Swanky.
Alright, well, here I am. In my bedroom, in my apartment.
(Enter excited fanfare)
I know, I know, it's fantastic to be here. Here, as in, this room, and Here as in, the interwebs.
I've missed you. Hard.
This morning started at roughly 8:01 when I jolted awake, gasped - WHAT TIME IS IT? - and then laid back in bed bemoaning the fact that I woke up fifteen minutes before my alarm went off. But I didn't hear a thing last night, I was dead to the world. I mean, at about midnight, the room above me were doing something, it sounded like someone hacking a hole in the wall. But they promptly stopped ( a small hole, apparently) and after ~1.00 I didn't hear a single thing. It was great. I think I'm going to like this place, but let's remain cautiously optimistic- it was a Wednesday night.
Yesterday afternoon I had taken my brand new bike (she's beautiful, trust me) out for an hour ride, trying to get my bearings and see more of campus. I came home and promptly jumped into the shower. This morning I decided to start afresh and take another shower before going to orientation at 9.30. After riding my bike across campus twice, I was covered in sweat, so I took another. Then this evening after once again riding across campus twice, I jumped in and rinsed the sweat off.
Yeah, Ames is fucking humid as hell.
But sitting at orientation I looked at all the pathetic fools who were there with their parents (aha, dorks) and shoving food down my face because, hey. Free food. We went through the first part with all seven colleges present, going 'hey guys, so who's from Iowa? Who's a transfer student? Who is Jewish? (Heavy set kid with the yarmulke, don't even try to act like you didn't hear me.)
Finally, after an hour or so, they sent all the other colleges away and left the largest, Liberal Arts and Sciences. There had been a couple hundred people there, but they filtered out nicely. I happened to look to my left and about a half a row away, in the row in front of me, is a guy I went to community college with.
*Squees loudly*
I hissed "Justin! Justin!!!!" he looked around, spotted me, and broke into a large smile. I went and sat next to him, and made an instant Best Friend. We hadn't spoken 50 words to each other while at home, but today we walked around campus together, traded numbers, had lunch, and added each other on facebook, an act that we both swore we had already done earlier. His ex is Matt, my friend Hannah's good friend, so I had kind of got to know him, but not very well. He's super nice and, more importantly, he's a familiar face.
And how ironic is that the two people I knew on campus before I came here are both named Justin?
I met with an advisor, an amazingly great woman named Jane, and we registered for classes. That was when I learned that I really fucked up at community college. I had a ton of arts and humanities classes, my English requirement was met, my foreign language was met in High School. But I had no humanities and next to no science and mathematics.
The observant reader would be saying 'but wait, isn't she an Earth Science major?' To which I would reply '...Well, yeah... but...' and then run away as fast as I could.
How did this happen? I have no idea. I thought I was doing great, getting a head start and getting my gen ed's out of the way. But sitting in her office today made me want to jab my eyes out.
This will be fun...
But I'm going to prove to her and everyone else that I can do this. Or flunk trying.
My classes are Developmental Psych (because I apparently am an idiot and want to teach), Chemistry, Geology, College Algebra, and some other Teaching thing that is worth NO DAMN CREDITS. But thankfully, they are all 100 classes. The bad news is that they are all 100 classes. This isn't boding well... oh, wait, that psych is a 200, as is the teaching one with NO DAMN CREDITS.
We'll see how this all goes down...
But I'm having classes all five days a week. Thankfully, my last class on Friday ends at three. Sadly, my first on Monday is at eight. So come home for two nights, fun.
Anyway.
This evening was the beginning of Destination Iowa State. I was sorted into a small team of other transfer students, given free food, and then wandered around for the best part of two hours getting free swag. Met some interesting people, including Wenquin (Wen-chin) who is from China. She's beautiful and making me a little heartsick for Bon-Bon. I wouldn't tell either girl this though since they would both be affended. "I'm not Chinese!" "I'm not Thai!" I also met Mary, a girl from Texas who totally and absolutely doesn't sound like she's from Texas. She's pissed; she's 18, a junior, and stuck in freshman housing due to her age. And hates it. She's like me and my friends, something of a loner, and her building has bathrooms that 20 girls share, I guess. It sounds miserable. I think back to my cozy little toilet and shower rooms and think, this is palatial. She also is a vegan and finding it hard to eat. "What, am I supposed to nuke my tofu for 90 minutes or something?!" I had to restrain myself from inviting her over to use my shower and stove.
I've got it goooood, guys.
And.... I think that's about it, really. Tomorrow morning is bright and early for free lunch, then spending time with my team (or what's left of it) and getting broke into the whole bicycle thing. I'm so out of shape, it hurts to ride. But I'm from a very rural area where you must drive everywhere. It's a welcome change.
But the best part about being up here? My brother who lived 10 minutes away is actually going out of his way to talk to me now that I'm 3 hours away. Its a welcome change, if a bit weird.
