Yeah... was freaking out a little about not having my Spanish workbook. Fortunately, it turned out to not really be a problem, as my Spanish teacher seems pretty nice and will give us some slack in the first week when it comes to turning in stuff on time... and I actually have the workbook now, since right around 1:15, while I was just kinda sitting around talking to someone in the library, the bookstore unexpectedly called me and said they got a shipment of them in (already!? they told me it wouldn't be until next week...) and that I needed to bring my receipt (I had paid for one already) and student ID card. Left my stuff in the library (not by itself, of course... had someone watching it and making sure nobody snatched anything) and rushed over to my dorm to get the receipt, then to the bookstore to get the book, and finally back to the library. Not long afterward I got a call (also unexpected--this one made me jump a little since I wasn't expecting two calls within half an hour of each other!) from one of the girls in my Spanish class who had said I could borrow her workbook until I got my own. I had been a little worried that I wouldn't manage to get in touch with her before class and I'd miss the day's assignment completely, but it turned out I already had my book by then. Kinda funny how that worked out. Still ended up meeting with her in the library, since she needed help with the online part of the class (...which I hadn't even tried to do anything with yet, so I'm probably not the person to be going to for help... but I kinda volunteered to try and help anyway, heh.) Turned out she just wasn't looking in the right spot, I guess; after I pointed out a link on the website that matched up with the chapter title she had no problem finding the rest.
Spanish class went pretty well. The air conditioner was somewhat of a problem--it was the only thing keeping the room from being a roasting oven, but also it was very noisy and made it a little hard to heard the teacher sometimes (especially for me, since I ended up sitting in the back due to not getting there until pretty much the moment class started.) Sitting in the back wasn't too bad this time; I guess since I wasn't cramped up against a wall (my seat was next to the old heater near the air conditioner, so there was about six or eight inches of space between me and the wall), and the Spanish classroom isn't a very crowded one (lots of room between desks.) Actually sitting near someone I knew probably helped, too.
Before Spanish, though (waaaay before, actually... 9:30 AM) was Art History. Turns out I wasn't really still waitlisted for it after all; I got in on the "main" class list, actually. Weird, I'm pretty sure I was told when I was signing up that there was a close-to-100% chance of not getting into that class if I was very far down the waitlist. Kind of odd to start with (lots of weird vague theoretical stuff like "what is art?"... you know, trying to pin a specific definition on something that pinning a specific definition onto one of those things where pinning a specific definition on it only causes more problems), but the teacher's nice and it got more interesting once we actually started looking at a statue she had brought in. It was this old (19th century if I remember right) African carving of a woman that doubled as a mini-boat, probably for transporting their ancestor's remains and things like that (since they were nomadic and had no set gravesites they brought that kind of thing with them.)
Later on did some reading (The Return of Martin Guerre, for history class; I was told it was really boring but so far it doesn't really seem that way to me) and decided to try Jonesy's (or... however it's spelled, I think it has a Z or two mixed in there somewhere), the on-campus restaurant and student lounge fused together. Food was actually very good; if I brought one of the wraps they have there to somebody they would never believe it was school cafeteria food, it was so much closer to "actual restaurant." Actually, I would probably order them at an actual restaurant, since the price was good in addition to the food being good (something like 7 bucks for a foot-long wrap, chips, and a drink; that's actually better prices than Quizno's or Subway!) I had a wrap that they call "The Kiln," which is chicken strips with green and red peppers, onions, melted cheese, fajita sauce (what is fajita sauce? I don't know, but it seemed good) and salsa on the side for dipping the sandwich in or just dumping into the open sandwich before eating (both of which I did, the first with my first half of it and the second with what was left.) Grilled very nicely, too... maybe not a match for the fajitas at San Juan back home, but definitely very good, especially considering it only cost 7 bucks and I got it from what's essentially a second branch of a school cafeteria. Not as crowded as the dining hall, either (though unfortunately I didn't see anyone I knew in there), so I may end up eating there every once and a while (not too often though, since my dining plan only gives me unlimited food at the actual dining hall, not there.) Knowing that their food is actually really good makes me less upset that they got rid of the swimming pool to put it in there.
So basically, the day started out pretty "ehhh" but ended up pretty decent. Just have to remember to bring that portable fan the next time I go to Spanish... and Art History for that matter, since my art teacher always turns off the AC to cut down on the noise.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
First day of actual school stuff
Yeah... actually went to classes for the first time today.
First was Jogging at 9 AM. Or it would've been, anyway, if my teacher had actually shown up; instead, the whole class sat there for half an hour waiting for any sign of the guy and then eventually ended up leaving. After that was Western Civilization II (basically, a history class.) Seemed like I'll probably like that one; I usually do like history classes, so that'd be pretty normal. We got a good-sized reading assignment already, but since we don't need to finish until Wednesday I should be fine (it's only seven chapters, and the book is pretty thin so they're probably not very long chapters.)
After that was the "Becoming a Leader-Servant" class. Kind of the oddball class of my schedule--the only one that's way too crowded, and its schedule is just odd in all kinds of ways (no regular classes on Fridays, instead we go listen to someone speak in the gym building somewhere; plus no class on this Wednesday or next Monday either.) I'm not entirely sure what kind of class it is just yet, it was sort of explained as a "student orientation" kind of class when I was signing up but there's also service projects and stuff like that involved. Waaaay too crowded, and since I got in late, all the decent seats were taken; the only ones left were way over in the corner somewhere where I would be cramped in and surrounded. Pretty awful. Good thing the class only lasted for a few minutes (giving out some basic information about the class's schedule and such) before we could leave.
