College

So I’m finally all settled in! I moved in on Saturday and finally met my roommate for the first time (We’ll call him Dan). Conveniently for me, the distance between school and home is only a short metro ride away but as we drove through the garage, I realized just how far people have ventured to also be part of this fine institution. Alaska, Indiana, Vermont, Maryland, Florida, Alabama, actually, 49 out of the 50 states are represented here, poor North Dakota was the only straggler. As we loaded up a big orange cart with suitcases, boxes full of coat hangers and school supplies and a not-so-light fridge, I came to realize that “it” is actually happening. I’ve leaving the nest, living on my own for the very first time, and it was scary.

The elevators of my dorms was blocked for people to use so the carts can be lifted to be delivered to rooms so I got to climb four floors of stairs at least 15 times that day, thankfully, we can now use it. The room itself is actually very nice. The whole building was recently renovated, the carpet is clean, the desks, shelves, drawers and semi walk-in closets (Awesome, I know!!) are all in great shape. The rooms are actually amoung the biggest at my school plus each room gets its own sink which is proving to be very convenient. The view is pretty nice too, but I wish we weren’t in the path of the sun rise, it doesn’t work well for tired orientation-weary eyes.

After the final things were unpacked, I said bye to my parents, my mom’s voice getting shaky as what normally happens when goodbyes were said. A little about my roommate, he’s a really nice guy, he’s athletic and plans on running track while here. Probably the biggest difference between me and him though is that he is more of a partier than me, but I’ll into that more later. He’s of mixed origins, his parents are divorced, his dad owns a French Restaurant in the area while his mom lives far, far away. He also has a girlfriend who seems to be having problems at home judging from the conversations I’ve heard him have with her, he’s really supportive and reassuring with her though. He’s trying to get involved in the rack team and maybe club soccer.

That afternoon, we met up with our Orientation Advisors for what would be the first of many more times to come. My group’s OA is a really funny guy, he’s got the best laugh I’ve heard in quite some time and he’s currently a sophomore. We first met him at the orientation kick-off at one of the basketball arenas. It was sensory overload when we entered, all the OAs (there were over 150) were on chairs or the bleachers in neon coloured shirts dancing to blasting music holding up signs for their group. After a series of opening speeches and performances we headed out for dinner with our OAs. It was a box dinner we brought to a big rooftop lawn where we introduced ourselves and exchanged contact info. Afterwards we played some orientation games including “Ride the Pony” which, put blatantly, was giving random people lap dances, a giant game of ninja and some icebreaker things.

The next few days were various programs to help us get used to the campus plus plenty of barbeques, ice cream and shows to make sure we were exhausted by the time we got back to our rooms (usually at 2AM). Sunday I went to a prelude program about the LGBTQ center on campus which was really interesting. The final night we ended up metroing to Chinatown and the Verizon center and having dinner at this small restaurant.

Yesterday was my first day of classes, a Humanities/English course on the Apocalypse, Intro to Psych, Calculus and a Theology course. Most of the professors seem pretty cool, my calc teacher teaches math conceptually rather than through examples which will be a change for me but we’ll see how it works out. Yesterday I went to the crew meeting and it all looks so freaking awesome but it’s too much of a time commitment, at least for now, I’m trying to take up club fencing though. Alright, sorry for the long delay between my last post, I’ll try to be more regular once I get into the swing of things. I’m heading to class and then going for a run.

All the best,

JP

P.S. Holy Crap some of the guys here are bloody gorgeous, but i'll go into that later.