Well for all the praise I gave the weather yesterday, I woke up this morning and lo and behold, the forecast weather for the day: snow. On the way to class this morning it was cold, but not snowing yet. However, on my way back around 12 it had started snowing. It was actually my first time walking outside while it was snowing, it's a somewhat interesting sensation. For the most part it didn't bother me, but the one irritating thing is snowflakes in the eyes. It's not a fun feeling.

My first class of the day was Principles of Secure Software Design (I'll probably take to calling it SSD [not to be confused with a solid-state drive], as the teacher started doing). Like every other class, this one remains interesting and entertaining. We had a short review of last week's lecture at the start of the class, and then moved on to security modelling! This is basically creating a visual description of a system containing its own phenomena, and its own relationships among those phenomena. We talked about different modelling languages and delved into some real specifics involving them. There was also an in-class assignment to analyze a model for different things. Assessing what the IS and business assets were, security criterion, risk-related concepts and risk-treatment. I found it fairly straightforward, but apparently some people were struggling with the concept. It was homework but I ended up completing it before the lecture was over and turned it in early. (Less homework for the weekend!)

The teacher also notified us that he'd posted our Essay topics. Hurray! (read: oh please no) We were instructed to pick 3 topics, listed in order of interest. Since only 32 topics were listed and there were 60 people in the class, I knew I had to pick mine as early as possible. I selected it this evening and due to my prompt response I was awarded with the one I wanted! Administrating Role-based Access Control. Now, I'm not entirely sure the direction I'm going with this, or even what material I'm covering. But it sounded vaguely interesting and somewhat manageable, so hopefully I'll be able to scrounge up a good essay. This will also be my first foray into technical writing, so that's always interesting.

Once I got back to the dorm the snow had really picked up, it wasn't too drastic, but it's been coming down very steadily and in large quantities. It's started to stick to the ground; it's odd to see the grass slowly covered up with snow since I'd gotten used to seeing it un-obscured. It looks like a slow dusting of powdered sugar.

After a few hours of doing nothing (mostly staring out the window watching the world turn white), (and if you haven't learned by now I'm generally unproductive in my free time) I headed off to my second class, Crypto lab! Today we dealt with examples of a one-time pad encryption and a Linear Feedback Shift Register. The first example was a bit fuzzy on the details, and I wasn't really grasping the point of it all. However I really enjoyed working with the LFSR, as it was more straightforward linear algebra that I had a strong understanding of. My favorite thing about mathematics and CS is when things really click in my mind, and you can look back and see the logical progression of it all. It's a very satisfying feeling (for me) to solve a problem like that. After class it was back out into the (now snow-covered) world.

The snow was...is absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous. Words cannot hope to capture the ethereal quality that freshly fallen snow possesses. Even pictures can't accurately portray how beautiful it is. When I arrived in Estonia it was, of course, covered in snow and most everything was frozen over. This was very pretty in its own right, but everything was trodden over and frankly a bit muddy and dirty. Having gotten used to the lack of snow after a week or so, and then to see everything blanketed in pure white untouched snow is just...enchanting.

I took my time walking home after my last class. It got out at 6pm so, of course, it was completely dark. However with the streetlights on there was the perfect amount of lighting to highlight the snow in a way that was, again, breathtaking. It also brought out the 12-year old in me. I detoured through the park and was definitely NOT: jumping around in the snow, scooping it up, making snowballs and generally frolicking. I probably looked like a lunatic, I had a huge smile on my face the entire time, and for most of my way home. The only thing preventing me from dropping to the ground and rolling around/making snow angels was the fact that I had my backpack on. And there was only a couple of inches, minor details.

I could wax poetic about the snow for days, but I'm sure those that have experienced snow are disillusioned, and those that haven't don't particularly care that much. And honestly, I'm probably only appreciative of it because it's new to me, and I don't have to drive in it. I really do feel bad for all those that have to scrape ice and snow off their cars.

I'm now anxiously anticipating the completion of classes tomorrow, as I'll be heading off to Vilnius, Lithuania for the weekend! I'm going with Sarah and Ariail and I couldn't be more excited. I love exploring new places, and Vilnius looks absolutely gorgeous. It's jam packed with museums and old churches, which I find fascinating. So it should be a good time for all of us. The only drawback is that we're leaving at 2:10am on Saturday and the bus ride is very long. We won't be arriving in Vilnius until 11:30 that day. We'll definitely (not) sleep on the bus. And rest assured, I will take gratuitous amounts of pictures.

Praise be, the sun was out again today! It's basically the start of spring in Estonia at this point. It's been predicted that the snow will end with February and we'll get into spring unseasonably early. (Typically the last snow is well into April). This is definitely okay with me, as the cold isn't too bad. It's just the ice that I dislike.