After that was Painting, which seemed like it'll be a pretty good class. Really far away from the rest of campus, though; it's a bit of a walk getting up there. I might want to bring that little fan Mom bought me to that one, too... it was a bit warm in there with no air conditioning.
Last was Spanish, which went pretty well despite my teacher not being there for some odd reason. Unfortunately I don't have the Spanish workbook with all the homework assignments and such in it, but I might be able to kind of mooch off of someone else in the class and get copies of the workbook pages or something. Hopefully I'll bump into someone from the class that I actually know earlier tomorrow, since there's an assignment due tomorrow...
Finally got my school email set up (reason why I wasn't able to get in before, even knowing what the default password was supposed to be? my account didn't exist yet), my roommate got the mini-fridge and microwave he said were going to come in (this actually happened on Saturday, I just forgot to mention it back then, heh), and I went to one of the LDS ward barbecues I ended up being invited to, which started off pretty bad since it started pouring down rain almost as soon as I got down there and I had to walk all the way back up the hill to get to the spot where they relocated it to (inside.) Fortunately, it got better afterward; got to talk to some people some, showed people some stuff I've drawn, and ate some good food (the hotdogs, once they finally showed up, were really good--I actually ate four of them without even having mustard or onions or anything, and I rarely ever eat a plain hotdog; they have to be grilled really well to be that good.) Not sure how tommorow will go, what with not being able to do my Spanish assignment due to not having the workbook, but aside from that I only have one class... maybe. Depends on whether I got into that waitlisted Art History class or not, which I won't find out until I get there.
First was Jogging at 9 AM. Or it would've been, anyway, if my teacher had actually shown up; instead, the whole class sat there for half an hour waiting for any sign of the guy and then eventually ended up leaving. After that was Western Civilization II (basically, a history class.) Seemed like I'll probably like that one; I usually do like history classes, so that'd be pretty normal. We got a good-sized reading assignment already, but since we don't need to finish until Wednesday I should be fine (it's only seven chapters, and the book is pretty thin so they're probably not very long chapters.)
After that was the "Becoming a Leader-Servant" class. Kind of the oddball class of my schedule--the only one that's way too crowded, and its schedule is just odd in all kinds of ways (no regular classes on Fridays, instead we go listen to someone speak in the gym building somewhere; plus no class on this Wednesday or next Monday either.) I'm not entirely sure what kind of class it is just yet, it was sort of explained as a "student orientation" kind of class when I was signing up but there's also service projects and stuff like that involved. Waaaay too crowded, and since I got in late, all the decent seats were taken; the only ones left were way over in the corner somewhere where I would be cramped in and surrounded. Pretty awful. Good thing the class only lasted for a few minutes (giving out some basic information about the class's schedule and such) before we could leave.
After that was Painting, which seemed like it'll be a pretty good class. Really far away from the rest of campus, though; it's a bit of a walk getting up there. I might want to bring that little fan Mom bought me to that one, too... it was a bit warm in there with no air conditioning.
Last was Spanish, which went pretty well despite my teacher not being there for some odd reason. Unfortunately I don't have the Spanish workbook with all the homework assignments and such in it, but I might be able to kind of mooch off of someone else in the class and get copies of the workbook pages or something. Hopefully I'll bump into someone from the class that I actually know earlier tomorrow, since there's an assignment due tomorrow...
Finally got my school email set up (reason why I wasn't able to get in before, even knowing what the default password was supposed to be? my account didn't exist yet), my roommate got the mini-fridge and microwave he said were going to come in (this actually happened on Saturday, I just forgot to mention it back then, heh), and I went to one of the LDS ward barbecues I ended up being invited to, which started off pretty bad since it started pouring down rain almost as soon as I got down there and I had to walk all the way back up the hill to get to the spot where they relocated it to (inside.) Fortunately, it got better afterward; got to talk to some people some, showed people some stuff I've drawn, and ate some good food (the hotdogs, once they finally showed up, were really good--I actually ate four of them without even having mustard or onions or anything, and I rarely ever eat a plain hotdog; they have to be grilled really well to be that good.) Not sure how tommorow will go, what with not being able to do my Spanish assignment due to not having the workbook, but aside from that I only have one class... maybe. Depends on whether I got into that waitlisted Art History class or not, which I won't find out until I get there.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Lonely + very-not-lonely Sunday
Yeah, odd contradictory title huh? Pretty much describes the day, though--for pretty much the whole day until supper, the place pretty much turned into a ghost town as all the Mormons went off to church. And church is apparently quite long--on the schedule, the two different church times are both three full hours in length. Wow. Back when I went to church in White Rock Gap when I was a kid, church was... maybe an hour if the preacher wasn't there that day, maybe an hour and a half or even two if he was.
Anyway, the day started off pretty lonely and boring. Attempted to get my dad to come take me back home for a while to visit with him, Mom, and Julia (and also get some stuff I forgot to bring), but later found out (when Mom called) that he was up camping on McAffee's Knob. Apparently he forgot that I was going to call him and ask him to come get me, or something along those lines. Eh, it ended up okay (though boring for a while), I hung out in the basement lounge drawing stuff, listening to music, and drinking orange soda while waiting for my clothes to get washed and dried. First time using the laundry room went fairly well, considering I haven't really had much practice with the whole washing clothes thing... forgot to use fabric softener but it didn't seem to make much of a difference anyway.
