I eventually fell asleep but woke up at 5:30 am – and kept waking up. Good thing, since I had set my alarm for PM instead of AM. Once I was ready, I went into the kitchen and my mom and my aunt were there to help me. My aunt had made breakfast and was contemplating sandwiches for lunch, my mother was concerned about timing. Eventually, I got on BART (which had a delay) and then went to school.
I was nervous and so I stopped for a Starbucks – I figured having something in my hands would stop any nervous fidgeting. When I arrived, they greeted me and I walked up to the third floor (there is another cohort on the second floor). I just started talking to people and eating a bagel. I wasn’t nervous at this point, just chatting.
Lecture, Lunch & Lab
The morning lectures were administrative with a few ice breakers. Then I went to lunch with two of the girls; it was really good to chat. We were a bit concerned about having two cohorts at the same time – and what that would mean for our job prospects, but we’ll just have to wait and find out.
The afternoon was our first real lecture, on algorithms. It (mostly) made sense but honestly a lot of it seemed useless – only when connected to a real world example did it actually turn into something interesting to me. Just learning how to go through a maze and the complexity of it really does not interest me at all. It was only when he showed that a maze can be a decision tree that I felt like there was some useful real world application. We then did a short exercise in the lab.
Lastly, we did a wrap-up lecture about best practices to thrive at the school. I walked to the BART station with Kathy, who was born and raised in the city. She reminded me of my friend Ginny from a job I had a while ago in marketing at a software testing company….
The day went well. I was confused at times by the algorithms, but when I reviewed the notes on the way home, it started to fall into place. I am a visual learner; I prefer to see something written down and spend time interacting with it.
I am EXHAUSTED. I was actually a bit scared to drive home because I was so sleepy. So, off to bed I go now!
michdcode 