Anyway, today I went to the migration office! I met my tutor and Ariail at the town center and off we went. The office was a good distance away, so we took the bus. This was my first experience with the public transit system here, it's honestly pretty efficient. The tickets for the bus are purchased in a kiosk. Most of the people working there don't speak English, so I was grateful to have my tutor with me. I bought two tickets, which were just .51 euros with a student discount. It took us a little under 20 minutes to get to the migration office. Once we got off the bus there was a short walk to actually get there.

The office was similar to a DMV, but a bit more organized. We began by getting our pictures taken in a little booth. I probably looked slightly insane as Ariail made me laugh as I was taking my first picture. The other two turned out okay, so that's what matters I suppose. Next we got our tickets and began our wait. It was only around 15 minutes or so, nothing too bad. Once my number was up I went up to the appropriate area. The woman working at that desk didn't speak any English whatsoever, so again I was very very grateful to have my tutor translating for me. I felt a bit stupid for not understanding anything, but I suppose there's nothing to be done about it. I was mostly just there to sign a few things, provide my passport and get my fingerprints taken. It took quite a while for her to type in all the information, but the process was very simple. Once all the paperwork was done and I paid the fee of 63,91 euros I was free to go. I'll receive notification by mail and by email once my residence permit is ready. (Typically the wait is around 2 months). So I'm on my way to being an official Estonian citizen!

After everything was done we went to another bus stop, waited for around 10 minutes and were back on our way to the town center. Again, ~20 minute bus ride. Once we arrived we parted ways with my tutor, again thanking her profusely (we really would've been lost without her) and headed over to Swedbank so Ariail could pick up her bank card. She finished that in a few minutes and we went back to the dorm.

It took me a while to muster up the motivation to do my laundry, but after an hour or so I eventually started it. I'm glad that I don't have to lug all my clothes to a laundromat or anything, it's nice and convenient to do laundry in the same building. (Plus I don't have to brave the cold more often). After I finished putting all my clothes away I decided to stay on the motivation train and go to the grocery store.

I only intended to go and pick up a few items, but I ended up getting garlic and mushrooms so that I could make a nicer dinner for myself tonight. I decided to saute some mushrooms in the garlic and then mix them with the rice. It ended up being very delicious. It was nice to have a meal that didn't consist completely of carbs.

I may have gotten a little to used to sleeping in. Getting up at 9am was pretty brutal for me. At least it doesn't take that long for me to eat breakfast and get ready. The weather honestly wasn't too bad today. There's still no sign of the sun, but at least it wasn't foggy or rainy. Yes, it's still cold to me, but high 30s is easily tolerated (and I'd certainly prefer that over 20 degree weather). In fact, it's so unseasonably warm here that the ice on the river is melting. While it seems a natural progression to me, this is apparently crazy early for it to be this warm.

My first class of the day was Intro to Coding Theory. Teacher is still good and material is still interesting. (Noticing a trend? I'm happy with all my classes!) We did a quick review and then jumped into a discussion on Block Code, Hamming Distances, Decoding Error Probabilities and Maximum Likelihood Decoding. Most of my classes consist of a lot of mathematical notation, which I haven't had for a couple semesters. It's taking getting used to but I've found that I missed the ease with which you can consolidate what would have been a complicated, long-winded statement into a few symbols.

Next item on the schedule was Religion and Politics. Luckily the building that this class is located in is just down the street from the CS building, so a quick 5 minute walk. It's nice to not feel like I'd be late for class at any point, as sometimes the teachers here are prone to letting us out late. Classes are typically supposed to run from (x):15 to (x+2):45, where x is the starting hour. This provides 30 minutes in between classes that would be back-to-back. The campus buildings are rather spread out, so it makes sense that the time is needed to navigate around the city. Anyway, back onto topic. The class itself was fairly interesting, the main focus of this lecture was secularism and secularization. (Secularism being a set of beliefs that advocates the marginalization of religion from other spheres of life, and Secularization being a general decline in religious individuals, religious practices, and a differentiation between religion and other spheres of society.)  The teacher is slightly difficult to understand because he's quite soft-spoken, but his english is clear enough. I just wish he'd speak a bit louder, any sort of noise (nose blowing, coughing, chair moving, etc) is enough to drown him out completely. Regardless, I'll have to deal with it. Regarding the actual content of the course, it was thought-provoking to say the least. No mind-blowingly amazing topics were brought up, but there were a few class discussions that were interesting to me. I always enjoy hearing people's views and opinions, and to listen to different cultural perspectives on religion and secularism was a great experience. One of the most striking (and amusing) things was the view that most people held of religion in the United States. The teacher made a comment while we were discussing secularization: he said that religion is still so prevalent in the US because our healthcare is so expensive. Needless to say, the other American students and I shared a good laugh. (Though I don't necessarily disagree with him.)

