It’s good.

I’m enjoying uni quite a lot. In general, my expectations were right. The lectures are interesting so far – even though some have a fairly slow pace (cough cough Analysis).

I found the ideas in LinAlg interesting and could grapple with them well. Informatik is just the basics so far and I’m looking forward to how it’ll develop. In Physics, we’ve kind of jumped into the deep end – doing calculus on vectors. We’re speedrunning basic mechanics – constant linear velocities and accelerations, which took half a year to cover at Gymi, were finished in an hour or so. To be fair, this is to be expected – we have more powerful mathematical tools and a better understanding of the world.

In Analysis, we’re not doing calculus – at least not yet. We’re starting from the very beginning. We precisely defined a mathematical statement and everything flows from there. It’s a manageable course and the exercises aren’t hard… YET. I’m looking at those 10 credit points with fear. I heard from other students that they found most of the exercises intimidating, but not really hard.

On the topic of other students – I’ve met some really nice people. I find that there’s none of the obnoxious type here, which is an absolute blessing after high school. I was nervous on my first day – the most contact I’d had with other students outside of the prestudy event was a public group chat, in which some disturbing content had been posted. Luckily, however, the people I met throughout the week were nice.

Lots of people seem to go to the gym, which is cool. I certainly intend to start going. I think it’s great that people look after their health and since I have neither PE nor scouts any more, I need to pick something up that’ll get me moving regularly. I won’t be playing Ultimate until next week, as it’s always on Thursday, which is the same day as most student parties – in particular the ESF.

I’ve had quite the taste of student parties. On Thursday, I went to the Ersti-See and on the weekend I was at the Erstsemestrigenwochenende. At both events, there were copious amounts of free alcohol (especially Prix-Garantie beer). I’m pretty sure I’ve broken my record for drunkenness. With all likelihood, I’m going to break it again at the ESF.

I’ve been asked to join the Kyburger, which appears to be somewhat like a frat. Seems cool, but I’m not really sure that that’s my thing. I do enjoy drinking and partying (I mean come on, I’m a student) but I also don’t want to go too hard.

I think I’ll check out my other options first. All in all, there’s quite a lot of things I could do: Join the VMP, help out with the Olympiads, join the frisbee club in Zürich… Before I do any of that, I’ll see what the stress levels are mid- and late-semester. If I find myself in a bind trying to do too many things at once, my mental health will likely be affected.

I also need to keep plenty of time free to hang out with people and maintain social connections. I’ve already met a lot of people and I should, without a doubt, talk to them more often than I currently do. Luckily, there’s so many opportunities and things to do that there’s a glut of options.

In summary, I think I’ve found the basic rhythm of lectures and exercises already. I have a full time plan of every quarter-hour of every day of the week. There’s so much free time that I could do things with — I calculated around 45 hours per week. Thus, it’s time to find a rhythm of studying, sports and socials. I’m going to invite people to lunch and dinner and I’m going to start going to the ASVZ.

I did something small yet special today: I left the exercise session mid-way. I’m used to school with mandatory attendance, so it felt weird just getting up and leaving, but I felt that I already understood the subject as well as I could. It felt the same way as being a kid and getting up really early, or staying up really late.

I’m going to finish here and say good night. I’ll be back next week at the latest, with news about the ESF. I may write another post tomorrow about my experience on the Ersti-Weekend.

PS: Discovered an album this week: Paul’s Boutique by Beastie Boys. Amazing stuff.