Schedule!

Since I had some holds on my account, I wasn't able to sign up for classes until a couple of weeks ago. Some of the classes that I want are full and I'm on the waitlist for them, but I am really lucky and managed to get a lot of classes that I need/want.

I'll be living in Van Hoosen next year, which I'm super excited for, so I tried to schedule most of my classes to be nearby. My first schedule was fabulous, all of my classes were either at the Business College Complex or the Eppley Center, which are both across from Van Hoosen, or at Wells, which is a 5-10 minute walk.

Sadly, my schedule was rearranged, but I still got a lot of classes that I want. Here's the classes that I'll be taking for the fall semester:

IAH 204: Asia and the World. Since I messed up my schedule first semester and didn't take as many university required classes as I should have, I'm making up for it this year. IAH is required, and I have a particular interest in China and Asia, so most of my classes revolve around those topics. This helps me stay interested and focused. 

EC 201: Introduction to Microeconomics. Can't say too much about this, but I'm taking this because it's a required class for my intended new major. I'll post more about my major change, hopefully soon, because I want to be accepted into the major before I tell anyone.

CHS 201: Second-Year Chinese I. I'm taking Chinese again this year, and I plan on making it my additional major. I'm so excited because I really love learning languages, and I love the Chinese curriculum and the way it is set up at MSU. 

ISB 200: History of Life. Another required class. This is supposedly not too boring, according to Koofers. If the class that I want to take becomes open (or I find out that I don't need this class, because I took CEM 141 and I can't remember which class that replaces), I'll probably drop this and just take it next year. Also, I hope to take a summer class that will cut the ISB requirement for me, so fingers crossed.

ISS 210: Society and the Individual. Required! I'm going to take this if I can take the summer class and drop the ISB class. And then about half of my requirements will be done!

So, that's my schedule for the fall semester. Let me know if you're taking any of those classes, maybe we're in the same section!

Here's a review of the classes that I took last semester, with tips for books and professors.

CHS 102: First-Year Chinese II. I can't say a lot about the Chinese classes because it all depends on the TA that is teaching your section. For me, second semester was much better than the first. There are typically two teachers (TA's who are usually graduate students), and for second semester I had two ladies. One had taught me first semester, and I liked her a lot, but she was kind of a push over and didn't want to do immersion, so I preferred the other teacher. The other teacher was fabulous, although a lot of other students in my class didn't like her. She spoke mostly immersion and was really helpful, and when we had to do pair work and my partner wasn't there, she would partner with me, which really helped me grasp whatever lesson or concept we were learning. I really like the Integrated Chinese books that CHS 101 and 102 use, because they teach everything in a very easy-to-grasp way. 

For the books, I mentioned before that I got a fabulous deal on all of my Chinese books, because I bought the lot of them from another former Chinese student. I believe that I have all the textbooks for CHS 101-402, and I got them for $100. You still need a workbook, which is usually around $15 online. And they want you to get a character workbook, but I only bought one for 101, and then I used notebook paper for 102. It's an extra $15. It makes it a little bit easier because you don't have to haul out the textbook to find out the characters each time, but I'm too cheap. 

WRA 125: 010: American Racial and Ethnic Experience. For this class, the section is important. Section 10 with Johnson Cheu has an Asian-American focus. I 4.0'ed this class. I really, really loved it. It helped that I was super interested in all of the topics. He's a pretty strict teacher (any papers that are turned in late receive half a grade down, and you can only miss 5 or 6 classes), and I'm really surprised that I 4.0'ed it. I will admit that I probably skipped about 10 times or so, and he still didn't take points off. Especially since I missed on all the paper-return days. But he shows quite a few movies (Joy Luck Club, Who Killed Vincent Chin) and he is hilarious. The only reason I skipped was because 8AM was way too early, otherwise I would have gone to every class. I highly recommend his section. One thing is that not all of the books are necessary. Woman Warrior and Screaming Monkeys are, since they're the first books so he focuses a lot on them, but American-Born Chinese and M. Butterfly are not so much. Neither are the "Curious Researcher" and the other required WRA book. I didn't buy either of the WRA books because I was conceited and figured that my MLA formatting and stuff was just fine, and I didn't even need it. I did, however, buy all of the books because I really wanted to add them to my collection.

CEM 141: General Chemistry. Yes, I did re-take this class. Here's some tips since I have two semesters-worth under my belt! Go to every recitation. Even if your TA sucks or whatever. In the event that you dislike your TA, switch sections. Do ALL the homework. If it's Connect, find a study group and work on it together. If it's OWLs, use screencaps to help you if you're too lazy to find the answers by yourself. Don't buy the book (along the same lines, don't rent the book and then forget to return it.) Buy the exam & answers booklet (used/older edition is fine... Not a big deal.), and start preparing, going through every question, at least a week before the exam. Buy the lecture notes book and use that as your guide, because the answers to a lot of the questions on the exam can be found in the lecture notes. I sat through four teachers: Morrissey, LaDuca, Hong, and Harrison. Morrissey, I had first semester. He is boring as all else, I could not pay attention in his class, I do not recommend him. At all. Same with Harrison. Hong was super nice and had a passion for chemistry, but I had scheduling conflicts and I had to change sections. I ended up with LaDuca and I have to say: IF YOU CAN GET LADUCA AS YOUR CHEM PROFESSOR, DO IT. DON'T PASS GO, DON'T COLLECT $200. He is so fabulous. He explains everything really well, and things that I had been beating myself over since high school were explained in seconds by him. He is funny and really grabs your attention. I credit my passing grade with him. 

