Misbusadventure

Sunday morning was the flea, as usual. We hadn't been in several weeks, but this weekend I wanted to try and find a display for the jewelry I've been making, to help both with creation and with photography. None of the jewelry vendors at the flea were willing to part with theirs, but one recommended a vendor who actually sells them new. As it happened, he had just taken most of his stock back to Connecticut because it wasn't selling. Figures. If I had been one week earlier...but he did have a couple of small ones left, and though they're no good for fitting, they'll be useful for display for picture-taking purposes. When I get more pics taken I'll post again.

In bigger news (at least in my world), today was my first day of classes at UMass! My schedule includes no classes on Mondays, so I'm hoping I can work those days. On Tuesdays I have three classes, although today I only had two, because the first one was cancelled. That's CMPSCI 201, Architecture and Algorithms, which will start on Thursday. Today I had Calculus and Programming Methodology...and instant lessons in the local bus system.

Calculus is taught by a grad student, which in itself is a new experience for me. Keene was too small for the classes to ever be taught by students or TAs, and they don't have much of a grad program, anyway. (Are you supposed to refer to him as a professor?) Thought I kept up with class today, I got the distinct sense that that could change easily and quickly, so it was a little scary. After all, it has been two years since I took precalc, and my A was due more to the teacher's lenient grading than to my thorough understanding of the material. Translation: I aced it without a clue.

Prog Methods has two instructors, a main professor and an assistant professor, plus two TAs. Today's class was boring in the extreme, since we didn't actually do anything but listen to Prof A lecture about the syllabus, which are all the same anyway...grading percentages, don't cheat, don't plagiarize, turn your shit in on time, etc. etc. etc. Once again, though, I got the sense that it's going to pick up, and fast. It seems we're already expected to know just about everything there is to know about Java. Now, I've had three Java classes at Keene, and I consider myself pretty fluent in the creation and use of classes, passing parameters, syntax, and other basic stuff. Since Data Structures was in Java, I can also build quite a few of said structures in the language. But they never made use of some of the more advanced features, and from what I gathered from Mr. Prof., previous classes at UMass have. "We expect facility, not just familiarity..." plus a lot more. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

On to the bus adventure. Not only are parking stickers expensive, but UMass actually discourages the students from buying them, so I decided to do park-and-ride instead. I drive to Sunderland in the morning and park in the mini-mall across from the Cliffside Apartments, then take the bus to UMass. Getting there was no problem - in fact, I was half an hour early, and I took a few minutes to walk around and find the best way between my classroom buildings. Getting back, however, was not quite so easy.

From Sunderland, there's pretty much only one bus, maybe two, that pass by the stop. From UMass, every bus from just about everywhere goes by. I hopped on the one labeled 31, since that's supposedly my route number, but it just took me for a long ride down to the lower parking lots, out to some deserted corners of campus, and finally back to where I'd started. When I asked the driver what bus to take to Sunderland, she looked at me like I was stupid and said, "Take one labeled Sunderland." What do you know - that one took me where I wanted to go. I have no idea what happened to Route 31, though. It seems the routes on the map don't match the routes posted on the buses. What's the point?