Day finally started getting better around suppertime--bumped into a bunch of people I knew in there (mostly from my orientation group) and sat with them and talked a little while I ate (and they finished off the last bits of their food--I guess they had been in there for a while already.) Then a couple of guys I hadn't met before sat down and ate and talked with me for a little while, and finally a couple of girls showed up after they left and I talked some more and showed them some stuff I'd drawn. Lots of talking and getting to know people a little better, and I'm finally starting to remember at least some people's names now. I ended up being talked into going to the fireside (which, oddly, does not involve fire--it's a meeting-type thing at the LDS church where several people give speeches, tell stories, etc. and they sing a few hymns.) Stories were actually kind of interesting--apparently one of the speakers had actually had some pretty similar experiences in his younger years to what I went through. Plus I got to sit with people I knew and talk a little before/after the speeches, and eat brownies and ice cream (so once again, no need to break out the M&M's tonight!)
After that a bunch of people went to this thing where everyone gathers in front of the hill in front of the main hall and sings hymns. I'm not a singing person at all, so I just quietly mumbled along with the words most of the time (though I did sorta-mumble-sing a bit, rather than just mumbling, when they got to the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner.) Afterward, there was lots and lots of talking, and I ended up getting better at remembering people's names, getting to know them a bit better, and also getting invited to two different wards' barbecues--one tomorrow night, and another the next week. Wow... people are actually inviting me to stuff. It's kind of surprising after what I was used to from high school, and even somewhat from Dabney, where nobody seemed to want to have any contact with me at all outside of school and would just kind of give me a funny look if I brought it up.
Actually even got into my first religious discussion with a couple of Mormon girls--and rather than the usual conversion attempts and "you're-different-than-me rage," they actually seemed pretty impressed with who and what I am, and actually focused more on what we have in common rather than petty differences. My faith (pun not intended) in religious people's ability to actually be nice and friendly just got a bit of a boost, I guess.
Interesting Mormon trivia: the Holy Spirit is actually pretty well-defined in Mormonism, rather than just being the very vague "third part of the trinity that nobody really talks about much" that I was used to seeing in some other Christian groups. Basically, as it was explained to me, it's a sort of presence in/around everyone that lets you know what God wants you to do if you stop and listen to it. I'm not sure if other Christian groups have a similar explanation, but I know I've never heard anyone describe exactly what the Holy Spirit is (or why it's defined as a separate thing) during my years going to church as a kid.
Anyway, the day started off pretty lonely and boring. Attempted to get my dad to come take me back home for a while to visit with him, Mom, and Julia (and also get some stuff I forgot to bring), but later found out (when Mom called) that he was up camping on McAffee's Knob. Apparently he forgot that I was going to call him and ask him to come get me, or something along those lines. Eh, it ended up okay (though boring for a while), I hung out in the basement lounge drawing stuff, listening to music, and drinking orange soda while waiting for my clothes to get washed and dried. First time using the laundry room went fairly well, considering I haven't really had much practice with the whole washing clothes thing... forgot to use fabric softener but it didn't seem to make much of a difference anyway.
Day finally started getting better around suppertime--bumped into a bunch of people I knew in there (mostly from my orientation group) and sat with them and talked a little while I ate (and they finished off the last bits of their food--I guess they had been in there for a while already.) Then a couple of guys I hadn't met before sat down and ate and talked with me for a little while, and finally a couple of girls showed up after they left and I talked some more and showed them some stuff I'd drawn. Lots of talking and getting to know people a little better, and I'm finally starting to remember at least some people's names now. I ended up being talked into going to the fireside (which, oddly, does not involve fire--it's a meeting-type thing at the LDS church where several people give speeches, tell stories, etc. and they sing a few hymns.) Stories were actually kind of interesting--apparently one of the speakers had actually had some pretty similar experiences in his younger years to what I went through. Plus I got to sit with people I knew and talk a little before/after the speeches, and eat brownies and ice cream (so once again, no need to break out the M&M's tonight!)
After that a bunch of people went to this thing where everyone gathers in front of the hill in front of the main hall and sings hymns. I'm not a singing person at all, so I just quietly mumbled along with the words most of the time (though I did sorta-mumble-sing a bit, rather than just mumbling, when they got to the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner.) Afterward, there was lots and lots of talking, and I ended up getting better at remembering people's names, getting to know them a bit better, and also getting invited to two different wards' barbecues--one tomorrow night, and another the next week. Wow... people are actually inviting me to stuff. It's kind of surprising after what I was used to from high school, and even somewhat from Dabney, where nobody seemed to want to have any contact with me at all outside of school and would just kind of give me a funny look if I brought it up.
Actually even got into my first religious discussion with a couple of Mormon girls--and rather than the usual conversion attempts and "you're-different-than-me rage," they actually seemed pretty impressed with who and what I am, and actually focused more on what we have in common rather than petty differences. My faith (pun not intended) in religious people's ability to actually be nice and friendly just got a bit of a boost, I guess.
Interesting Mormon trivia: the Holy Spirit is actually pretty well-defined in Mormonism, rather than just being the very vague "third part of the trinity that nobody really talks about much" that I was used to seeing in some other Christian groups. Basically, as it was explained to me, it's a sort of presence in/around everyone that lets you know what God wants you to do if you stop and listen to it. I'm not sure if other Christian groups have a similar explanation, but I know I've never heard anyone describe exactly what the Holy Spirit is (or why it's defined as a separate thing) during my years going to church as a kid.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Rape whistles, vampire stakes, disappearing cotton candy, and NOT going to the football game
Another pretty good day. I think I'm actually getting used to staying in my dorm room, as I haven't been having as much trouble getting to sleep as I did on the first day and it seems more like "the place I stay when not doing stuff" now than it did when I first got here... though it may need some cleaning pretty soon (maybe I should've brought a mop/broom and stuff like that along with me...)
