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Back to School: Round 2, Day 1

Well, after 16 months of working post-electrical basic schooling, I'm back at it for intermediate.
Apart from a former teacher I ran into, and one other classmate I worked with for 4 months, I hadn't  said more than 10 words to anyone else by lunchtime.
There seem to be clusters of people that know each other, either they work together or old friends from the last block of school. I thought I was lucky to know even one person.
There are 2 other women in the class: the aforementioned former coworker, and another woman who also doesn't appear to know anyone.
I made eye contact with her,  but she glanced over me sitting on my own at lunch to take a table to herself. So much for solidarity.
The group of 60 in this block are split between 3 different schedules. Some of our schedules overlap, shop time has to be separated for space. I'm curious to see which faces will end up in my group.
I have started a list of textbooks I have to buy. By the looks of it, when I'm done, an updated code book plus new textbooks is going to cost almost as much as school itself. On the bright side some of them will be used again in the Advanced block, so I'm paying now for next time too. The accumulation of textbooks, binders and tools means I might as well use a luggage bag with wheels to cart my stuff around in. But I won't, so I guess I won't have to worry about not getting enough exercise while at school.
I did manage to save money on parking though. The school charges $92 a month. Next door at the autoshop they rent out spaces in their spare lot: only $140 for January to March, a much better deal.
The school is quiet this week, as it's only apprenticeship blocks starting. That means Tim Horton's closed early today. The regular college programs start next week, so we might have to do something about taking a table of 4 to ourselves.
That's about it for today. My brain is a little fried from the long day, new faces and 10 trees worth of paper I've  received (not yet including the textbooks of course).
Let's see how the rest of the week goes.
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