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 == Bernie's brain dump as of September 2009 ==
 
+=== Sep 3rd: Calculus ===
+
+{{HarvardHannenbergHall.jpg|maxwidth=640|Hannenberg Hall @ Harvard}}
+
+Ok, today it was precalculus.   I arrived on time, but I still had no paper with me, so I had to
+ask to someone next to me for a bunch of sheets.   Quickly filling up a dozen of pages with
+notes after so many years of little hand-writing practice has been a bit challenging.  My
+calligraphy still sucks the same way it did back when I was enrolled in Florence.
+
+I'm starting to build some confidence that this crazy idea of going to school is actually
+feasible.  This Calculus A may even be too easy, but I'm still afraid I'd be unable to
+keep up with Calculus B considering my many little handicaps which include lack of practice
+for many years and being unable to keep my concentration for long spans of time.
+
+The dilemma is: should I take it easy and aim for the rewarding satisfaction of being
+good at maths for a change?  Or would Calculus B be a better use of my time and money,
+even if there's a high risk of failing the tests?
+
+I have one week left to change my course plan without loosing any money.
+
+
 === Sep 1st: Back to school ===
 
+{{HarvardYard.jpg|maxwidth=800|The Harvard Yard}}
+
+Today I attended my first class of **discrete matematics** (E-104).  I was too optimistic in estimating the
+time to bike from the FSF to the Harvard Science Center, and as a result I arrived 5 minutes
+too late.  Next, I entered the wrong classroom, and it took me another 5 minutes to figure out
+that kinetic laws had nothing to do with my course.
+
+When I finally got seated in the correct classroom, I realized I had no paper!  So I started
+taking notes on my laptop, but I was really the only one doing so.  Not much because it's
+not customary for Harvard, but mostly because ASCII is not very well suited for writing math.
+Luckily, the first class was about logic operations, whose notation is very easy to transcribe
+on computers.  To make things worse, the battery ran out near the end of the class, producing
+an embarrassing alarm sound that everybody could hear.
+
+My #1 fear, being unable to follow the professor in English, dispelled almost immediately.
+Besides, this first lesson wasn't very hard in itself.   I noticed that the professor accompanies
+the explanations with several small questions directed at the audience.  These days this is
+one of the few reasons left to prefer a real university over a set of videos on You Tube.