Hey again.
Got your letter a
couple days ago. I should really mail this stuff I write you, eh?
Well, I’ve been in school a
couple of weeks now, and not much has changed. The campus itself is nice, set
up on a hill with a nice panorama of the plains. It is about 15-20 miles out of
town, so as to be inconveniently located away from all three of the communities
it services (Chico, Paradise
and Oroville).
There are quite a number of
diverse groups on campus, i.e., longhairs, hicks, geeks, freaks – the usual
assortment. There are no bells. Everyone just sort of knows when to show up.
Today, there was a DJ playing
music in the grassy sort of courtyard in the middle of school. He played
everything from country to reggae to rap, with a little bit of classic rock
thrown in.
Classes? Oh, yeah. Well. I’m
in 3 classes, and I really, truly have no idea what for. They are General Ed
requirements, but I really doubt that I will be able to handle the scholastic
world for long enough to get a Degree out of it. I just don’t see the
application in the job world.
I would like very much to
learn some kind of TRADE or own my own Small Business and kind of eek (or is it
eke?) out a living, as Steve is doing. I know, don’t tell me – he has a Masters
Degree. If I had some sort of direction, I’d feel a lot better about enduring
the G.E. B.S.
Chico is a really nice town,
and I have yet to tap into many of its diversified activities, although so far
I have: gone to 2 concerts in the park, 1 college kegger party, 4 art gallery
openings, a couple of nature rides in Bidwell Park and been to McHenry’s Diner
about 60 times.
Grandpa’s refrigerator doesn’t
work, and he is about as likely to fix it as he is to take up scuba diving.
GrandpaWorld is a strange place indeed. Anyway, I have fit my college schedule
into the prearranged diner times, and it works ok. Other times, I’ll eat at
Steve’s on sort of a barter arrangement. I help out a little, and he provides
the refreshments.
Tim and Carol came up for a
visit this Labor Day, and they got a look at how the diner and nap schedule
works firsthand.
School, along with seeming
useless, is expensive. Here’s a list of my school related expenses:
Books -- $121.35
Tuition -- $101.50
Books are:
“Taking Sides – Clashing Views
on Controversial Issues in Mass Media and Society” – $11.70
“Volume II American History, The
Relevant Issues: A history of the US from 1860 to present” -- $21.35
“The American Past Part II: A
survey of American history since 1865” --$31.35
“Biology: Concepts and
Applications” -- $48.00
“Biology: Laboratory Studies
for Biology I” -- $8.95
I have paid for all this with
money I earned this summer. I am not completely broke, but it’s close enough. I
paid off all my credit cards and bought a motorcycle. I have been charging my
gasoline expenses on a Texaco card, which the nice folks at Texaco sent me
while I still had a job. The motorcycle will keep those expenses kind of low.
So, I am not hurtin’ – yet. I
could use some new clothes. In this college town, you can get away with
T-shirts and shorts but not T-shirts with holes and spaghetti stains.
Anyway, I like it here. If I
could get a few friends my age, a girlfriend and a direction in life – then I’d
really be cookin’. Well, gotta go. See ya!
Love,
Andrew
(#1 son)