Had to get up pretty early (well... 8 am, so about as early as I had been getting up) to go to the big "pledge to not break the honor code" thing, pretty much immediately after breakfast (Cap'n Crunch this time... and yeah, I'm pretty much always going to mention food. I think I'll add a "food" tag to these posts to go along with that.) Basically promising not to get drunk, do drugs, dress sluttily, cheat on tests, and so on. Lots of hymns and praying involved but nothing in the code was really explicitly religious, or at least not the kind of thing I'll have any trouble with (I don't drink coffee or have tattoos or piercings anyway, so not breaking those parts is no problem, heh.)
After that they gave out these little whistle keychain things, which light up when you push a button in addition to... well, being whistles. About 10 seconds after they started giving them out, people starting blowing them for no good reason; normally this would annoy me, but I think it helped me wake up this time, so the guys blowing their whistles all over the place got a free pass this time. Not long after that, everyone started calling them "rape whistles" (to... make a lot of noise in case you get raped, I guess? maybe it'd be loud enough to stun the guy or scare him off if you got him right in the ear, though I think it's probably intended to alert other people around you instead.) Apparently the nearby city has something like 30 sex offenders, so those might come in handy.
After that we had a service project. I was in Boy Scouts, so I had a lot of practice doing this--we basically just went to a particular road and picked up the trash off of it. I ended up climbing around on the rocks in the creek and up on a little hill to get stuff, rather than just walking along the road. I think I got the most trash, or at least the heaviest trash, since I had a big chunk of broken pipe and a split-open lid to someone's trash can along with the typical cans, bottles, and bags. No condoms, though. Of course, the road was right next to a church...
We were going to play kickball with this green bouncy-ball we found during our trash pick-up, but it was raining and everyone was hungry, so we (aka "everyone but me, who said nothing") decided against it.
After that, the van came and picked us up and dropped some of the girls off at their dorms to get some stuff. They got back and we went driving down into Buena Vista for the "Progressive Lunch." I'm... really not sure what that is, but in plain English it apparently means "go walking around and get free/discounted food from local restaurants." Someone was giving out popcorn (everyone in my group--me and three girls, after the rest of the group wandered off in another direction--got a bag), some other place was having a jump-rope contest (two of the girls entered; one got a shirt and the other got a pen), and after about 5 more minutes of walking around we all decided we were pretty hungry and should head toward the Italian restaurant.
Food was really, really good--they had a special where we could order an extra-large pizza for somewhere in the range of $10, with one topping on it (or one topping for each half, which is what we got--pepperoni on one end, black olives on the other!) I'll still miss going to Victor's back home, but finding more good Italian restaurants around is always good. Once we finished eating (and talking... lots of talking) we split the bill four ways, which meant I only had to pay $4.15. I ended up paying $4.33 instead, since one of the girls had no change with her and I figured I'd use some of those random quarters and dimes sitting in my wallet and taking up space (plus I have a ton of extra spending money, so I don't really have a problem with helping people out if they're short on it occasionally. Doesn't mean I'll let people completely mooch off of me, but I'll be glad to give away a few cents or a buck here and there.)
At some point the Olive Garden came up, and I mentioned that I'd never actually eaten at one. One of the girls actually said I should come with them when they have her birthday party there sometime in the next month or so, which freaked me out a little--back in high school (and, with a couple of exceptions, even in Dabney!) nobody ever asked me to come to stuff like parties and such, or even made me aware that they were happening. It seems kind of odd that after only knowing someone for a day or two they'd already "pre-invite" me to their birthday party, but hey, it's definitely big improvement from what I'm used to. I'd much rather make friends and get to know people fast than not at all, despite my perpetual fear of rushing into stuff.
After that, we stood around at the Battle of the Bands thing outside of a hotdog place for a few minutes talking (and, in the case of two of the girls, buying makeup from some odd little outdoor makeup vendor under a tarp) and bumping into the missing other half of our group. The other half wandered off once again, this time taking one of our group people with them, so it was just me and the two girls who bought some makeup from the outdoor makeup stand for a while until we got back to campus (after maybe an hour of walking around just looking at stuff in Buena Vista.) We saw a random pointy-tipped piece of wood lying next to a telephone pole, which one of the girls said looked like a stake (as in the "shanking vampires" kind.) Other odd sights included an old lawnmower (with blades still inside...) hanging from a pole ten feet in the air, and another lawnmower with a "For Sale" sign... which had already vanished by the time we came back by that area 20 minutes or so later.
One of the girls who left earlier wanted some cotton candy but never got a chance to go by the place giving it out, so we decided to bring some back for her. That... didn't work very well. It dissolved into thin air before we even got to the hill leading back to school! I had no idea cotton candy could even do that, but I pretty much got a chance to watch it happen right in front of my eyes--first it was a big chunk, then it was about half that size, then smaller, then just melted blue goop with one little lump of cotton candy on the side, and finally not much more than a residue of blue sugary stuff along the outside of the cone it came on. Pictures of the cotton candy dissolving away were taken every minute or so on the way back, to show just how quick it could happen (and no bite marks, so nobody can say that we were just eating it, heh.)
And of course, there was the football game. I didn't go to it (it's still going right now if I remember right), of course, so that's all I have to say about that. Not a sports (or huge-screaming-crowds) person at all, so eh. Don't want a repeat of yesterday's pep rally...
