I got up this morning and headed out the door to my behavioral psychology lab, where we were supposed to train a rat. Well, not on the first day, obviously, but it's the class where it will be. Something was off, though. The building was small and not very classroom-y. The janitor was surprised to see several of us walk in, but eventually he figured out which room he wanted and led us through multiple doors that required keys until we reached the room in question.
Skinner boxes!
Turns out, we won't have this class until the end of September (and even then, there will be a Group A and a Group B, so I might be waiting for awhile).
I went to the actual psych class next. Lecture halls are interesting because it's a bit like a movie theater: All the soft folding chairs are pointed forward at the screen, layered in steps so those in the back can see over the heads of those in front of them, and you share an armrest with your neighbor. Only, instead of a cup holder, you have a small desk that swivels over your lap.
My psych teacher seems like he has a good sense of humor. My horticulture teacher seems friendly. After those two classes were over, I grabbed lunch from the Marketplace. I had a lot of vegetables... although, maybe it wasn't a good idea to be eating there on a Monday. Some of those foods seemed like they were left over from Friday (I did hear a lot of people complain about the strawberries being sour, although I must have gotten lucky because they tasted fine to me). I decided to get a scoop of mint ice cream at the last minute, which probably cancelled out the vegetables, but made up for the broccoli, cauliflower, and my last couple bites of corn.
Institute was next. I went into it with a good attitude (which I still have, by the way) and I'm hoping that I like it. We have a relatively small class, it seems, and I didn't notice anyone texting their friends during the song or possibly the prayer or anything like that, so that's always a plus. We took notes, were assigned some reading, and all given a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World". This was just the first day, so hopefully we will start touching on new concepts throughout the year and not just recycling junior primary ones. We did get to watch a cool video about some guys trying and failing to trick Jesus, though.
My peer mentor had wanted us all to schedule a time to meet with her, so I checked up with her before arriving at my "chocolate class". This is a class where we will learn all sorts of things about chocolate, like how to grow and prepare it for consumption, its effects, its composition, and stuff like that. My teacher had some samples of dark, milk, and white chocolate that she gave all of us. I am a bit nervous for her class, though, because I don't think it will be as easy as psychology.
I went back to Blue Square for the first time after that, and Demetria and I were there until 6:45 rolled around and we went off to join the ward for Home Evening (which is a lot like Family Home Evening, except without the Family because we're all on our own). This time we managed to secure a ride. We went to the house of Brother Wade (the first counselor, I think) and had cake and ice cream.
Brother Wade had set up croquet in his backyard. Demetria had never played before, so I and several other participants showed her how. I was leading for almost the entire game. All six of us (seven, technically- the yellows played as a team) were clustered around the poison pole. Yellow hit it and became poison. Apparently some people play the game as, instead of going back through the wickets, you place your ball a mallet's length away from the pole, and hit from there. So yellow did that and aimed for me. He went through the second wicket in front of the pole and died before his ball bounced off mine.
I think blue became poisoned next, and killed orange, then red. That left green (me), black (Demetria), and blue (poison). I seem to remember Demetria getting poisoned after that. On my next turn, I was poisoned too and smacked my ball a fair ways away. Blue ended up rolling right between Demetria and me. I had a shield, but Demetria took out blue and came for me next. She won, the first time she ever played the game!
We talked with Eliza and a couple of other girls- Amanda and Madi (Madi, I think, gave a talk yesterday like I did). People began to leave, as it had gotten dark. Luckily, Madi had a car to drive us back. After saying our good-byes to the bishop and his counselors, we loaded up and headed off. Tomorrow I only have one class, so the day will sure be more relaxing.
First real day!
