Keeping in practice

So I'm trying to get over the idea of how much mundane patter goes into blogs. The key is to get into the habit of posting, maybe then interesting things will start to come. When I'm out in the world and I'm doing something I think, "Wouldn't this be great to post", but when I come home to post something, nothing comes to mind to post!

Tomorrow an important chapter starts in my American experience. I get my social security number! This winds down the two weeks of brutal bureaucracy I've been going through since I can't even apply for a SSN until I've been in Florida for ten days! I can finally get a debit card, buy a cellphone, get a USF email id, get my tuition waiver, apply for health insurance, get a credit card in two weeks and finally start accumulating credit. Can you believe my credit resets to zero just because I move to a new country?? Sadly frosh week is over and a new term has already begun. I have a lot to read ahead! I hope some of the first year PhD students feel adventurous and still want to do touristy things, otherwise the most exciting part of Florida I see may be the local pub! They seem a fine bunch though. Usually my closest friends come from Residence, but this time around, it may be different. Especially because it seems I will be interacting with these people for at least 3 years! Anyway, I have an hour long bus journey to the SSN office, but it'll all be worth it to get the last of the running around out of the way. Maybe I can take more pictures of the fauna! I'm think I'm still going to be taking pictures of the fauna for a few months now, I'm still in awe. It's very surreal to see palm trees everywhere.

Anyway, here's a Floridian duck.

I'm here!

Yes lady's and gentlemen, I'm speaking to you from sunny Florida. I've been really procrastinating on this thing, I'm not really sure of what to write here, so I'm just going to write whatever comes to mind. Today I had an Odyssey to find a bike. I got this sweet vintage raleigh bike with a basket on the back. The guy who sold it to me was some sort of connoisseur of bikes, really nice guy. I had a 10 mile journey home, so I went down the "ripped backside" of Tampa. It's really lush, but you can tell you're in the South. The brand-verse here is completely foreign to me. CVS pharmacy, chick-fil-a, checkers, sonic burger there's very little I recognize! I'm trying to think in gallons, farenheit and miles, but it's hard, I'm always trying to convert to something familiar. Especially with money! My God, everything's crazy, toothpaste can cost you a good $4 while I found a dozen eggs for $0.75.

Today I attended my first TA class. The grading scheme for these poor first year students is wild!
97-99.9 is an A+, 87-89.9 is B+ and 59.9 and below is an F!!! Poor kids get double screwed! Triple screwed if you remember in Canada, if you get an 89.5, I'm rounding you up to a 90! No wonder many students don't reach completion! I realize under this system I would have completely flunked school and I wouldn't even be here doing my PhD. It's a little harsh on late bloomers.

Here's a photo of the cool guy who sold me my bike with the philosoraptor.