Tuesday, September 9

1 p.m. Wake up.

3:15-5 p.m. Reading test, required of all new students. Skip all adjectives and adverbs. Look at the last few pages for a summary--the answers are cleverly cloaked there. The biggest lesson this test can teach you is how to make sure to read introductions and conclusions, no matter what. If you don't do well, you will be referred to the Bureau of Study Counsel reading comprehension course, which will cost you. But if you do poorly, you might do well to take the minicourse. If you think you just had a bad day, don't sweat and don't bother signing up. If you've taken the Spanish, French or German placement test--Remember those? Remember the language requirement? --earlier in the day, you might merely be tired by the time you plough through the soporific reading.

8 p.m. Faculty discussion: "Volcanoes, Deep Sea Trenches, and Island Arcs." Raymond Siever, professor of Geology, will hold forth in Science Center B. So you wanted a diverse education? So you were rained upon by the capricious belches of Mt. St. Helen's?

9:30 p.m. Square dance, in the Union. Need you ask?

10 p.m.-4 a.m. Flip through the course catalogue, and see if you can find four courses that interest you. While you're doing this, consume large quantities of everything you can get your hands on--it's going to be a long four years.

Wednesday, September 10

9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Core quantitative reasoning requirement meeting. UPPERCASE. The horror, the horror. No one really knows what'll be said in this meeting. No one wants to know. Grin and bear it.

11 a.m. Intramurals meeting in the Union. Freshman intramurals can be fun, but they can also be hopelessly disorganized and lacking any semblance of spirit. But it is one way to meet people.

1-2:45 p.m. More placement tests, in Italian, Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Russian. Thankfully, you can't take any more than one of them at once.

1-3 p.m. Open house at the Office of Career Services and Off-Campus Learning. A great resource, OCS-OCL is well worth the trek down Dunster St. Here you might consider options that never occurred to you, like foreign study, leaves of absence, and volunteer work experience. While it may be a bit early to contemplate these things seriously, if you get introduced to OCS-OCL early on you can keep them in the back of your mind.

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Physical examinations. Welcome to University "Health" Services. Pray that this is the last time you have to go there.

5 p.m. Faculty discussion: "Re-examining Thoreau's Premises," with Joel Porte. Come now, you didn't really read Walden over the summer, did you? Worth a look, even if you didn't. You'll want to go to Walden Pond at some point.

8 p.m. Faculty discussion: "Ethnic Marginality in American Literature," with newly-arrived chairman of the Afro-Am department, Nathan I. Huggins. If you only have the mettle for one of these sessions, this might be your best bet. Huggins steps right into the fire this year, and all eyes will be watching to see if he can quell wide-spread concern about Afro-Am. Science Center B.

9:30-11 p.m. Free movie in the Union. Spending a lot of time at the Union lately, eh? A night to party and relax.