Ridiculous businesses really grind my gears. I ordered groceries to be delivered to my home yesterday (let's not get into why I was ordering groceries on-line in the first place), and the time frame they gave me for delivery is 7:30 AM - 11 AM for this (Thursday) morning. Let me just make note: that time frame is three and a half hours. That's a huge window. Anyway, after I submitted my order I got a blank email from the delivery service with a text attachment saying that my order was submitted. There was no further information on where I should go to check up on things, and no specifics of my order were listed. I'm honestly shocked that it wasn't picked up by my mail filter as spam, because for a moment I thought it was. Anyway, so I woke up at 7:15 this morning and around 7:25 hopped into the shower, looking forward to receiving my groceries. I got out at 7:45 and had three missed calls! Anyway, so they showed up at 7:34, which in all fairness is in the time window they gave me. They hung out for 10 minutes, so I literally JUST missed them. But get this - the number they left for me to reschedule is this 800 number and their main office operates on Central Time, and didn't open until 7 AM CT. SO, I could've probably caught them from not too far away but I had to wait for 15 minutes for their office to open so that I could actually talk to someone. And then that guy was like, "Well you could have checked online to have a narrower time frame with the ETA," and I said, "Yea that would've been great if your email told me that, I had no idea." I mean seriously - they should either have a local office that's open when they schedule deliveries, or they shouldn't schedule deliveries when no one's available for customer care. So I had to cancel my order, and I'm left without food and very grumpy. Stupid Peapod. As much as I'd like to say I'm never ordering from them again, I think I will have to when the weather is bad. That's what grinds my gears: idiot businesses that I have to rely on.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Boston
So I'm finally here. The long-awaited commute across the country took place, the mystery roommate was revealed, the jet lag is gone, and some new friends have been made.
My flight here was a red-eye, the first red-eye I've ever taken. My brother and I landed in Boston at 5:30 AM EST, after 5 1/2 hours with a demon baby and incompetent parents sitting two rows behind me. With the movers scheduled to arrive at 1 PM, my brother and I got breakfast and then I opted to start unpacking. I got to my new apartment around 7:40 AM and after a small ordeal about my keys, finally got inside close to 8. My roommate had already started her day and left home by the time I got there, so I had a few hours to myself to nestle in. The movers were running a little late with my furniture, so I laid down on the living room floor to take a nap. As soon as I closed my eyes, my roommate walked in and was like, "What are you doing?! Go on the bed!" referencing her bed. So we introduced ourselves and chit chatted a little bit, and the movers arrived with my furniture. I had to toy with my bed's arrangement; I couldn't really find one that was just right. I'm still not happy with it, but I think it's the best I can do given the dimensions of my room.
Orientation went smoothly, for the most part. I didn't get into one class that I wanted to take, but I am guaranteed a spot in it next semester. My advisor couldn't be present for class registration, and the woman in his place was a royal pain in the ass. I hope I never have to deal with her again. The staff here seem really overworked; I think it's because it's the beginning of the year and so many wrinkles need to be ironed out. They definitely have a lot more attitude than anyone did at Davis. Here, they pretty much tell you to get out of their faces if they don't want to deal with you.
My classmates all seem really nice. Everyone's very motivated. It's a little strange being surrounded by people with the exact same mindset and goals as my own. In Davis, there were people who weren't so sure about the future, who were too sure about it, pre-laws, enginnering majors, other health science majors, and just a whole lot more diversity in general with regards to academic pursuits. Here, many people have different backgrounds. Some have already applied to medical school and got rejected, some decided late in their careers that they wanted to be doctors, and a lot of people are like me - just not confident about applying yet and want to bolster their qualifications. I've met a couple of people so far who I get along well with, so hopefully my group builds a little more and I'll have an enjoyable year.
My parents came here over Labor Day weekend to help me get settled in. That was really nice of them. We got my last few pieces of furniture and a load of groceries from Costco. We were able to finish everything in one day - shopping and furniture building - so for Saturday and Sunday we were able to sit back and enjoy the city. Luckily the weather was kind of nice so we did a couple of touristy things in Boston. One of these days I'll run around the city with a camera and post some pictures so you can see my new home.
My roommate and I bonded a bit on Labor Day itself; we took a 3 hour walk around the city and talked the whole time. She's a lot more fun than I anticipated, and I think we will get along really well. Her friends are hilarious, I met them on Friday while we were setting up our internet connection... quite a good time. She gave me a warning that because her friends are married, all they talk about is different methods of contraception and sex with their husbands. Sure enough, both topics came up when I met them.
Classes here are intense. My first two days in my Biochemistry class were seriously half of one of my undergraduate courses. It makes me nervous about what's happening for the rest of the semester, but whatever who cares. My first exam is in about 3 1/2 weeks and I've been studying, but I still feel behind. Like I said though, who cares. I'll be fine.
Yesterday my brother and I checked out the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. I have mixed feelings about it. It was cool in an educational sciency way, and when you think about how long it must have taken to prepare the cadavers, the amount of work that went into each one is really amazing. But on the other hand, it's like these were real people at some point. Some of the exhibits were super playful and kinda grotesque, and it's tough to draw the line between art work and disrespect to the bodies. One thing I noticed was that aside from the pregnant woman, all of the female cadavers were in poses that made them arch their backs and made their breasts stick out. My theory on this is that whoever prepared them is sexually repressed and resorted to his work to cope. They had a really cool segment on human development where they showed embryos during the first 8 weeks, and then each month of gestation that follows. I think that might've been my favorite thing to see. Babies totally look like aliens until they're ready to come out... totally. All in all, it was a great experience and I'm glad I got to see it.
