"Why do you call it a washer?!"

The title is a quote from Jani today. In calc there is the "disc method" (as Jani knows it) but it's also called the "washer method" (after the little metal disc with a hole in the middle). Jani had his little outburst and then told us about his extreme confusion over the "washer method" yesterday when he was preparing for today's class. I guess in Finland they don't call the little metal discs "washers".

First, I was woken up at 6a.m. by my mother just so she could tell me that we wouldn't be able to leave for Ann Arbor on time because of the weather conditions. Great. She also informed me that maybe we could leave around noon when the temperature was above freezing. Double great. If that was the case, I should've just stayed home another day because I would've missed all of my classes anyway. So I slept for another 2.5 hours and that was nice. My mother woke me up again around 8:30 and said we would try to leave in an hour. We picked up Ross around 9:30 and made it to Ann Arbor around 12:00, just in time for my calc class.

Ross actually surprised me on this one. At the end of the class he said that he was basically able to follow what Jani was teaching. He said he wouldn't be able to do it yet but he basically understood what was going on. This was surprising because 1) Ross is only in pre-calc, 2) we're at the very end of the semester, 3) Ross has enough trouble in pre-calc, and 4) I was totally not expecting to hear that come out of his mouth. It was nice to hear though. Hopefully it boosted his confidence about calc a little. He was pretty much the sore thumb of my calc class though. I noticed some strange glances in his direction, but no one said anything so it was all good.

Next we had lunch in the Union. I had a pepperoni calzone and Ross had a huge piece of pepperoni pizza. It was good food. He then mentioned that he also noticed that not one person on campus was wearing a Polaris coat (which is why I had advised him to wear his Aero one instead). After lunch, I showed him around my dorm and stuff.

We then went to Music Theory, where he was anything but a sore thumb. I don't think anyone really noticed him as not belonging. In fact, when the homework was being handed out, one guy saw Ross didn't have one and passed him a sheet. I found that a bit humorous. After Music Theory, Ross said he understood calc more than he understood the stuff in my music theory class. But that's not extremely surprising because the stuff in Music Theory is really cumulative, whereas calc isn't as much. But I definitely wasn't expecting Ross to enjoy the calc class more than the music theory class.

A little while after Music Theory, Ross and my parents left for home. I always get a little tinge of sadness when they leave. And then 45 minutes later I scheduled my classes for next semester. I was happy because almost everything was still open, but I was annoyed because the Physics lab that I wanted was closed. So I put myself on the waitlist... I'm in the first position so that is good, but it's still quite annoying. I don't know if I should just ditch it and go for the other lab or not. And then I had to run to Mason Hall and get an override for my calc class. That was intense and tiring. But 'tis all relatively good for now. Yes, Ross, I did register for Campus Band [I know I'm hot ;) ]. I have Campus Band, Great Books 192, Calc 2, German 231, Physics 140, and Physics 141 (the lab that I'm on the waiting list for).