Monday 16th - Wednesday 18th

I guess its time for a little more blogging! Has been an interesting week already, those the pace has been rather low. This is the week of preparation before the school starts Monday 23rd, so a lot of people are arriving, there are orientation programs every day, people sign up for classes, they network, etc. etc. There is a buzzing atmosphere in the campus. :)

Monday was the first day where I was allowed to register for classes. Big thing, since registration is rather competitive, and I was not assured the courses I planned to take. Registration is online, and in the first try I only managed to sign up for 3 out of the 4 courses I wanted. But we were told not to panic (not that I have such tendencies :p), and I wrote to my advisor while also looking on my prepared list of other interesting courses. My advisor got me into 2 more courses, and I registered for two other coursers, which I was actually not supposed to take...

One of these two courses is Strategic Planning; a course that can be extremely useful for me professionally, but also personally. I had already contacted the professor of this course in the spring, and he told me that I might not want to take it in my first semester in UA. No reason stated. So I figured I wanted to figure out why, and went to his office. Dr. Schloss turned out to be extremely friendly, and very open towards having me in the class. The reason he had previously suggested not to turned out to be that the structure of the course is quite different from many others, maybe less scientific in some way. Besides core Strategic Planning in includes topics like group facilitation, personality types (MBTI) and alike. (!!!!!!!!!!!) Those of you who know what Im doing related to non-formal trainings know how great this is! ;)

But the amazingness didn't end here. During the conversation with Dr. Schloss I came to tell him about my thesis topic: Collaboration between doctors and pharmacists on an educational level to improve our interprofessional understanding. It turns out that this man is deeply involved in interprofessional health education in UA, and could use some help to facilitate the project. (Again: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!) So he offered to drag me along to some meetings and courses in the area, and contacted two others from the project to suggest us to meet. I have now agreed to meet them Friday over a cup of coffee. Very excited to see where this is going!

So course registration went quite well. At the moment I have too many courses in my list, and unfortunately (very, very sarcastic) has to skip Biostatistics. Damn. ;)

Later that day I met with Racheal and Florian in his new car to go grocery shopping. I must admit that it is convenient with friends with cars, but I am a little afraid to make it seem like I only ask them to come along because of the car. Like today, when I met a girl in the Graduate Orientation and we figured out that we both like hiking. Im planning a trip outside the city this Sunday, renting a car to get around a bit, and now I invited her to come as well - its not a problem for me to rent a car, so I don't want her to think that its not for her company that I ask. If you guys have perspectives on this, please let me know! :)

Anyway, BIG time grocery shopping was done, where I found stuff (though didn't buy) like "I can't believe its not butter"-non-butter - yes, its not just a movie joke. In the evening I went with Racheal to a free-pizza-and-DJ event organised for the international students. Free food is always good, but I left pretty early as the dance floor was filled with Asian who party slightly different than I prefer... No offense. Was a great day all in all though.

Tuesday started at 8 AM in the Pharmacy College with Graduate Orientation. Wasn't very relevant for me, though it was nice to meet others in the Pharmaceutical Sciences program. Afterall we have the same background, though I am taking Public Health courses in UA. Its great to get to know more and more people - my phonebook in my new phone is expanding, and there are always someone to call. :)

The afternoon was quite lazy with a lot of practical stuff to settle on my computer. Also nice just to have some time off to use for whatever - and I even managed to cook in the evening. Not that it is such a big achievement, the food was also very simple, but it was the first time over here. So I am happy. :)

Now that I think about it, Wednesday looks quite a bit like Tuesday. General Graduate Orientation, with some rather useless info and a lot of people around. And yeah, I met Amy, the girl with the car. Seems super nice. :) Free relaxing afternoon, went for 1 hour to the Arizona State Museum, went home to get some things done, and considering if I should buy a bike or not. I got a good offer on a new bike and a lot of accessories from a shop yesterday - it will be 300$ (= 1750 DKK = 230 €). I can probably sell it in January, but it might be a hazzle. I dont know how much I will need it, but... Well - I will spare you from all my considerations. :)

Noooot so much else to report at the moment I think... Or well, some self revelations, but I will write about that in a separate post. Oh, and btw... Do you think my individual posts are too long? I can imagine they take some time to read. Let me know... So... See ya!