Monday Night: World Geography

So, here it is. The first day of real classroom school in about eleven years. Yeah, I had classes I had to go to in the Navy to learn my job, but this is different. I'm not wearing a uniform, I don't get my ass chewed if I'm late for class, and I don't have to call my instructor "Petty Officer". 

The college system I'm at is way spread out. I'm taking four classes at three different campuses. We'll call Monday nights campus, campus #1. It used to be an office building complex for a major computer company that was headquartered in the area but has been seriously downgraded. They sold some buildings to the colleges around here and they have classes here now. It's pretty convenient.

I park my truck in the parking garage and head inside. Upon entering, I stop at the desk to pick up a map. I had never been here before and wanted to make sure I knew where I was going. I asked the guy for a map, and he asked what building. Then he asks what room, and I tell him it was 449. He replies with "Ok, you're right here. What you're going to do is head down this hallway and hang a left at the intersection over here and keep going straight until you hit the elevators, take those to the fourth floor. Exit the elevator and hang a left and it will be in that wing."

Gee wiz, I could have never found that! Thanks, guy! So, a number starting with a 4, means it's on the fourth floor! Golly! All I asked for was a MAP. If I wanted to know how to suck eggs, I'd have asked. Also, I took the STAIRS. It was two flights. I'm of the opinion that unless you absolutely have to, if it's only one or two flights... take your ass up the stairs.

Moving on, I was slightly surprised by the people walking around. I was expecting a younger, or maybe a less mature crowd. I guess because it's evening classes it's more people who have a day job and are trying to get educated much like myself. There were a few younger people around, but not as many as I was expecting.

I find my class and walk around some because I was incredibly early. There was a lounge area outside of my classroom so I grab a seat and just hung out for a minute. Eventually the teacher shows up and we go inside. The classroom has four rows of tables on each side of the room. I sit on the second row on the right, against the wall.

My teacher is probably in his late forties, blondish grey hair with a slight belly and he has some weird bump on his back. Not a hunch, but it's just a big... bump on one of his shoulder blades. This is going to drive me nuts, I must know what it is. Aside from that I can't shake the feeling that he looks incredibly familiar. Then it hits me. He looks EXACTLY like Alex Lifeson, the guitar player from Rush. Seriously, they could be brothers.

Looking around at other people, there is a lady that's probably around sixty sitting on the row behind me, the back row has filled up with girls on my side of the room, and guys on the other. How middle school dance of them. The front row on the right, DIRECTLY in front of the teacher are two very young girls who start talking to him. Turns out... they're in high school getting college credit. NERDS! Most of the class seems to be people from about 18 - 22 or so. There are probably three people older than I am.

An older guy shows up, who turns out is one of the IT guys on campus. He has his iPhone in a nifty little camouflage holder with safety orange parts on it too. I guess he doesn't want to get shot if he's hunting with his iPhone. (I live in Texas y'all, this is pretty common.) So as we're waiting the teacher realizes that he's the IT guy and asks him if he can get Google Earth on his computer. The IT guy, to my AMAZEMENT says "What's that?" Wow.

Class starts and really all we're doing is going over our syllabus and what the teacher expects of us. Every time the teacher says anything, the sixty year old lady behind me has a giggle or a comment. That's going to get real old, real fast. He starts to explain his grading process, and things of that nature when *crunch*. *cellophane*. *crunch*.

Oh hell no. One of the girls in the back row was digging into some Corn Nuts. Seriously, Corn Nuts. There are a few sounds that I really hate, and two of them are the sound of people eating something really crunchy and loud, and the sound of a small cellophane bag being rustled about. If this becomes a regular thing, I'm going to lose my mind. No matter how hard you try, you can't quietly eat Corn Nuts. Plus, they reek. Seriously, they do not smell appetizing in the least.

Class was supposed to go until 10 but we wound up getting out at about 8:45. The guy seems reasonable and I don't think there is any reason I won't destroy this class and get an A. Tomorrow is my Federal Government class and I am slightly intimidated by it. Guess I'll see how that goes.