Okay, this is long enough now. Peace out.
(Enter excited fanfare)
I know, I know, it's fantastic to be here. Here, as in, this room, and Here as in, the interwebs.
I've missed you. Hard.
This morning started at roughly 8:01 when I jolted awake, gasped - WHAT TIME IS IT? - and then laid back in bed bemoaning the fact that I woke up fifteen minutes before my alarm went off. But I didn't hear a thing last night, I was dead to the world. I mean, at about midnight, the room above me were doing something, it sounded like someone hacking a hole in the wall. But they promptly stopped ( a small hole, apparently) and after ~1.00 I didn't hear a single thing. It was great. I think I'm going to like this place, but let's remain cautiously optimistic- it was a Wednesday night.
Yesterday afternoon I had taken my brand new bike (she's beautiful, trust me) out for an hour ride, trying to get my bearings and see more of campus. I came home and promptly jumped into the shower. This morning I decided to start afresh and take another shower before going to orientation at 9.30. After riding my bike across campus twice, I was covered in sweat, so I took another. Then this evening after once again riding across campus twice, I jumped in and rinsed the sweat off.
Yeah, Ames is fucking humid as hell.
But sitting at orientation I looked at all the pathetic fools who were there with their parents (aha, dorks) and shoving food down my face because, hey. Free food. We went through the first part with all seven colleges present, going 'hey guys, so who's from Iowa? Who's a transfer student? Who is Jewish? (Heavy set kid with the yarmulke, don't even try to act like you didn't hear me.)
Finally, after an hour or so, they sent all the other colleges away and left the largest, Liberal Arts and Sciences. There had been a couple hundred people there, but they filtered out nicely. I happened to look to my left and about a half a row away, in the row in front of me, is a guy I went to community college with.
*Squees loudly*
I hissed "Justin! Justin!!!!" he looked around, spotted me, and broke into a large smile. I went and sat next to him, and made an instant Best Friend. We hadn't spoken 50 words to each other while at home, but today we walked around campus together, traded numbers, had lunch, and added each other on facebook, an act that we both swore we had already done earlier. His ex is Matt, my friend Hannah's good friend, so I had kind of got to know him, but not very well. He's super nice and, more importantly, he's a familiar face.
And how ironic is that the two people I knew on campus before I came here are both named Justin?
I met with an advisor, an amazingly great woman named Jane, and we registered for classes. That was when I learned that I really fucked up at community college. I had a ton of arts and humanities classes, my English requirement was met, my foreign language was met in High School. But I had no humanities and next to no science and mathematics.
The observant reader would be saying 'but wait, isn't she an Earth Science major?' To which I would reply '...Well, yeah... but...' and then run away as fast as I could.
How did this happen? I have no idea. I thought I was doing great, getting a head start and getting my gen ed's out of the way. But sitting in her office today made me want to jab my eyes out.
This will be fun...
But I'm going to prove to her and everyone else that I can do this. Or flunk trying.
My classes are Developmental Psych (because I apparently am an idiot and want to teach), Chemistry, Geology, College Algebra, and some other Teaching thing that is worth NO DAMN CREDITS. But thankfully, they are all 100 classes. The bad news is that they are all 100 classes. This isn't boding well... oh, wait, that psych is a 200, as is the teaching one with NO DAMN CREDITS.
We'll see how this all goes down...
But I'm having classes all five days a week. Thankfully, my last class on Friday ends at three. Sadly, my first on Monday is at eight. So come home for two nights, fun.
Anyway.
This evening was the beginning of Destination Iowa State. I was sorted into a small team of other transfer students, given free food, and then wandered around for the best part of two hours getting free swag. Met some interesting people, including Wenquin (Wen-chin) who is from China. She's beautiful and making me a little heartsick for Bon-Bon. I wouldn't tell either girl this though since they would both be affended. "I'm not Chinese!" "I'm not Thai!" I also met Mary, a girl from Texas who totally and absolutely doesn't sound like she's from Texas. She's pissed; she's 18, a junior, and stuck in freshman housing due to her age. And hates it. She's like me and my friends, something of a loner, and her building has bathrooms that 20 girls share, I guess. It sounds miserable. I think back to my cozy little toilet and shower rooms and think, this is palatial. She also is a vegan and finding it hard to eat. "What, am I supposed to nuke my tofu for 90 minutes or something?!" I had to restrain myself from inviting her over to use my shower and stove.
I've got it goooood, guys.
And.... I think that's about it, really. Tomorrow morning is bright and early for free lunch, then spending time with my team (or what's left of it) and getting broke into the whole bicycle thing. I'm so out of shape, it hurts to ride. But I'm from a very rural area where you must drive everywhere. It's a welcome change.
But the best part about being up here? My brother who lived 10 minutes away is actually going out of his way to talk to me now that I'm 3 hours away. Its a welcome change, if a bit weird.
Okay, this is long enough now. Peace out.