Oriented

Yesterday I spent the day at school - and sitting on the 25 (I-25) during rush hour.

The morning consisted of general info about the school (the Counseling Psych program resides in the Morgridge School of Education); in the afternoon we learned more about our program.

The (badly photographed) sign for the Morgridge School of Ed outside Ruffato Hall.

The university library offers an impressive collection of content and services, including the offer to purchase books in a subject area if they're needed (what you get for your $50K/year!). I now have affordable dental and health insurance (wasted no time scheduling my annual exam) and access to a 440,000 sq. ft. health and fitness facility, which features the largest indoor pool I've ever seen. Nice. We get discounted personal training sessions, which I will explore, but my priority is finding a Kripalu yoga class near home.

Aside: huge student benefit = Office for Mac 2011 for $99. :) :) :)

The Counseling Psychology program is housed in a brand new building (Ruffato Hall), so it boasts all the latest in electronic collaboration tools - digital whiteboards in all classrooms and in alcoves where mobile furniture can be easily reconfigured for small group meetings.

The University counseling clinic is located in Ruffato, too, and comprises four session rooms with a central viewing room for closed circuit TV monitoring. This will be central to much of our learning, as we critique ourselves and others during actual counseling sessions.

This year's CP cohort is large at 30 or so. I chatted with several people whom I'd met during the interview process and met a number of new folks. A large number (half or more?) of us are from out of state. Seems I'm the oldest student by a large margin, but don't think that will be an issue, except when it comes to remembering things (such as the names of all those pleasant folks I just met).

We enjoyed our (catered, gourmet box) lunch outside Ruffato Hall. The red totes held stainless water bottles, pens and t-shirts. We are OUTFITTED! In the suit is Dr. Patrick Sherry, head of the Counseling Psych program. His specialty is workplace trauma and he has a large research grant from the transportation industry. Recently his group interviewed victims and observers of the horrible rail accident that happened in California.

Turns out that the manageable class schedule I have is an illusion. Although I'm in class only three days a week (M 9-1:20, W 9-11:50, Th 9-2:20), many classes require large time commitments outside of class (beyond studying, that is). For instance, one class requires two hours per week to role play counseling sessions with a small group. Another (fieldwork) requires many hours outside of class to find a practicum site for winter quarter.

As hinted at above, the commute wasn't pretty yesterday. I'm sure it will be better when I leave campus earlier than 4:15 and it's not Friday afternoon, but the morning won't be fun (although it's like a jog in the park compared to the NH-Boston commute). However, the $475 I coughed up for a  parking pass was well worth it - the garage sits directly across the street from Ruffato.

As a student, I have a free rapid transit pass, so I could take a bus to the light rail and the light rail to campus, about a 2-hour commute. Whether I take advantage of that or not likely will depend on the price of gas and the amount of running around I have to do to fieldwork/practicum/internship sites.

Woohoo!

Sorry if I just put you to sleep with all this school minutiae - I'm like a little kid again, savoring all the details!

The moving van arrives tomorrow, so I'll finally have all my stuff in one place. Sure hope I can find that teeny tiny USB receiver for my trackball that I cleverly put in some safe place. [Update: Believe it or not, somewhere among the 100+ cartons, I found it - hooray!]

Hope you all are well and know that you're in my thoughts. Happy weekend!