Daily Life

OK, I really am going to blog more often. The last few weeks have been really crazy though. I thought you might want to know a little bit about the daily life here at OSSM. The students generally get up and eat breakfast between 6:30 and 8:00 am. The juniors have to be out of the dorms by 8:00 and the seniors have to be out by 8:45. They are all usually in the MAC (Manning Academic Center), the library, or the science building throughout the day. Some students come back to the dorms for lunch or to switch books periodically. A lot of the kids don't get a formal lunch break because of their class schedules, especially now that foreign language classes have started, so the cafeteria sends over sack lunches and they eat in the student lounge. The seniors usually get out of school around 3:30 and the juniors get out around 4:00. Students have free time until 8:00 pm, which starts mandatory study time. But free time is limited because students have P.E. in the evenings one night a week, dinner is 5:30-6:30, and this week fine arts classes start. Some students are also put on early check-in (7:00 pm) if their grades are low. (Rumors are thanks to Chris many more students will be on this list.) All students have mandatory study time from 8:00-10:00 pm. They can study in the Great Hall, their common areas, or their rooms. If they're in their room they have to prop their doors. If they need to go to bed early they just have to tell someone. Then everyone has lights out at 11:00.

This is pretty much what most days are like. Some Saturdays students have tests so study time and lights out are the same. Some weekends are called "Open" weekends, which means they don't have tests. Some kids go home and some stay. They don't have study time Friday and Saturday night. There are van trips on these Saturdays and the kids get taken to Walmart or Bricktown, and one other place that escapes me now. They just have to have at least 4 people that want to go and have to sign up early. If kids go home they have to check in by Sunday night at 8. If the kids are there on the weekend they can also get transportation to church on Sundays. One weekend a month the students have to go home. They call this "Extended" weekend and classes are usually cancelled Mondays.

As for our family specifically... Chris is a state employee so he works 8-5. He usually has two classes a day. I still haven't figured out how often he has the same students. We usually all have lunch together at home. However, now that Elle is in school on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm studying somewhere and we don't see him until we get back to campus. I spend MWF unpacking, doing chores, and entertaining Elle and Mops mostly. We usually eat dinner in the cafeteria so that we can socialize with the kids. Chris has dorm duty Sunday nights from 3:30 to 11, if the kids are there, and Tuesday nights 5-11. On these evenings we try to hang out with him in the Great Hall until study time. All professors have to spend one night tutoring during study time so Chris lumps this in on Tuesday nights. We also have to have floor meetings periodically so we'll do this with our floor at 10:30 before everyone goes to bed.

This is our life so far!