The first class of the day was Cloud Computing practicum. Same ol' hike (I really can't wait till it no longer tires me out to go up that hill) and I arrived at the CS building. In all of the faculty buildings here there is an area to have your coat hung up. It's behind a desk area of sorts and there is usually an attendant. You hand them your coat and they give you a number. It's an interesting, and organized system. I was aware of it before but today was the first day I decided to try it out (since I have two back-to-back classes). It's rather nice to not have to be carrying your coat around, and I gather it's especially helpful for those that have the giant winter coats. (Since the weather has been so nice here, I've only needed to wear my pea-coat).
Anyway, I hung up my coat and then it was up to the second floor for my first experience in the computer labs here! It was a fairly good first impression: the computers in the lab are running Linux with GNOME. I was rather impressed, as the computers back at the CS CofC lab only run Windows. It's not necessarily that Windows is inferior to Linux, just that I believe Linux would be better in practice for Computer Science students. It was kind of scary to use them at first as I have very limited practice with Linux. But it was a great experience. The school was running their cloud servers with OpenStack on Ububtu. It was all quite fun, we had to create an account to access the school servers, create a key, create an instance, transfer files from our computer to that instance using the Linux terminal, some stuff about ssh, euca2ools, and a bit of trial and error. I'll create a link to the lab below for those interested in seeing it.
Things like this are vastly easier on Linux than windows, I made the mistake of trying to do the exercise through my laptop at first. Did not work out well. I'm definitely hopping on board the Linux train ASAP.
Since I had another class immediately following the first I sat out in the hallway for a while until my second practical of the day: Coding Theory. Again I had an interesting lesson. It was focused mostly on finite fields and some algebraic definitions. Oddly enough it appears that the practical for Coding Theory will be a sort of parallel lecture course, where we focus on one topic that will eventually be integrated into the main lecture class. Not sure how this will work out in the end, but we'll see.
Once all my classes are over I made my way back towards my dorm. On the way I stopped at the metro cafe to pick up a sandwich, as I wasn't particularly motivated to make food for myself (I was also out of bread). It's glorious that I can get a foot-long sandwich with the works for under 3 euros. One thing I certainly don't miss from home is the price of food. Got back to my dorm, enjoyed my sandwich and prepared to do nothing for the rest of the evening.
It's Valentine's day evening and yes, everybody is out partying. I have no particular desire to join the masses in this. As I reflect on the...let's call it 'party culture', I realize that it does not inspire any interest in me. A small part of me still feels like I'm missing out on something if I don't participate in the chaotic socialization of the international and local students. But a larger part of me, really my entire personality, rebels against the thought of going to a party. I'm not adverse to drinking or socializing, but something about such a large group seems vastly impersonal. I feel that I would get lost amongst the people, and ultimately ending up feeling lonely in a full room. Even at home the thought of partying has never appealed to me, I'd much rather do something with a close group of friends. I've reached the point where I am comfortable with focusing on my studies and slow-paced socializing. I've already met so many people, but I will be here for a while and I'm in no rush to befriend as many individuals as possible.
While it's true that the town is slow paced and quiet (and let's be honest, sometimes boring) I've discovered it has a certain charm about it for those that can slow down and appreciate it. Let's just hope I still feel that way in the upcoming months and I'm not beside myself with boredom! With any luck my studies will take up (an appropriate amount) of my free time.
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