Last of all... pancakes. Yeah, after the football game was over our dorm leader people (...I can't remember the actual term...) cooked pancakes and people could come into the lobby and eat pretty much as many as they wanted. I ended up eating five. Don't think I'll need any M&M's or Pop-Tarts or anything for snack tonight, heh...
Had to get up pretty early (well... 8 am, so about as early as I had been getting up) to go to the big "pledge to not break the honor code" thing, pretty much immediately after breakfast (Cap'n Crunch this time... and yeah, I'm pretty much always going to mention food. I think I'll add a "food" tag to these posts to go along with that.) Basically promising not to get drunk, do drugs, dress sluttily, cheat on tests, and so on. Lots of hymns and praying involved but nothing in the code was really explicitly religious, or at least not the kind of thing I'll have any trouble with (I don't drink coffee or have tattoos or piercings anyway, so not breaking those parts is no problem, heh.)
After that they gave out these little whistle keychain things, which light up when you push a button in addition to... well, being whistles. About 10 seconds after they started giving them out, people starting blowing them for no good reason; normally this would annoy me, but I think it helped me wake up this time, so the guys blowing their whistles all over the place got a free pass this time. Not long after that, everyone started calling them "rape whistles" (to... make a lot of noise in case you get raped, I guess? maybe it'd be loud enough to stun the guy or scare him off if you got him right in the ear, though I think it's probably intended to alert other people around you instead.) Apparently the nearby city has something like 30 sex offenders, so those might come in handy.
After that we had a service project. I was in Boy Scouts, so I had a lot of practice doing this--we basically just went to a particular road and picked up the trash off of it. I ended up climbing around on the rocks in the creek and up on a little hill to get stuff, rather than just walking along the road. I think I got the most trash, or at least the heaviest trash, since I had a big chunk of broken pipe and a split-open lid to someone's trash can along with the typical cans, bottles, and bags. No condoms, though. Of course, the road was right next to a church...
We were going to play kickball with this green bouncy-ball we found during our trash pick-up, but it was raining and everyone was hungry, so we (aka "everyone but me, who said nothing") decided against it.
After that, the van came and picked us up and dropped some of the girls off at their dorms to get some stuff. They got back and we went driving down into Buena Vista for the "Progressive Lunch." I'm... really not sure what that is, but in plain English it apparently means "go walking around and get free/discounted food from local restaurants." Someone was giving out popcorn (everyone in my group--me and three girls, after the rest of the group wandered off in another direction--got a bag), some other place was having a jump-rope contest (two of the girls entered; one got a shirt and the other got a pen), and after about 5 more minutes of walking around we all decided we were pretty hungry and should head toward the Italian restaurant.
Food was really, really good--they had a special where we could order an extra-large pizza for somewhere in the range of $10, with one topping on it (or one topping for each half, which is what we got--pepperoni on one end, black olives on the other!) I'll still miss going to Victor's back home, but finding more good Italian restaurants around is always good. Once we finished eating (and talking... lots of talking) we split the bill four ways, which meant I only had to pay $4.15. I ended up paying $4.33 instead, since one of the girls had no change with her and I figured I'd use some of those random quarters and dimes sitting in my wallet and taking up space (plus I have a ton of extra spending money, so I don't really have a problem with helping people out if they're short on it occasionally. Doesn't mean I'll let people completely mooch off of me, but I'll be glad to give away a few cents or a buck here and there.)
At some point the Olive Garden came up, and I mentioned that I'd never actually eaten at one. One of the girls actually said I should come with them when they have her birthday party there sometime in the next month or so, which freaked me out a little--back in high school (and, with a couple of exceptions, even in Dabney!) nobody ever asked me to come to stuff like parties and such, or even made me aware that they were happening. It seems kind of odd that after only knowing someone for a day or two they'd already "pre-invite" me to their birthday party, but hey, it's definitely big improvement from what I'm used to. I'd much rather make friends and get to know people fast than not at all, despite my perpetual fear of rushing into stuff.
After that, we stood around at the Battle of the Bands thing outside of a hotdog place for a few minutes talking (and, in the case of two of the girls, buying makeup from some odd little outdoor makeup vendor under a tarp) and bumping into the missing other half of our group. The other half wandered off once again, this time taking one of our group people with them, so it was just me and the two girls who bought some makeup from the outdoor makeup stand for a while until we got back to campus (after maybe an hour of walking around just looking at stuff in Buena Vista.) We saw a random pointy-tipped piece of wood lying next to a telephone pole, which one of the girls said looked like a stake (as in the "shanking vampires" kind.) Other odd sights included an old lawnmower (with blades still inside...) hanging from a pole ten feet in the air, and another lawnmower with a "For Sale" sign... which had already vanished by the time we came back by that area 20 minutes or so later.
One of the girls who left earlier wanted some cotton candy but never got a chance to go by the place giving it out, so we decided to bring some back for her. That... didn't work very well. It dissolved into thin air before we even got to the hill leading back to school! I had no idea cotton candy could even do that, but I pretty much got a chance to watch it happen right in front of my eyes--first it was a big chunk, then it was about half that size, then smaller, then just melted blue goop with one little lump of cotton candy on the side, and finally not much more than a residue of blue sugary stuff along the outside of the cone it came on. Pictures of the cotton candy dissolving away were taken every minute or so on the way back, to show just how quick it could happen (and no bite marks, so nobody can say that we were just eating it, heh.)
