Bitten off more than I can chew?

Hello everybody,
It has been so long since I last published a post here. Grad school is super hectic and I've been living from deadline to deadline. Its ok to live on a tight schedule for a short duration... when you see an end in sight; but off late I don't see an end to this! I just finished picking courses for my next semester and I've again chosen really hard courses. One of them was a course I had to finish, that is a heavy course and wanted to finish it off. However, I've also chosen a PhD level elective class. We have a lottery system for choosing classes and I got a really late number. I had very few options and thought this seemed interesting. Now I'm having serious doubts about my decision. This semester, I chose fairly moderate load classes and I've been working really hard keeping up. I have no idea how I'll manage next sem. On top of all of this, next semester, I'll have to seriously start interviewing and applying for internships in Summer 16. So till the end of next sem, I think I'll have this crazy hectic schedule. It feels like the sem has just about started and its already time for finals!
I've had quite a few ideas for posts but have put them away for lack of time. I thought I'd take a few minutes off to post at least this.
A friend has taken three heavy load courses this time and is managing fine! I hope I'll be able to manage next semester without a huge negative impact on my GPA.
Among other things, quite a few of my friends are going back home in December. I know that it doesn't make sense for me to go back now, as my parents would probably be visiting in June 16. However, when I see them all excited I feel really sad. It'll be at least a year before I get to see little Tee. By then, he may have forgotten me! I can't bear to think of that situation. I hope some miracle happens and they find a super easy way to transport pets overseas. (Or that he'll start responding to me over the phone or when we skype)
Will resume studying for my test now :/.

Until next time,
Bye! :D

My first day of college in USA!!

Hello everybody,
Its been a loong time since I last posted here. I'm finally in the USA!!! I have so much that I want to share; but I've been so busy trying to get adjusted to all the new things that I haven't had time to write a proper post. Technically speaking, today wasn't my first day at college. Its actually my 5th day. but today was the first day of class, so I'll call it my first day of college. I'll write all about my experience the first time I visited the campus in a later post.
I have classes on just 2 days of the week; but they are back to back with just fifteen minutes between two classes. I have 3 classes this semester. Today morning, I woke up at 7:30 am. I was ready by 8:30 and left home at around 9. (My sister lives in the same city where I attend University and I stay with her) I reached college at 9:20 am. I had already seen my classroom the last time I had been there, so I was able to find it easily. Another class was going on and I sat waiting. I saw two girls from my own country standing near the door. I went and introduced myself to them. They  seemed really nice. As soon as the first class ended, we got in and sat in the first row. The class was Algorithms. The professor was a short soft spoken person. I thought he was really well-organized. He started off with the actual coursework.
My next class (Object Oriented Design)  was in the same room as my first class. I stepped out as I had a fifteen minute break in between. By the time I came back, the first two rows were full! Another person whom I had met at an orientation earlier had taken up this class too. We sat together. (We need to submit a project for this course and it forms a major part of the grade. The professor would be putting us into groups of five for the project work. (I hope I get good team mates!) ) We were asked to introduce ourselves and talk about our expectations from the course. The course would be slightly tailored to our expectations. I found that very interesting!
The next class was Database Design. For this I had to go to another classroom (which was on the same floor). Another friend of mine had taken up this class. I met her and befriended another person in that class. The professor was an energetic cheerful lady. I had heard that she was really strict with grading. From what I saw today, I think scoring well in this subject would be slightly hard. Although happy and cheerful, she seemed like a strict person who wouldn't be lenient with grading assignments.
I had taken most of these subjects at my undergrad level too; so hopefully, this semester  would be easy in terms of study load. I have so many other things that I need to get used to.
After class, we went to the library to get some textbooks. From what I've heard/seen, text books in USA are very expensive. Of the three books, I have brought one of them, the other one, I had referred to during my undergrad course; however, I haven't brought it. But I was able to find an online copy of it. The third book I was able to find a soft copy at the library. By about 4:00 pm I was back home!
I relaxed for a while and tried to look at the online material posted for each of my courses. I'm really impressed with the promptness of the professors in posting material online. I was able to find a lot of useful info.
I love that I have classes on just 2 days a week!
Welcome Week is going on at the university. I still need to plan on what events I want to attend this week. I'll post anything interesting that I experience. I still have lots that I want to tell you all. So stay tuned!!
Until next time,
Bye! :D