Technology is Great...When it Works.

Today I pulled myself up at 5 AM to go to this tutorial. Or rather, I laid in bed until 6 trying to meditate on what was to come, and then finally got up. Once I got ready and had my bag packed at 7, I was out the door and walking to De Anza. I got there way earlier than I anticipated, but I got into a good conversation with the man letting us into the building and whatnot. I never got his name, but he’s cool and he loves soccer.

I'm hiding from Don. :)

Cutting to the start of the tutorial, I sat next to two girls named Amelia and Linsday, we were handed large instructional packets, and we got to work. Or should I say, we tried to. The reason can be summed up in one phrase: “Technology is great when it works.” Every time a problem was solved, a new one would come up. At one point, we were essentially throwing darts at a map because a good third of the computers weren’t working properly. We probably spent a good thirty to forty minutes just trying to get ourselves situated.

Once we were situated, we began listening to what was essentially a long lecture. It would have probably been very boring, but luckily Don’s not one to be boring. He seemed to know when people were getting bored and could either wake them up or make them laugh.

Noor is the most photogenic person I've ever met.

Our first assignment was to write four paragraphs on any topic. I chose the silly little mobile rhythm game I play (and frankly probably spend too much of my spare time playing.) Once we posted on the practice blog and all that, Don checked through to make sure we all had it right and we understood the formatting.

After a while, we were given our second assignment. We pulled out the cameras and began walking around the front of the campus and taking pictures. We took some serious photos, cohort group photos, and some silly photos. Probably the most photogenic person in the whole group was Noor. She killed it with every shot I took of her, and every shot everyone else took of her for that matter.

This tutorial was overall kept me hyped for the trip, but I’m still sort of nervous. I’ve never been too far away from home and my parents or some other family or close friend have always been with me when I am farther away. I’m sure I’ll be able to handle this though.

The Vandy cohort doing some (silly) poses in front of the banner.