And of course, there was the football game. I didn't go to it (it's still going right now if I remember right), of course, so that's all I have to say about that. Not a sports (or huge-screaming-crowds) person at all, so eh. Don't want a repeat of yesterday's pep rally...
Last of all... pancakes. Yeah, after the football game was over our dorm leader people (...I can't remember the actual term...) cooked pancakes and people could come into the lobby and eat pretty much as many as they wanted. I ended up eating five. Don't think I'll need any M&M's or Pop-Tarts or anything for snack tonight, heh...
"I still have both my feet!"
Second orientation day! Aside from the pep rally, I'd say this was probably the better of the two orientation days overall--got a free shirt, a free odd little semi-backpack-like bag thing, and (after turning in my medical papers and student info forms) got another free shirt. Both are 2XL, so they only barely fit me, but... they do fit, so that means I've got two extra shirts now in addition to the 10 or so I brought. May need to get more shorts, though--I found that two of the pairs I have keep falling down whenever I have anything in the pockets (one that I knew did that because they're too big for me, and the other that... never did that until just recently, so I guess I must not have worn those much since I lost all that weight a year or two ago.)
Food continues to be good--French toast sticks (and Cocoa Krispies... or not; they were labeled Cocoa Krispies but they seemed to be Cocoa Puffs instead) for breakfast, and the usual giant salads for lunch and supper. Plus ravioli for lunch (yes, ravioli! a school cafeteria that serves freakin' ravioli! they had tortellini too, but I didn't try any since I was already full) and biscuits for supper.
No freak thunderstorms during orientation stuff today, though the sky was all gray and getting-ready-to-rain-ish all day. Guess we're getting the hurricane stuff tomorrow instead. Since I'm a transfer student I got shuttled out of the gym/meeting-room place during the "new freshmen coming in" survey, and got a free bag (which everyone else also got, whether they stayed in there or not... heh.) Bumped into a girl taking pictures of the fish in the koi pond (yes, taking pictures of the fish!) and ended up talking to her for a while; turns out she's from Texas and has never seen so much water in one place before. Lots of people from really, really far away here, it seems.
One bad thing was the pep rally. I probably shouldn't have gone; I always hated the ones at high school, but for some reason I got the idea in my head that this one somehow might be different. Wasn't, pretty much the same old "everyone is yelling and it's crowded and horrible" stuff (though I don't think AHS's cheerleaders could ever do six or seven backflips in a row like that.)
The dance, on the other hand, turned out good. Probably one of the best ones I've been to. Actually danced (well, slow-danced, since I can't dance to anything fast at all) a couple of times, and amazingly one of those times I actually managed to ask someone to dance rather than the usual strategy of "stand/sit somewhere until a girl comes over and asks me to dance" (which also worked later on.) The quote in the title was actually from a girl I danced with, by the way... when talking about how bad I am at dancing I said that I'd probably end up accidentally stomping on her feet (which didn't happen, thankfully) and when it was over that's what she said. Such a funny quote I pretty much had to put it somewhere!
Lots of wandering around and talking to people, and I'm actually sort of getting to know people now. Was surprisingly easy for me to just walk up to people and start talking to them--kind of weird how easy it was, actually... usually that's one thing I have a hard time with. I guess it's because SVU is so far removed from the AHS crowd of people (and the entire area!) that I don't have quite as much of the "afraid people will automatically hate me for no good reason" thing when bumping into new people here.
Food continues to be good--French toast sticks (and Cocoa Krispies... or not; they were labeled Cocoa Krispies but they seemed to be Cocoa Puffs instead) for breakfast, and the usual giant salads for lunch and supper. Plus ravioli for lunch (yes, ravioli! a school cafeteria that serves freakin' ravioli! they had tortellini too, but I didn't try any since I was already full) and biscuits for supper.
No freak thunderstorms during orientation stuff today, though the sky was all gray and getting-ready-to-rain-ish all day. Guess we're getting the hurricane stuff tomorrow instead. Since I'm a transfer student I got shuttled out of the gym/meeting-room place during the "new freshmen coming in" survey, and got a free bag (which everyone else also got, whether they stayed in there or not... heh.) Bumped into a girl taking pictures of the fish in the koi pond (yes, taking pictures of the fish!) and ended up talking to her for a while; turns out she's from Texas and has never seen so much water in one place before. Lots of people from really, really far away here, it seems.
One bad thing was the pep rally. I probably shouldn't have gone; I always hated the ones at high school, but for some reason I got the idea in my head that this one somehow might be different. Wasn't, pretty much the same old "everyone is yelling and it's crowded and horrible" stuff (though I don't think AHS's cheerleaders could ever do six or seven backflips in a row like that.)
The dance, on the other hand, turned out good. Probably one of the best ones I've been to. Actually danced (well, slow-danced, since I can't dance to anything fast at all) a couple of times, and amazingly one of those times I actually managed to ask someone to dance rather than the usual strategy of "stand/sit somewhere until a girl comes over and asks me to dance" (which also worked later on.) The quote in the title was actually from a girl I danced with, by the way... when talking about how bad I am at dancing I said that I'd probably end up accidentally stomping on her feet (which didn't happen, thankfully) and when it was over that's what she said. Such a funny quote I pretty much had to put it somewhere!
Lots of wandering around and talking to people, and I'm actually sort of getting to know people now. Was surprisingly easy for me to just walk up to people and start talking to them--kind of weird how easy it was, actually... usually that's one thing I have a hard time with. I guess it's because SVU is so far removed from the AHS crowd of people (and the entire area!) that I don't have quite as much of the "afraid people will automatically hate me for no good reason" thing when bumping into new people here.
