Going back to school for older adults

“glad you are enjoying it NG
I start tomorrow. UGH
its going to be strange at first. just hope im not the oldest one.
that would suck big time.

i got the bellie butterflies”

“at least its not butt werms, mapleleaf. but maybe sarabelle can give you some advice how to deal with the bellie butterflies too. :)”

“LOL your sick (but i love it)


I just tried to call the book store to find out what books i will need (since no one cared to tell me thats how you get your books, twinkle toes told me :) )
anywho, they are all out of the books :(
they wont tell me what the names of them are other then there are 3 for 1 class and 2 for the other class. they do not know when they will be in stock.

hmmm so what to do?
think the teacher will tell us so i can get it outside of school?
will he be very angry that i do not have them?

yup, starting to feel freaked out!!

to many "what if's" in my life right now...”

“Maple, the prof will likely have all required books listed on the syllabus when you get to class. Since I've started back to school, I don't get my books until the first day of class, since that's the first time I head to campus. DOn't worry about showing up the first day with no books.

Heck, I went through 6 weeks of a 10 week term of Soils Engineering with no book, because the professor never told the bookstore how many books to order. He still required us to have the homework done, though, the ba$tard! But that was before getting your books on the internet was cool. :)”

“your right, this may be a good deal for me. maybe i can get them via the net for cheaper....

but id have to get it here ASAP.”

“Mapleleaf,

Don't worry.

Make friends with someone who has the book(s) in class and share for the day. Then write down which books are needed and go to Barnes & Noble.

Remember, who has to get up a 5am and be on the train by 5:45am for a 4 hour math class first thing in the morning? Now, take a deep breath and relax.”

“nope im thinking of heading to the bay tonight

want to go kayaking with me?”

“What time?”

“after work”

“I don't have anything to wear. You got extra short and a tank top? Maybe I could wear that dress PissyHiker got in Woodstock - hahahaha!

Actually , that would be alot of fun. I'd love to!”

“ok, let me call the club and see if i can get you a kayak to borrow.

keep fingers crossed.


ps, will you be able to get yourself home?
im not taking the car.”

“Yeah - if I'm at a train station I can get home.

How far out is this place?”

“the only train i know of is the L train. im waiting for a call back”

“the last stop on the L train.

Jamaica Bay/Canarsie”

“Sometimes if you wait until the first class meeting to find out about your books, you will get better information. Sometimes books are "suggested" or "optional", not "required".

You can shop for books on-line, but may have to wait a little longer to get them. Remember that everyone is ordering books on-line at the same time and popular titles go "out of stock" sometimes.

If you get an early jump on ordering books, you can sometimes get used ones that are like new. That can save some money.

Be warned that the return policy for some booksellers is not in your favor. At our campus the only way you can return a book is if you can prove the class is cancelled and you return the book before the end of the first week.
That is because of the number of students who used to buy books and then return them after getting a better deal on the web.

Also, around most campuses there are one or two independent bookstores who sell most required books at lower prices than the campus bookstore (new and used). Ask around or look in the yellow pages for alternative stores around campus.

If you know you are going to buy your books at the bookstore, go there ASAP in case they are going to be short a few copies. That happens all the time.”

“This reminds me of the time I bought the book for my Assembly Language Programming class. The CS dept. was still teaching antiquated MIXAL (a constructed assembly language that was not actually in use), and the textbook was long out of print. The only copies of this book that were available were used, and tattered to rags. The only reason the book was still available is because most people who took the class sold their books back to the uni at the end of the class, since they would never ever actually need it. I kept mine, reasoning that eventually they'd have to change to teaching a real assembly language if they ran out of MIXAL books.

The next quarter, they changed to 68000 assembly. Grrrr.”

“On my campus (undergrad) there was only one book store. No off-campus stores, so ya just took whatever price they gave you. Certainly sucked. But, that's the price you pay when you live in a tiny town and your rent is only $150/month. :)”

“Maple - if I can get some study time in here at work - then I would love to go kayaking!”

“Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service

...SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY 227 PM EDT FRI SEP 5 2003
... A HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR ATLANTIC FACING SHORES...

SWELLS BEING GENERATED BY FAR OFF HURRICANE FABIAN WILL CONTINUE TO ROLL ASHORE THROUGH THE WEEKEND... AND QUITE POSSIBLY BEYOND. BASED ON THE LATEST FORECAST FROM THE TROPICAL PREDICTION CENTER... THE POINT OF CLOSEST APPROACH TO OUR REGION WILL OCCUR AROUND FRIDAY EVENING WHEN FABIAN NEARS TO ABOUT 550 NAUTICAL MILES SOUTHEAST OF MONTAUK POINT.

SEAS WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY ROUGH OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS... PARTICULARLY AROUND THE INLETS. REMEMBER... A HIGH SURF IS CHARACTERIZED BY LARGE WAVES BREAKING ON SHORE. THIS MAY LEAD TO BEACH EROSION AND WASH-OVERS.

IN ADDITION THE THREAT OF RIP CURRENTS WILL BECOME RATHER HIGH. RIP CURRENTS ARE NARROW CHANNELS OF WATER FLOWING SEAWARD FROM THE BEACH THROUGH BREAKING WAVES. THEY CAN AT TIMES BE SEEN FROM THE SHORE BY THE COLOR OF THE WATER WHICH MAY APPEAR MURKY. A RIP CURRENT CAN RAPIDLY CARRY A PERSON INTO DEEPER WATER. IF CAUGHT IN A RIP CURRENT... REMAIN CALM AND SWIM PARALLEL TO THE SHORE TO ESCAPE THE FLOW... THEN SWIM TOWARD THE SHORE.

