Out of the darkness and into the light

I am in utter disbelief about what happened tonight. Ok, that makes it sound more exciting than it really is, but still, this is a big deal to me. So, as I've complained to some of you, I've been having a difficult time adjusting to certain things having to do with my classes here. For example hw submission is a bit strange, but I always just thought it was because I was new, and as I'm taking third and fourth year courses, everyone else knows what's going on, so they don't explain things in the classes. Which is partly the case, but I was missing something else too. At the beginning of the semester, I got a UCL computer science e-mail account, and I subscribed to the mailing lists for my courses using that account, as I was told to do. After a few weeks, I hadn't received any e-mail from the lists, and I consulted one of my friends, who told me that in the class we shared, we had not received any e-mail from the mailing list, so I thought everything was fine. Hindsight being 20/20, I see now that I definitely should have known something was wrong.

Today I was running errands and was unable to make it back in time for my lecture, and afterward I told my friend I felt bad for missing our lecture, and he informed me that we had no lectures today or tomorrow, as the CS lecturers are on retreat. And he told me I should've gotten an e-mail. Further investigation revealed I was not receiving any e-mail in my computer science account. So, I e-mailed the helpdesk, and they fixed the problem, and there were 60 messages waiting for me.

Now, Columbia students, I know you'll understand, because Columbia professors rely heavily on e-mail. Imagine you didn't receive any e-mails that your professors sent to the whole course. You'd be completely lost. Corrections to homework assignments, review sessions, due date changes, extensions, etc. all get conveyed to students through the mailing lists. CS teachers are, as you can imagine, especially fond of informing students through e-mail. I missed all this.

The coursework that I was panicking to finish before the deadline? Weeklong extension. The coursework that I did alone (we were allowed to work in pairs) because I didn't know anyone in the class, and I program in C++, which noone here knows? Someone e-mailed the list looking for a partner to write in C++. The coursework due tomorrow (which I had a question on, but received no reply from my lecturer, because, as I now know, she is on retreat)? Due on Thursday instead. Unbelievable.

It's so sad that it's actually comical how much grief this would have saved me this semester.