Friday, August 26, 2011
First couple of days
Technically I probably should've just jammed this in on the end of the introduction post, but oh well. I figured that'd be a little too lazy and decided to make it a second post instead.
Moving in wasn't bad. Dad stayed behind to help heave those enormous luggage bags (one actual luggage bags, plus backpack, laptop bag, and two big black trash bags) out of the car and up the stairs to the 2nd floor, but I had to unpack mostly on my own, which was okay. Got the laptop and everything set up; internet works good, and phone has good service in the room, which means I can at least be in contact with Mom and Dad if I need to. Oddly, my DS doesn't want to connect to the school's wi-fi and claims there's no access points in range. I wonder why that is.
Roommate didn't show up until pretty late, which was fine by me--unpacking and setting stuff up would've probably been harder with an extra person in the room the whole time (I wouldn't be able to keep my luggage on the second bed while unpacking it, for one thing.)
Like I mentioned in the introduction, I ended up playing Super Smash Bros. for the first time in years last night, shortly before bed. They only had three controllers, though, so one guy ended up being left out all the time. Guess I should bring one of mine from home the next time I head back that way?
Had a semi-weird dream last night where I unexpectedly found a pellet gun (the Slavia ZVP .17-caliber one I have back home, to be specific) among my stuff that I had brought to school, which would be trouble since there's a no-guns-of-any-kind-allowed, even-if-they-can't-even-punch-a-hole-through-cardboard-at-15-yards policy. For some odd reason, my doom room looked like a weird fusion of the actual doom room and my room back at Dad's house. I have no idea where the roommate would've slept in that version of the room, but then again I only saw one side of the room in the dream, so I guess there could've been another bed in there somewhere.
Second day was orientation, pretty much. Ate in the dining hall for the first few times (I had a giant Italian sub for lunch the day I moved in, so no food for the rest of the day pretty much... I was stuffed), which wasn't bad at all--I had tried the food before during one of my tours of the school earlier, but this was the first time I'd eaten multiple meals there. I probably mentioned it already, but the salad bar has whole olives! I've never seen that before, even in restaurants (sometimes they'll have the whole green olives, but not the black ones I like... those are always sliced up.)
The student meeting was... kind of silly. Lots of cheering from people not named Eddie (I don't do a lot of random yelling... I did clap sometimes though), and the school's staff are apparently a bunch of goofballs. In the "things to do while you're here" section, one guy even encouraged us to go on dates while we're going to school here... which seems like kind of an odd thing to even mention. Who knows, maybe it'll actually happen, but I still don't think it's all that likely... I have terrible luck with girls.
Speaking of those, I met some cute girls in my orientation group. Religious differences would probably get in the way of any potential "actually getting a girlfriend"-ness, but... I figure my chances of any of them ever liking me in that way in the first place are so low anyway that the whole "convert or die" thing is a problem I'll most likely never have to deal with. Just getting to know them and talking and such shouldn't be a problem. I don't remember anyone's names yet (aside from my roommate's, which I already knew weeks before since the website shows that along with your room number and classes), but then again I'm pretty terrible at remembering names even when I've known people for more than a day. And I can at least recognize several people's faces, which is almost as good as remembering what their names are. One girl apparently shoots and fences... which, now that I think about it, makes her sound kinda like a pirate.
Lots of people from Utah, too. I wouldn't have expected to see so many from that far out west here in Virginia (seriously, there's probably more Utah license plates out there in that parking lot than there are in the rest of the state put together!)
Random thunderstorm broke out during orientation, while walking to the library. Probably the hurricane's first waves of rain and such coming in. Everyone got soaked except our group leader/tour guide, who had an umbrella. Then on the way back from the library, soaked again, since just when we started walking it broke out raining some more.
Went to this somewhat silly thing they do during the later part of the first orientation day called the "Knight Games." (SVU's mascot is a knight, if you didn't know.) Absurdly crowded and noisy, too much for me to stay very long, but I did manage to win a cup (which I needed pretty badly) and a couple of frisbees (which I have... no use for whatsoever) as well as getting a menu from one of the local Italian restaurants (always good to have--there's actually a ton of restaurants in the area, like 3 Italian and 1 Mexican and several pizza places and most of them deliver to the school.) Didn't get to run the bouncy obstacle course or ride the mechanical bull or anything, though, since the lines were ridiculous and I couldn't stand waiting in line with the crowds and noise very long. Half the school must've been packed into that one room... it was ridiculous.
Overall the first two days were pretty good. Food is great for a cafeteria (actually probably on the level of some restaurants I've been to, if not better in some cases--the salad bar is really good, they have whole olives!), so that's no problem. I did lose my razor down the random bottomless pit of doom behind the shower, though. Put it up on top of the rock-ish wall and... whoops, it slipped a little and fell down a hole I didn't know was there! And it's impossible to get out now, unless you got someone with a hooked stick on the ceiling and stuck that down there after it or something. Since I had replacement blades but no replacement razor, I had to shave by holding a replacement razor blade in my hand... yeah, pretty rough. Thankfully I didn't cut myself (not enough to draw blood, anyway... and if it's not enough to draw blood it's not really a cut, is it?)
Moving in wasn't bad. Dad stayed behind to help heave those enormous luggage bags (one actual luggage bags, plus backpack, laptop bag, and two big black trash bags) out of the car and up the stairs to the 2nd floor, but I had to unpack mostly on my own, which was okay. Got the laptop and everything set up; internet works good, and phone has good service in the room, which means I can at least be in contact with Mom and Dad if I need to. Oddly, my DS doesn't want to connect to the school's wi-fi and claims there's no access points in range. I wonder why that is.