The teacher also encouraged discussion between students regarding our personal opinions. He posed the question of which among the processes accompanying modernization seemed to contribute the most and the least towards secularization. There were some interesting variances in opinion regarding this and I enjoyed the small discussions I was able to have. The more I think about it the more I'm glad that I decided to take this class. I think that with only CS courses I would have missed out on this cultural insight, and lost a chance to gain some new perspective. While I'm certainly immersing myself in a new culture just by being here, this allows for a more intricate view of some of the thought processes that Estonians, and individuals of other cultures, posses.

One last note regarding this class: there was a tidbit that the teacher said that I found quite thought-provoking. He asserted that religion has complete legitimacy over death. He said that Estonians are not church-going people and that they do not identify with any particular religion, but all of their soldiers are buried. Something of the religious influence remains present, even in a culture where religion is such a non-factor. Food for thought.

At this point I'd been through 4 hours of non-stop classes, I was pretty hungry and ready to go crash. But no such luck, I had one more class to go. Basics of Cloud Computing was next on my list. I confess that despite my best efforts to stay focused and pay attention I was zoning out after the first hour. For the time I did pay attention I was interested, but the teacher delved into a couple of long-winded but not actually necessary explanations of things that weren't able to hold my interest. We mostly covered specific cloud infrastructures and storage services such as: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block Storage (EBS). We went into a LOT of detail regarding these, (too much in my opinion) but I'm not yet sure how we'll apply this knowledge.

Once class was over I headed over to the University Multimedia Center to pick up two documents I sent to be printed. I've been getting all of my papers together so that I can apply for my Estonian residence permit. I contacted my tutor (UT assigned student-guide sort of person) and asked for her assistance at the migration office, as it was advised to bring along somebody who could speak Estonian. I'll be meeting her and Ariail at the Town Center tomorrow at 12 to head over to the migration office and submit my application. I've been told the process takes a while, but hopefully it's not too bad. Not that I have anything better to do, I just like my free time! (No classes on Wednesday, thanks to my re-scheduling.)

Lesson of the day is: 6 hours of class with no break is absolutely exhausting.

Weekend

I had a glorious weekend filled with nothing to do. I mostly slept late and played video games. The short list of things I accomplished: I made a pen holder out of a water bottle, cleaned up my desk and managed to get some homework done.

Monday

Was a pretty good day overall, despite the outside world looking gloomy and rainy. I got up around 11 to start working on notes and readings for Religion and Politics. I confess myself rather excited for the course, as I always enjoy subjects such as these that force you to think from different perspectives. I think it will be especially interesting considering that in Estonia, religion is a huge non-factor when compared to the US. So far I've gone through the notes for the first lecture and I'm definitely interested. We'll see what the readings and tomorrow's lecture have to contribute.

After getting through the lecture notes I relaxed for about an hour before heading off to Crypto. Again the up-hill walk (I'm not going to stop complaining about this, if my legs don't look amazing by the time I'm done studying here I might just sue the school.) and up the stairs to get to class. I'm really enjoying this class, as the material is new enough that it engages my attention and gives me something to learn, but has enough of a familiar basis in mathematics that I don't have too much trouble understanding everything. The teacher also continues to be a generally funny guy, he moves about the room in an almost quirky way and always interjects amusing anecdotes into his lecture.

Today's lecture was on modern cryptography (past 60 years or so) and the application of mathematical definitions to the problem of encryption. How to define a system as secure using mathematics and prove it. This resulted in a bit of a refresher course on some mathematical notations, but I recalled it fairly quickly. We defined perfect secrecy by showing that the probability of getting ciphertext does not depend on the plaintext. (Given two distinct messages, the probability of getting the ciphertext is the same). We tested this definition against the encryption scheme called One-time pad where the key must be the same length as the message, and if that proves true it is perfectly secure.

We also went on to talk about Stream Ciphers as an encryption scheme that would allow you to use a shorter key instead of having to match the message length. And lastly we discussed how to build a Pseudo Random Generator and how they were historically made (with Linear Feedback Shift Registers). Very interesting stuff. I'm honestly very happy with this course so far and hope that future content continues to engage me.

I stopped at Metro again to grab some food for dinner. Ordered a coffee as well since I'd been craving some (and since I had reading to do), it ended up tasting awful and my dreams were crushed. Ah well, at least I know not to get any coffee from there again. On the walk back to the dorm I saw a guy riding a unicycle, unfortunately my hands were full so I was unable to take a picture. You'll have to trust me when I say it was glorious. I actually broke out into a huge smile when I saw it, perhaps an overreaction but it was a rather amusing sight. While inside heading to my dorm I got to listen to a guy sitting in the stairwell playing classical guitar. He was rather good and it was nice to be serenaded as I ascended the stairs.

