The First Day.

Today was the first real day of class. Somehow I managed to leave home later than I intended & I pulled into the parking lot with only about 3 minutes to spare. It was just like high school: everyone flying into parking spaces at the last possible minute & hurrying into the building together. Unlike high school, I was wearing a uniform & a nametag (which identifies me as a "freshman"). Also unlike high school, I hadn't teased my bangs.
The day started off with a lot of information about rules & the structure of the course. My favorite moment of the entire day (possibly my favorite moment of 2010) was when Sunshine interrupted an explanation about absences or lateness or something to ask, "Do the machines here have Coke or Pepsi products?" She was audibly disappointed to hear that the answer was Coke. She's growing on me, though. She is so nervous, already, about flunking tests or not doing well. It kinda broke my heart, she kept asking questions about whether you could re-take tests if you failed & what happened if you messed up. She was very excited to hear that we need to make a sort-of a scrapbook type thing with pictures of hairstyles in it. Being an avid scrapbooker, she is totally prepared for this assignment. She was so excited that she couldn't stop herself from occasionally interrupting the teacher to say that she was ready for this assignment, she couldn't wait, she had everything she needed already. It was nice to see someone who was so anxious about the work she was going to have to do get excited & feel confident.
At least one or two people didn't show up today. The Marine was there but the other guy wasn't. Everyone seems pretty nice, though I'm still feeling like the odd girl. That feeling may never go away. I got a text from a friend today saying things will be easier once I "find my people." That's true & I hope it happens. The other person I really warmed up to today was the girl who said she'd been convicted of a felony. She seems really nice & funny & like she has a big personality. Unfortunately, she sits all the way across the room from me, but maybe I can talk to her when we have our breaks.
There were more veiled references to the previous class & what hellions they'd been. I plan to get the details on this as soon as possible. The teacher also mentioned that that class had been nearly twice the size of this one, almost 40 to our 20. Maybe they were fighting because it was just so crowded. It was also all women, no men, & that seems to have been part of the problem. I promise you, Reader, as soon as I know, you'll know!
After a little while, we got our mannequin heads to work on. I made my girl crush, Lucinda, laugh by slowly turning my mannequin's head to look at her (YES!). I was struggling a bit to do what we were asked to do, but then so was everyone. I mean, mostly we were just parting the mannequin hair & trying to comb it in this particular way. I can't explain exactly what we were trying to do, except to say that it was the first step in finger waves, which we're apparently starting work on tomorrow. They seem incredibly hard to do & everyone is nervous.
We also had our "theory" class for the first time. It's called theory, but that just seems to mean using a textbook & not doing anything hands-on. I imagine that sometimes has its uses, though today it felt like we were trying to understand a physical object without looking at it & I kept thinking, "Can't you just grab some hair & show me what you're talking about?" We have theory homework tonight, which in this case just means reading some of our textbook.
I feel like the first nine or ten weeks, which are spent in the classroom not working on actual humans, will go kind-of slowly & then things will pick up once we're working on real people. I'm sure most everyone in there feels the way I do: I just want to be handed a pair of scissors & shown how to cut hair. I understand that we have to get through some preliminaries first, but all I want to do is get started.