I'm also planning on taking a few classes online over the summer, either at Lansing Community College or Schoolcraft College. I'll let you know how that goes!

There you have it! I hope this helped. I'll try to post a review of each class/teacher at the end of every semester, and I'll post the classes that I will be taking as well.

Rakuzen

Dorm items! Part 1: Organization/Storage

Hey guys, 

This is part of a segment that I decided to start doing on my blog. Once a week or so, I'll do a post on items for dorm living. I'm obviously not an authority on what you should and shouldn't bring and I'd definitely recommend that you look at other people's college packing lists, but I just wanted to show some items (with pictures) that helped my friends and I when we were in the dorms. I'll start off each post with how this applies to Michigan State University and some of their dorm rules/items. I would definitely recommend that you shop around for these items. I just picked the links randomly, mostly from Target, Walmart, and Amazon, but I'm sure that if you searched, you could find them for even cheaper. Also, none of these are affiliate links.

Today, I'll start with items for organization/storage in the dorms! I'll write about a couple different dorms, since a lot of them are different, and if you have any questions about specific dorms, just comment below and I'll try to find out for you. 

In Hubbard (North for sure, I think South as well) and Holmes: In terms of storage, the school provides you with a lot. There is a small "closet" with a pole for hanging clothes, and a shelf where you can store out-of-season clothes. They have a dresser with four large and deep drawers, and each of the desks have one drawer. They have a modular, stackable unit with two shelves and one drawer, which you can move around. 

In Wonders: There's not as much storage here, in my opinion (then again, I never lived there. But my friend did and I was there almost every day second semester). They have a dresser with six drawers I believe, because they're not nearly as deep as the ones in Hubbard. They have the same closet, with the pole for hanging clothes. Their desks are much nicer, because they have four drawers on the side (kind of like the one pictured, except instead of the plain wood backing on top of the desk, it's a cork board). But they don't have  the stackable shelves that Hubbard has.

Organization

This Sterilite 3-Drawer Medium Cart with wheels. Actually, I think my friend got this when her roommate left it behind but whatever. This is very tall, about as tall as the desks in Wonders (where she lived) and she stored her food and plates and stuff in it. The dorms provide a lot of storage space (in Hubbard we had a tall four-drawer dresser, as well as our desk and three stackable shelf things), but if you want to be more organized then this is perfect. And it has wheels! 

This Sterilite 3-Drawer Desktop Unit. I actually had two of these (although neither of them were exactly the same as the one pictured... One only had two drawers with the flip top lid, and the other had three drawers but a flat lid). I used one of them to store my makeup (and actually, I wish that I had bought this one for that purpose) and I think I got it for ~$5 at Walmart (note, the link contains a set of 4 from Amazon). I set the other one on my desk and put my school supplies like pencils, sticky notes, tape, scissors, etc. in it. This isn't really all that necessary if you have something to organize them in the desks because Hubbard has a pretty nice drawer, but I like being able to open it and sort it. 

I wish that I had this one for my storage supplies. I'm not usually that organized (I'm really messy unless I'm supposed to be studying or doing homework...) but when I get in a cleaning mode, I really like organizing. I think I'll buy this one before I go back in the fall, actually. 

My friend had an ottoman like this one. I can't find a link, so I'll update with one, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them at Walmart and Meijer and Target. Pick one that lets you store stuff inside, and you can use it to store pretty much anything. My friend used it for extra clothes, and it provided a seat and also she used it to climb onto her bed. (Her bed wasn't lofted, but even so it stands about four feet high. Which isn't fun if you're short like us. I just put one of the University-provided wooden shelves under my bed and pulled it out to get on my bed at night, but her dorm (Wonders) didn't have them. 

This. It's a Sterilite Stacking Basket, Size Small, but I can't find a link that matches. I bought a pack of three (in pink) from Target and used them to store my nail polish (the ones that I bought with me, anyways), and left the other two at home. I had another basket (Sterilite brand too, I think, that I bought at Walmart) that I stored in my drawer-dresser to organize food. It's also a nice way to keep things separate if you/your roommate don't want to share. 

Some of these Hello Kitty buckets. I really love Hello Kitty, so yeah. Anyways, the price on Amazon is a total rip-off, because I ended up buying a lot of these from the dollar section at Target. These were awesome and useful. I used one for my makeup brushes, one for plasticware (so we didn't have forks and knives strewn across the room...), one for the makeup that I wore daily (since I had an 8AM and didn't want to be running around the room while my roommate slept).

I had a couple of things from the dollar store, too, that I took pictures of before I started setting up my dorm, so I'll probably update with those. You can see a couple of them in my dorm haul post, but I did buy more after that post, so I'll update later. 

My next post will be food-related items for the dorm. 

Hope this was helpful if you're starting to plan out checklists and moving lists! I know that I started thinking early and getting some boxes ready early, but I was still scrambling, last minute, on move in day. But here's some items that were useful to me and my friends, just to give you an idea if you happen to see them on sale! 

`Rakuzen