School!

So, as you guys know, I transferred to King's College from Bloomsburg University and started KC in August.  It has been an absolutely ridiculous ride since then.

First of all, I instantly felt a connection with this school, the atmosphere, and the people that I never got from BU.  Sure, I made friends at Bloom...but it is so much different here.  After studying for a year at Bloom, I don't have any BU apparel.  I've been at King's less than a semester and I've already got two King's shirts and a pair of plaid King's sleep pants.

The second week of the semester, I tried out for the choir.  Despite having a terrible allergy attack the day of my audition and being certain I bombed it (so sure, in fact, that Bryan and I went out for ice cream to cheer me up), I was accepted as a new member!  I'm an alto 2, and the choir members are lovely people.  It's a Catholic school, so we do a lot of religious music, but I've learned to appreciate it even though I am not a religious person.  The music is still beautiful, and the modern music we do is so much fun!  This semester, we're singing "Shake It Out" by Florence and the Machine, "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Temptations, and "Some Nights" by fun.

I also joined bio club, though nothing has really happened with that yet.  We've had a few meetings, but they're like five minutes long and don't really have much of anything in the way of content.  We haven't tried any fundraisers for charity or anything like that.  It's a bit of a disappointment.

Anyway, King's gave me quite a bit of money to attend their school, because my SAT scores and high school grades were so high.  My scholarships equal roughly $12-13K a year, which sounds like a lot until you realize tuition is $30K a year.  Luckily, I have grants and other scholarships to fill in the rest, so that is really helpful.  The stressful part is that I have to keep my grades above a certain GPA to keep the scholarships from the school, so it really puts the pressure on.  So far, I've been very successful in juggling my classes.  I've found organic chem to be the most difficult (despite Kyle's assurances that I would love it), and history to be the easiest.  My grades are actually improving as the semester goes on...for example, I got an 89 on my first bio exam, a 96 on the second exam, and a 101 on the third exam.  The last two were the highest grades in the class!  Organic chem follows the same pattern, only lower...a 69 on the first exam, an 86 on the second exam, and a 91.5 (which I am VERY proud of!) on the third exam.  I bombed my second stats exam because I was really sick that day, but my grades on the quizzes managed to bolster it enough that if I pass the upcoming exam with better than a 90, I can still get an A in the class.  And my history teacher only gives two exams a semester...a midterm and a final.  On the midterm, I was the only one in the class to get a perfect score.  I then disappointed him by telling him that while I do adore history, I'm not going to be majoring in it!

I'm still majoring in biology, but double minoring in molecular biology and chemistry.  I know the second one sounds like insanity, since I hate organic chem so much, but it really makes perfect sense.  To major in biology, I have to take organic 1 and 2 and biochemistry.  To minor in molecular biology, one of the electives I'll be taking is biochem 2.  For a minor in chemistry, the course track is o-chem 1 and 2, biochem 1 and 2, and analytical chemistry.  I have to take the first four anyway, and the fifth class happens to be Kyle's chosen field, so I'll have lots of help.  It would honestly be silly not to add the minor!

Anyway, Bryan went on salary at work just before the semester started, so I was able to leave my crappy job (I made less than $100 a week) and focus exclusively on school.  It is definitely paying off, though sometimes I feel bad when money is a little bit tight.  We are getting by, though.  Next semester, I'll probably add a campus job to my packed schedule, just to bring in a little bit of extra cash without having to do any extra driving.  Right now, though, school is my only job...and it's more than full time.  I'm very, very busy...and that's on a slow week.

It's all paying off, though...I had a 3.3 on my midterm grade report, and two of my class grades have gone up since then, bringing me to a 3.7.  If I can keep organic chem increasing, I can easily hit a 3.8-3.9 by the end of the semester!

Wish me luck!
J