AndrewBarna.org

So I’ve already failed at the taking of a photo every day. I didn’t take any photos today, but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about what happened today.

My tuesdays start with a one hour recitation for my physics class at 0800. I am not a morning person, so naturally I was slightly late to class which culminated in a brief staring contest with the professor (in good spirit). We are starting in on rotational motion, which is quite similar to the translational motion so this section of study should not be to hard.
There is about a 2 hours break between the recitation and the lecture for physics, I took the opportunity to finish some p-chem (thermodynamics) homework.
After physics (more rotational motion), I ate lunch at the DC (Dining Commons), it was hot dog day (woo!).
Finally at 1400 or so, is my p-chem class. There are only 6 students in this class (myself included) but it seems to be the talk of the campus. Just a few weeks ago I was in my calc class and overheard a conversation where the topic was the p-chem class I was in. Given the small number of people actually in that class, I knew that those discussing the class aren’t in it. I chose not to reveal that I was in the p-chem class.

Recently I’ve been doing a sort of behavioral experiment on people, nothing mean or unethical and I’m not even collecting any data. What I do is walk on the left side of the paths around campus, that’s it. The fun occurs when someone is walking toward me (from their perspective they are on the right of the path). Usually we are set to collide and I hold my course to see how they respond. The results have been rather interesting, people will go out of their way to pass me on my left (they keep right). They will even leave a paved path to accomplish this. It is just amazing how much people desire to pass by me on my left. It makes me wonder if the opposite occurs in countries where people drive on the oposite side of the road than we do in the United States. Something to think about…

-Andrew

So it has been over a month since I last posted. I wasn’t feeling good about school, and life in general. As such I had nothing positive to say about anything, so I didn’t say it. I am enjoying most of my classes, though all of them are challenging. I am enjoying my Japanese class very much and hope that I can continue my studies next semester. While I’m finding it easier and easier to understand what is being said, I’m having a difficult time being able to produce. The tutors are are quite helpful with this though and I think, if I keep at it, I will eventually be able to speak the language as well as understand it. I’ve already learned hiragana and katakana, the latter of which is a lot of fun to know around Hawaii and the tourist areas especially as many of the signs are english words written in katakana. After being able to read the signs and menus around Waikiki, I get the impression that there is generally more information in the Japanese signs than the equivalent ones in english (I have found this especially true with restaurant menus). I’m going to try to make up for my missed time with some photos this week. Expect a new post and photo every day this week (I’ll be carrying around a camera). I am planning on posting what “a typical week” is like, though there is a holiday on Thursday so there will be no photos about physics lab. I’ll start off today with a photo of a giant tree on campus.

-Andrew

So I’ve been back at ‘the grind’ for about a week now and it is looking to be a nice and challenging semester. I can only hope that hard work will pay off come exams. My courses this semester are: Physics 1 (calc based), Physical Chemistry (i.e. p-chem, thermodynamics and kinetics), Calc 2 (lots of integration), and finally Intro to Japanese 1 (a foreign language). Here are some thoughts on the first week of school.

My first class (at 0800) was physics, while initially intimidating, I think I’m grasping the various concepts being presented. While I feel that the first week was productive, I am still having some trouble manipulating the various equations to suit my needs (something I’m sure I’ll need to do in the future). I think that only practice will solve this. Physics is looking to be a fun class and I’m eager to dive into the more complicated concepts.

My p-chem class has been quite dense so far, it almost feels as if we have gone over all of calc 1 and general chemistry in the first week. All in review before we begin the more formal discussion of thermodynamics. Just today we went over the various definitions of systems and states that we will be working with for the next 4 months.

My calc class has been, high energy and seemingly quite faste in the presentation of the material. As a 3 unit class that meets 3 times a week, each class session is just an hour, while this makes for frequent reminders of the material we are working with, I sometimes feel that each session is just a bit too short. Perhaps this is just due to me not having had a 3 unit course with such frequent meeting times.

And finally, my Japanese class. I have found it quite relaxing, to have a course outside of my major studies. In the previous years this has meant taking a course in psychology, or anthropology. This semester, and hopefully for the next 2 years, I have chosen to study a foreign language. Why Japanese? Several things have influenced this, my freshman year of high school my family housed a woman from Japan who was part of an “exchange teacher” program. Since many americans go to Japan to teach english, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think of japanese coming to america to teach their language to us. Having her around was probably the first large influence on my interest in Japan, not counting the film “My Neighbor Totoro” that I watched when I was little. Another large influence is the heavy impact Japanese culture has had on Hawaii. The language is everywhere and arguably the most common “foreigner” here is from Japan. When walking around Waikiki or even riding TheBus, all the signs are first in english, then in Japanese. I chose to take a foreign language because currently I only know one language (english). This condition causes me to feel like a bad, global citizen. While this might take away my time from my intended goal (Oceanography), I feel I will be a better person in the end as a result of these decisions for personal betterment. A few of my fellow bloggers are currently in Japan as part of a study abroad program, I hope I will at some point have the same opportunity for study in Japan, but that is 2 or more years of diligent study away.

I can’t have a post without photos! Just the other night there was a group of people in my halls common room playing Bananagrams. I mangaged to take some photos of the game in progress while acting as a sort of moderator (is this word legal, etc…).

-Barna