first day at school: daybreak

didn't start too well, and ended poorly too! but that's life.

i got to school and grabbed the keys to my office. i wasn't expecting much given that i'm a first-year grad student, but my office hit new low standards. tomorrow i'll get pictures, but here's my description. The room is long and thin, and in the interior part of the floor it's on, so that it has no window out to nature. instead, it has a window out to the hall. on each of the long walls, there is a long desk, with makeshift shelves above the desk. at the opposite end of the room, there's a white-board. sounds fine? well, now let's look at the desks. covered in dirt and dust, and old books. then there are old wine bottles, hafl-finished bottles of juice, and other assorted junk. there are very few square-inches that aren't encrusted in dirt and dust.

the white-board looks like it might be functional, but the text on the board seems etched into the board itself. it's going to take some strong cleaning solution to get that board white again.

now the people: when i get in, lorenzo, a fellow 1st year grad student, is sitting, looking very cold in a heavy sweater. i think i see him shiver. why? the AC is blasting in the room, and it's clearly many degrees cooler in the stuffy room than in the open, comfortable corridor. lorenzo manages to get the maintenance team to come in and take a look at the AC in the room, and they adjust something, but now it just seems colder.

the room could not be much worse. i will do something about this, and will keep you posted :)