Back to School!

I'm heading back to my old Alma mater tomorrow.  I'm doing a really fun event at Penn State University's Abington Campus in Abington (close to Philadelphia - my old stomping grounds) in the evening.  I spent two years there before heading up to the main campus.  It was called the Ogontz campus then. 

During my two years there, I drove to school in a bright orange Oldsmobile Starfire - the car weighed a ton and got like 6 miles to the gallon.  Plus there was a dent from the previous owner (my Aunt, who gave me the car so I really can't complain...er...). The dent was patched up and covered with red primer (the plan had been to re-paint the car a more subdued red - my favorite color - it never happened).  Even the wheels were orange! 

I was always late for my early morning classes (no surprise - I'm not a morning person) and the only parking I could find was far away and way downhill from the Sutherland Building, which didn't have an elevator we could use - so add four flights of stairs onto the hike.  I didn't realize what great shape I was in at the end of the semester, until my mother came with me and she puffed just to get to the building :)

I made a bunch of friends my first year, but they were all sophomores and all left me the next year for main campus!  One of the downsides of being at a branch campus. The second year I found a couple of fellow weather weenies...er....meteorology majors and that helped.  The biggest upside of a branch campus is making friends before going to the mega-huge alien campus so you at least start out knowing a few people.  I was reunited with my first year buddies - we all stayed in Runkle Halls together.

Here's an embarrassing story - when I started at the campus, I had to take a basic writing class (English 004) because on my pre-admittance English test, I had gotten less than 20 questions right out of 100!  The questions where, "here are 4 sentences, which sentence is not grammatically correct."  I still struggle with grammar and spelling. I'm proud to say  I earned a B in that class and in my English Rhetoric & Composition class - (although I got a C in technical writing - which makes sense...right? Since I'm better at fiction.... Right?).

Fond memories:
  • Taking Skiing as a physical ed elective - getting credit to ski once a week - it doesn't get any better than that!
  • Avoiding the cafeteria and buying Lee's Hoagies (a.k.a. submarine sandwiches, subs, etc...)  these were loaded with meat, delicious, and cheap.
  • Doing Physics homework as a group with our friend, Gene, Gene, the Physics Machine explaining the concepts far better than our teacher.
  • Physics lab with that same teacher - where we all sat around and discussed how realistic the latest episode of MacGyver  was (true - I swear!  watching MacGyver became homework).
If you're still with me after this long...boring?...post, I'd love for you to share some of your favorite memories from college (or high school).

And if you'd like info on my event tomorrow, here are some links (one is an article about me :)):

Comments

  1. my favourite high school memories were writer's craft and media arts. i had two of my best friends in those classes and we had so much fun.

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  2. My favorite HS experience was the entire year in Honors English. I didn't know it until 20 years later, but it was actually a Humanities class under the name of English. We studied the music, literature and art of different periods of history using classical albums, poems/novels and slides that my teacher had collected from art museums he'd visited around the world. When test time came, he'd ask us to tell him five things about this composer or piece of art or whatever, and you just wrote what you had learned. It was fantastic. I bought my first classical album that year and visited my first art museum. Imagine the fun being able to identify many of the pieces of art! Not many 17-year-olds get that opportunity.

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  3. My favorite college memories are doing homework and going to class with my hubby. We met in college. We had the same major, and we graduated at the same time. We scheduled our semesters together. It was so fun and made homework not so stressful.

    Who needs grammar, right? That is what editors are for. You have brilliant stories and lovable, memorable characters. That is what makes an awesome book!

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  4. Oh college. How I miss thee (but not the actual school part). I was not so much on time to my morning classes either, still not a morning person! I did make some of the best friends ever in college though. They dropped what they were doing and drove to a different state to get me after a run in with a semi (I was mostly ok, very minor injuries luckily). My friends were big gamers though and one night we were all playing an RPG and my character died. Everyone cried! They felt like they really lost a part of me then. I knew that no matter what else I did in my life I would always be connected to these people and they were the best friends ever. I was meant to go to that college and meet those people. (I still hate school though LOL)

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  5. Lianne C. from the PoconosSeptember 29, 2010 at 6:36 PM

    Hey Maria, I have one up on your phsyics story. I am currently taking physics right now with a bunch of other seniors who have left their science requirement to the last minute >/. But it is Physics of Superheroes! Instead of talking about MacGyver we talk about superheroes, like Superman and Spiderman and if it is physically possible for them to have their powers. It's pretty interesting, considering I am a Marketing major! Have fun in L.A.!

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