These little events made my good day even better, so that's always nice. Now I'll (hopefully) be able to sit down and focus on finishing my reading. I've also got a full day tomorrow, with three classes back-to-back. So that'll be fun. At the very least they're all in the same area, so I don't have too far to walk.

Happy Valentines day. While I don't particularly subscribe to this holiday, I do wish that I had the company of a certain someone today. Alas, it's not possible and I've classes to attend and things to learn. Regardless, I hope everyone that reads this has a very wonderful Valentines day! And on an interesting semi-related note there is nowhere near the nauseating amount of valentines day goods in the stores here. In fact I haven't seen any giant displays of animals, balloons or chocolates. The most I've seen was this morning: a single sign outside a cake shop with some pink balloons advertising some discounts for today. I think I like it here.

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.

Lab

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.

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!

I decided that graph paper is magical and makes my notes obscenely neat. I might actually convert to graph paper for all my note taking. We shall see.

On a more related note, I forgot how awful getting up early was! Regardless I managed to drag myself off to bed and get ready for my first class of the day: Introduction to Coding Theory. Once again I had to hike up that awful hill and go up several flights of stairs, if nothing else at least I'm getting a good workout from studying here. This class was in the same room as the previous day, so it was nice to know exactly where to go. Once more I had an energetic middle-aged man with a German accent for my teacher. Not the same person, but similar enough that I found it funny. This teacher had good English and a clear voice though, so that's always good.

As for the actual academic content of the course, he gave a very brief introduction to what we would be covering and then began the lesson. It is a very math heavy course, and he said that we would be doing no programming (which makes sense because I am in fact receiving mathematics credit for this class). It would mostly be building off of linear algebra, dealing with matrices and vectors, with a little bit of probability theory, number theory and discrete mathematics. These are all things I have a relatively good grasp of, but I'll probably spend some time reviewing. It also looks like a few of the topics in this class will coincide with things discussed in my Cryptography class. I always enjoy it when my classes have overlapping topics because it allows me to get different angles, and to seriously reinforce my understanding of the subject.

All and all it was a good class, what we covered wasn't too involved that I was lost, but wasn't so simple that I was bored. I'm still adjusting to having such a long class period (roughly 2 hours) and sometimes my attention wanders as the end of the class approaches. Hopefully I'll get used to it quickly. Since my classes only meet once a week it's rather important that I can focus for the entirety of the class.

Went back to the dorm, relaxed for an hour and a half and then I was back outside for my second class. Once again, a miserable uphill walk, and then up 4 flights of stairs! How wonderful it was(n't). The teacher is a short Indian man with a very very thick accent. This might pose a slight problem, I can understand most of what he says but often times the words near the ends of his sentences tend to run together. He also talks rather fast, and that certainly doesn't assist in my understanding. The lecture was again, a short introduction, an overview of the course and the beginning of our first lecture.

We began with an overview of what Cloud Computing was. He basically asserted that there was no clear definition for it, and instead gave us multiple explanations. We then went over a sort of timeline, how we had come to the point of cloud computing. Talked about virtualization, virtual machines, the characteristics of cloud computing, different services, themes and economic implications of cloud computing. There was a lot of time spent on the economic portion because he was trying to enforce why we were learning about Cloud computing. He wanted to show us that it is interesting because of the economic models and scalability of it all. Overall the class was fairly interesting and I think I'll enjoy it. This was also the first class that assigned homework.

After class I met up with Ariail and we headed over to the bank. There she started the process to open her account here while I picked up my debit card. I've been pretty impressed with the speed they handle customers there, they're quite efficient. Once that was done we both grabbed an early dinner (it was around 4:30) at the Metro Cafe. After that we parted ways, as she had a class and I was headed back to my dorm.

Upon arrival at my dorm I relaxed for an hour or so and then got started on homework. This homework was for Randomness in Computer Science, the class for which I have the most...trepidation. It's not particularly encouraging that I receive an email one day before the class assigning homework. For the class. Which is tomorrow. Somewhat frustrating, though I suppose I didn't have much else to do. It's really the principle of it all that frustrates me. The assigned reading took me quite a while, as it was detailing probability theory, algorithms and a bunch of other information that was condensed into a not-so-easy to digest format. I also tend to take copious notes when trying to understand readings, so that slowed me down considerably. Regardless after a while and a couple breaks I completed the reading. I'm not entirely sure I can say that I understand it all to the best of my ability, but I hope that actually going to class will serve to augment my comprehension and not further confuse me.

Once again, my class isn't until 4 tomorrow so I get to sleep in a bit! I always enjoy that.