Another Day

So we’re settling in a bit, and the cliques are forming to some extent. I’ve managed to start friendly relationships with some of the people in my group, and I feel less weird wandering around the campus.

Today we got the tour of the Library. You know, in the Gallery (which has no new pictures today – sorry), the “LIBRARY.” Apparently the stacks are limited to grad students, staff and faculty only. Undergrads have to page books from the stacks. I think this is probably a safety issue, as the stacks are, well, grim. Okay, only 1/2 of them are grim.

So they have 10 floors of stacks, not counting the half floors. Yep, they have half floors. There’s a 9.5 right between 9 and 10. And in the old part of the stacks, the ceilings are low. It’s very warm. It’s kinda dark. It makes the Doheny stacks look bright n’ cheery.

In the “new” half of the stacks (I think they’re called the West Stacks), it’s very cold and bright. They also have those moving shelves.

Anyway, the Library staff seems awesome – particularly the librarians in the Library and Information Science Library (yep, we have our own library). They put together research tips for our paper. God Bless you, Sue Searing and the rest of the LIS Library crew. I’ve got them open as I type this.

For lunch a group of us headed over to Bevier Hall to eat at the cafe run by Food Services students. The cafe is open limited days and hours, which is honestly too bad because the food ROCKS. I had the most awesome portabello and Gorgonzola cheese sandwich (on fresh bread!) with homemade French fries. That and a soda were only $5.75. Cheapest meal I’ve had so far, y’all, and the best.

Then it was back to class. We learned HTML (okay, I didn’t. I read CNN) and how to use our on-line class tools. I’m feeling pretty confident in using the technology. It’s still the paper writing that concerns me.

Anyway, we had our first real class today. Our instructors, by the way, kick ass. One, Leigh, was the Dean of the school up until 4 years ago. Maggie was a consultant for Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood for 20 years. Oh, and she’s a department chair at Pitt’s library program too. Very top notch, eh?

So now I sit here, blogging, instead of reading the DMCA. I also had a beer with my burrito at dinner, and I’m kinda enjoying feeling not keyed up at the moment.

Tomorrow we have brunch with the first group and begin really diving into the class work. Wish me luck.