I do miss California. I miss having my friends around the corner and being able to spontaneously go to Wal-mart or grab a bite to eat whenever I felt like it. Here, not only do I not have friends close by, but I don't have a whole lot of anything close by. It takes me about 35 minutes to get to my brother's place, which is only six miles away. Everyone else I know lives somewhere from 10 - 40 minutes away as well, so it kinda sucks in that sense. The good thing is that there is no fast food near my place, so I've been forced to either eat out at nicer places or cook my own food at home. I definitely miss driving too. I wouldn't want to drive here, but driving back home was nice. I guess the public transportation system here works well, but it's quite a change. The city is definitely very urban, which my neighborhood in San Jose and Davis definitely were not. Both places have their ups and downs I suppose - here and home, but home is always home.
Anyway, I think so far I'm off to a good start, and I'm excited for the year to come and hope I can leave here having opened some doors for myself.
My flight here was a red-eye, the first red-eye I've ever taken. My brother and I landed in Boston at 5:30 AM EST, after 5 1/2 hours with a demon baby and incompetent parents sitting two rows behind me. With the movers scheduled to arrive at 1 PM, my brother and I got breakfast and then I opted to start unpacking. I got to my new apartment around 7:40 AM and after a small ordeal about my keys, finally got inside close to 8. My roommate had already started her day and left home by the time I got there, so I had a few hours to myself to nestle in. The movers were running a little late with my furniture, so I laid down on the living room floor to take a nap. As soon as I closed my eyes, my roommate walked in and was like, "What are you doing?! Go on the bed!" referencing her bed. So we introduced ourselves and chit chatted a little bit, and the movers arrived with my furniture. I had to toy with my bed's arrangement; I couldn't really find one that was just right. I'm still not happy with it, but I think it's the best I can do given the dimensions of my room.
Orientation went smoothly, for the most part. I didn't get into one class that I wanted to take, but I am guaranteed a spot in it next semester. My advisor couldn't be present for class registration, and the woman in his place was a royal pain in the ass. I hope I never have to deal with her again. The staff here seem really overworked; I think it's because it's the beginning of the year and so many wrinkles need to be ironed out. They definitely have a lot more attitude than anyone did at Davis. Here, they pretty much tell you to get out of their faces if they don't want to deal with you.
My classmates all seem really nice. Everyone's very motivated. It's a little strange being surrounded by people with the exact same mindset and goals as my own. In Davis, there were people who weren't so sure about the future, who were too sure about it, pre-laws, enginnering majors, other health science majors, and just a whole lot more diversity in general with regards to academic pursuits. Here, many people have different backgrounds. Some have already applied to medical school and got rejected, some decided late in their careers that they wanted to be doctors, and a lot of people are like me - just not confident about applying yet and want to bolster their qualifications. I've met a couple of people so far who I get along well with, so hopefully my group builds a little more and I'll have an enjoyable year.
My parents came here over Labor Day weekend to help me get settled in. That was really nice of them. We got my last few pieces of furniture and a load of groceries from Costco. We were able to finish everything in one day - shopping and furniture building - so for Saturday and Sunday we were able to sit back and enjoy the city. Luckily the weather was kind of nice so we did a couple of touristy things in Boston. One of these days I'll run around the city with a camera and post some pictures so you can see my new home.
My roommate and I bonded a bit on Labor Day itself; we took a 3 hour walk around the city and talked the whole time. She's a lot more fun than I anticipated, and I think we will get along really well. Her friends are hilarious, I met them on Friday while we were setting up our internet connection... quite a good time. She gave me a warning that because her friends are married, all they talk about is different methods of contraception and sex with their husbands. Sure enough, both topics came up when I met them.
Classes here are intense. My first two days in my Biochemistry class were seriously half of one of my undergraduate courses. It makes me nervous about what's happening for the rest of the semester, but whatever who cares. My first exam is in about 3 1/2 weeks and I've been studying, but I still feel behind. Like I said though, who cares. I'll be fine.
Yesterday my brother and I checked out the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. I have mixed feelings about it. It was cool in an educational sciency way, and when you think about how long it must have taken to prepare the cadavers, the amount of work that went into each one is really amazing. But on the other hand, it's like these were real people at some point. Some of the exhibits were super playful and kinda grotesque, and it's tough to draw the line between art work and disrespect to the bodies. One thing I noticed was that aside from the pregnant woman, all of the female cadavers were in poses that made them arch their backs and made their breasts stick out. My theory on this is that whoever prepared them is sexually repressed and resorted to his work to cope. They had a really cool segment on human development where they showed embryos during the first 8 weeks, and then each month of gestation that follows. I think that might've been my favorite thing to see. Babies totally look like aliens until they're ready to come out... totally. All in all, it was a great experience and I'm glad I got to see it.
I do miss California. I miss having my friends around the corner and being able to spontaneously go to Wal-mart or grab a bite to eat whenever I felt like it. Here, not only do I not have friends close by, but I don't have a whole lot of anything close by. It takes me about 35 minutes to get to my brother's place, which is only six miles away. Everyone else I know lives somewhere from 10 - 40 minutes away as well, so it kinda sucks in that sense. The good thing is that there is no fast food near my place, so I've been forced to either eat out at nicer places or cook my own food at home. I definitely miss driving too. I wouldn't want to drive here, but driving back home was nice. I guess the public transportation system here works well, but it's quite a change. The city is definitely very urban, which my neighborhood in San Jose and Davis definitely were not. Both places have their ups and downs I suppose - here and home, but home is always home.
Anyway, I think so far I'm off to a good start, and I'm excited for the year to come and hope I can leave here having opened some doors for myself.