ALL COASTAL RESIDENTS SHOULD TAKE EXTRA SAFETY PRECAUTIONS DURING THIS TIME. REMEMBER TO ALWAYS SWIM NEAR A LIFE GUARD AND HEED THE BEACH PATROL




not sure if this is the best time to go.
I think i would rather make it when it is calmer. the winds off the bay can be wicked!!

remeber yaking into the head winds? not fun.”

“your call - let me know!

Remember, I am a ninja and can use my powers of mind control to bounce gently amoungst the waves!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

“with winds upto 20 knots??


i don't think so.

well im still waiting for a call back.
I think i will wait till the weather is better, not really into dying the night before i start college.”

“Yeah - me neither. :(

But maybe a boat full of cute coast guard men would come and save us!”

“great sound like fun

1. we look like dead rats
2. we will have blue lips
3. our teeth will be chattering
4. might be to dead to see how cute they are
5. but the plus side would be, we will be wearing wet tee shirts!


yup sounds like a blast.”

“I had my first two classes this week. This Anatomy and Physiology class seems like 10 hours of study per week on top of the five hours in class. In lab they announced that we would dissect a cat in 10 weeks. Yuk. Everyone in my row was going, "Oh no, I have two cats at home. Can't we dissect a pig instead?" But no we get to do the cats. Bummer. The good part is that several women in my lab are around my age. And when I went to my local farm this past weekend, I found out that my friend who owns the farm is starting the nursing program too, and is taking Anat & Phys also, but at night. So I have a study partner.”

“To buy books online try:

www.half.com
and
www.amazon.com

there's others out there but thats all I know off the top of my head”

“My math teacher looks just like














it's hard to sit there with a stright face sometimes. but I like him.”

“My math teacher looks just like














it's hard to sit there with a stright face sometimes. but I like him.”

“Well, if nothing else Maple, you'll have somehting to keep you entertained at those boring classes!



My Saturday P.E. review class has different teachers, depending on the topic. Last week, it was an Indian dude with a real heavy accent. Arrogant son of a gun. First thing he said was "Let's get something straight - I have P.E., and the rest of you don't." In the words of Sassafrass, Jacka$$!”

“And you said, "Get this straight, you're an A**hole and we're not!," right?”

“My brain hurt after my first class this Saturday. Up at 4:45am - to take an hour and a half train out to Brooklyn for 4 hours of math. My teacher is pretty intense and I'm a bit nervous but think it will go well.

I went to Atlantic City with friends to recover from the class! LOL”

“LOL Geo! I had to ask someone what he said, cause I didn't understand him through his accent. I felt like I was back in college!”

“Arrogance knows no limits!”

“well i'm about to hand in my first essay. I have spent the last couple of weeks revising it.
Keeping fingers crossed that I get a good grade.

It was hard. It's been so long since ive had to do anything like that. But glad it's over. Now on to starting my Term Paper UGH....”

“Well I had my first Lab test last week for Anatomy & Phys. and got a 97 and then I took my first lecture test for that class and got an 86. 55% of the class got a D or F on that test (out of 111 students). Pretty tough test. I wanted an A though.”

“well, if it isn't ms. Lyndy! sounds like a hard class...good job.”

“A”

“great glad to here it”

“Thanks y'all, but I am still a little grumpy. However, the professor is really pissed. I'm not sure if this makes him look bad or what. The test was hard, but a lot of people got scores in the forties. They must not have studied at all. Lots of parents' money being wasted there.”

“well I took my first test Sat. boy did that ever suck.

I freaked myself out to the point where I was getting sick. I mean really sick. headache, stomache.

I had to leave class right after the test.

it was stupid because I new the stuff, but when I got to the very fisrt question, I just fogot everything. I studied for 2 weeks.

oh well, lets hope the next one is better, becasue if not, then ive got a big problems.”

“I hate tests too! When I was in the Masters program at Purdue, I taught Freshmen Communications and had to give tests. These were the stupidest test known to man. The class before our Mid-term and Final, I gave all the answers out.

People still did fail though.”

“any suggestions for relaxing before a test?”

“Yes, sex and lots of it.


Tree ol' buddy, you can thank me later”

“Don't over study Maple. That always did me in.

What was your test over?”

“Hey Bit! I owe you one (or two or three...)”

“Don't mention it! Anything to help.”

“as a matter of fact, tree was partly to blame. he was not there for the entire weeend.


i did not sleep well because he was not there in bed.”

“Now, should I shift the blame to the Boy Scouts of America for planning the Camporee on the same weekend as your test?”

“I took my first adult continuing education course...I flunked it. I must confess, that it was dileberate. One NEVER wants to pass a wine tasting class. Just gotta keep comin back to get it right.

I also flunked a greek cooking class...I wanted to stay after class with the gorgeous cooking instructor...I did, and she showed me the proper way to wrap slovaki...

hehehehe.”

“umm ok, that dose not help but it's good to know that you know crap and greek food and wine.

LOL”

“well, after having paniced last week on the test, I learned that I got an 82. Not bad for this girl who has been out of school for ummm a lota years. I thought I failed it.


So cheers to everyone that takes any tests and passes them!!”