watch both the men's and women's teams play last night. It was fun. Pretty well coached teams and very fast-paced styles. One of the women who works in our office has a daughter on the team. It was fun to sit with her and her family.

Here are some shots of the campus. The building in the picture immediately below is the building where my office is...in the Student Development Center.

Ok, a couple of random things about the weather here....it reminds me of Cambodia alot (although it is a bit colder than Cambodia). It is pretty humid...so much that any paper here seems wet. Toilet paper and tissues always feel a little damp (and stick to your shoes more readily if you don't watch out!), cardboard boxes get all soft and mushed, and any hope of your hair staying straight and manageable fly away. The other crazy thing, that I actually really love, is that the weather can significantly change in less than a minute. One moment is pretty sunny and clear and the next it is pouring rain...not just sprinkling, total downpour and you see all these students running frantically for cover! Ha ha! It is so fun. Like today, I went to walk someplace on campus to take care of getting access to my classrooms and when I left it was really nice out. Before I got to my destination (about 150 yards away) the storm began. I was dripping before I entered the building. So then as I came back I got even more drenched and my supervisor asked, "Is it raining? Why didn't you take an umbrella?"... "I didn't know it was going to rain when I left like five minutes ago!" Anyway, so it is kind of fun...even if you do get a bit wet and cold.

Here's a little glimpse of my office. It's not big but it has plenty of room to do testing and meet with clients and work. My couch even has a cushion!

I had an interview with the University of Utah this morning, which went much better than I had expected. Still have a few more to do, but it feels like the worst is over. It will be a day worth celebrating when all of that is done. It has been an incredibly long week already but at least I feel like I have accomplished a lot and am getting more adjusted to being here. I am definitely looking forward to doing something fun this weekend...if I can make it through the remainder of the week! :)