Cake

Wednesday

Slept in until around 12, it was glorious. Took my time getting ready for class and lazed about for a while. The couple of hours before class I reviewed the first chapter of the book again to ensure that I understood as much as I could on my own. This later proved to be a futile exercise. After I once again did my uphill climb, I ascended 5 flights of stairs (why I didn't take the elevator I'll never know, I must have a death wish). I was the first to arrive at the classroom, so I wasn't even sure I was in the right place, that's never an encouraging feeling. Eventually people started trickling in. Once the teacher arrived he jumped right in with the lesson.

I was lost, that's all there is too it. From the expressions on some of the other student's faces, they were too. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the subject from combing through the first chapter. However, the teacher took whatever understanding I thought I had and destroyed it. He was very scatterbrained and didn't seem entirely sure of what he was talking about most of the time. Not a particularly encouraging thing to see from a teacher. Although he spoke clear and easy to understand English I could not follow his lecture at all. I had a very, very, VERY vague understanding of what he was talking about, at best, and the overall scheme of his lecture was completely lost on me. He almost seemed to know this, as he specifically encouraged us to NOT attend class and instead rely on the book for our education on the subject. While I'm not opposed to teaching myself, my understanding of the textbook was rudimentary at best, and I was hoping to have a good lecture in order to enforce my comprehension. No such luck.

The entire class only succeeded in confusing me and stressing me out. I don't think I was alone in these feelings as some people even got up during the lecture and left. I've decided that I don't have the understanding of the prerequisite classes that is obviously required in order to excel at this subject. I'm definitely dropping the course in favor of taking another course. It's not worth the stress.

I've already signed up for a course called Religion and Politics. I've emailed the appropriate people and I'm hoping that I'll receive a response shortly. I need to get Social Science general education credit for the course in order to keep next year's schedule in line. Hopefully everything works out and I don't have to spend too much time on this. I also hope that I'll be able to catch up in the class itself quickly. I've only missed one lesson, but as with all other classes, it only meets once a week.

Thursday

Had a busy day today, my first class was Principles of Secure Software Design at 10:15. It was the class I was looking forward to the most. It didn't disappoint. I believe the teacher was (again) German. Since he didn't say so I'm starting to doubt my recognition of accents, what are the chances that 3 of my CS teachers are German? Perhaps high, considering where I'm studying. Regardless, he was a very interesting teacher who had a well constructed lesson with just enough humor to keep everyone's mood up. We discussed what systems were made up of, different assets in a business, what would need protecting, different types of attacks and why security measures were necessary. It was a very interesting lesson and I think I'll enjoy the class. The grade for the class was broken down a bit differently than my other classes. Instead of relying mostly on the final, our last exam will count for only (hah, only) 50% of our grade. The remaining percentage is split between in-class worksheets (20%) and a paper (30%). Now this is the first time that I've ever encountered a full-blown written assignment in a Computer Science course, so I'm interested in the topic and how it'll be executed. Also a little bit concerned, as I don't have any technical writing experience. Hopefully it'll be a good experience for me and not too stressful.

Went back to Runnipizza for lunch, had (obviously) pizza and some coffee. After that relaxed at the dorm for around an hour and then headed over to the University's main building. For the final 'event' of orientation I was to attend a mandatory workshop on acquiring a residence permit for Estonia. It was very helpful; they provided a couple documents I needed (proof of income, proof of study) and the full application needed. There was also a woman from the migration office that walked through all pages of the application with us and told us what we needed to fill out and how. The assistance was much appreciated, I was dreading having to muddle through the application later (As it was mostly in Estonian, there were a few English translations but it would have taken a while to figure everything out). It was a very long application, consisting of several pages, but I got it completed by the time the workshop was over, which is nice. Now I only need to print out my proof of insurance and a copy of my passport, then I'll be able to turn everything in to the migration office and get the process started!

Once the workshop was over Sarah, Ariail and I all went to the cake shop, Werner, to kill an hour before class. I ordered a Cappuccino Creme Brule cake which was absolutely amazing. It was fantastic and delicious and I will be ordering it again very soon. We all chatted for a while before I left to go to class. The last class of the day was my Cryptology I practice learning course. A lab of sorts that accompanies the lecture. It was an enjoyable class, the teacher has a great sense of humor and keeps things interesting for the entire period. We did some exercises with ciphers and went over some mathematical definitions of what it means to be 'secure'.

All and all I had a pretty good day (the cake was probably the highlight to be honest), though I am grateful that tomorrow is Friday. I'm ready for the weekend!