Roommate didn't show up until pretty late, which was fine by me--unpacking and setting stuff up would've probably been harder with an extra person in the room the whole time (I wouldn't be able to keep my luggage on the second bed while unpacking it, for one thing.)
Like I mentioned in the introduction, I ended up playing Super Smash Bros. for the first time in years last night, shortly before bed. They only had three controllers, though, so one guy ended up being left out all the time. Guess I should bring one of mine from home the next time I head back that way?
Had a semi-weird dream last night where I unexpectedly found a pellet gun (the Slavia ZVP .17-caliber one I have back home, to be specific) among my stuff that I had brought to school, which would be trouble since there's a no-guns-of-any-kind-allowed, even-if-they-can't-even-punch-a-hole-through-cardboard-at-15-yards policy. For some odd reason, my doom room looked like a weird fusion of the actual doom room and my room back at Dad's house. I have no idea where the roommate would've slept in that version of the room, but then again I only saw one side of the room in the dream, so I guess there could've been another bed in there somewhere.
Second day was orientation, pretty much. Ate in the dining hall for the first few times (I had a giant Italian sub for lunch the day I moved in, so no food for the rest of the day pretty much... I was stuffed), which wasn't bad at all--I had tried the food before during one of my tours of the school earlier, but this was the first time I'd eaten multiple meals there. I probably mentioned it already, but the salad bar has whole olives! I've never seen that before, even in restaurants (sometimes they'll have the whole green olives, but not the black ones I like... those are always sliced up.)
The student meeting was... kind of silly. Lots of cheering from people not named Eddie (I don't do a lot of random yelling... I did clap sometimes though), and the school's staff are apparently a bunch of goofballs. In the "things to do while you're here" section, one guy even encouraged us to go on dates while we're going to school here... which seems like kind of an odd thing to even mention. Who knows, maybe it'll actually happen, but I still don't think it's all that likely... I have terrible luck with girls.
Speaking of those, I met some cute girls in my orientation group. Religious differences would probably get in the way of any potential "actually getting a girlfriend"-ness, but... I figure my chances of any of them ever liking me in that way in the first place are so low anyway that the whole "convert or die" thing is a problem I'll most likely never have to deal with. Just getting to know them and talking and such shouldn't be a problem. I don't remember anyone's names yet (aside from my roommate's, which I already knew weeks before since the website shows that along with your room number and classes), but then again I'm pretty terrible at remembering names even when I've known people for more than a day. And I can at least recognize several people's faces, which is almost as good as remembering what their names are. One girl apparently shoots and fences... which, now that I think about it, makes her sound kinda like a pirate.
Lots of people from Utah, too. I wouldn't have expected to see so many from that far out west here in Virginia (seriously, there's probably more Utah license plates out there in that parking lot than there are in the rest of the state put together!)
Random thunderstorm broke out during orientation, while walking to the library. Probably the hurricane's first waves of rain and such coming in. Everyone got soaked except our group leader/tour guide, who had an umbrella. Then on the way back from the library, soaked again, since just when we started walking it broke out raining some more.
Went to this somewhat silly thing they do during the later part of the first orientation day called the "Knight Games." (SVU's mascot is a knight, if you didn't know.) Absurdly crowded and noisy, too much for me to stay very long, but I did manage to win a cup (which I needed pretty badly) and a couple of frisbees (which I have... no use for whatsoever) as well as getting a menu from one of the local Italian restaurants (always good to have--there's actually a ton of restaurants in the area, like 3 Italian and 1 Mexican and several pizza places and most of them deliver to the school.) Didn't get to run the bouncy obstacle course or ride the mechanical bull or anything, though, since the lines were ridiculous and I couldn't stand waiting in line with the crowds and noise very long. Half the school must've been packed into that one room... it was ridiculous.
Overall the first two days were pretty good. Food is great for a cafeteria (actually probably on the level of some restaurants I've been to, if not better in some cases--the salad bar is really good, they have whole olives!), so that's no problem. I did lose my razor down the random bottomless pit of doom behind the shower, though. Put it up on top of the rock-ish wall and... whoops, it slipped a little and fell down a hole I didn't know was there! And it's impossible to get out now, unless you got someone with a hooked stick on the ceiling and stuck that down there after it or something. Since I had replacement blades but no replacement razor, I had to shave by holding a replacement razor blade in my hand... yeah, pretty rough. Thankfully I didn't cut myself (not enough to draw blood, anyway... and if it's not enough to draw blood it's not really a cut, is it?)
Introduction post, I guess?
Hi, random people I probably don't know stumbling onto this site from the dark corners of the Internet! As you can probably guess, my name's Eddie. Basically I'm just writing this stuff as something to do when I have free time here at college, since I forgot to bring most of my video game stuff with me and sometimes I just don't feel like working on my other non-school-related projects (OHRRPGCE games, drawing, and so on.)
Anyway, I'm attending Southern Virginia University, located in Buena Vista, Virginia. Technically I'm a senior already since I have 157 transfer credits from the local community college, but I'm also kind of a junior since I still have another full year to go after this one before my degree... and I'm sort of a freshman too, since this is my first year and I literally do not know anyone. Pretty weird, but then again I do tend to be pretty weird.
Now, in some ways, coming to SVU makes a lot of sense for me.
Why's that potentially a problem? Well, let's see...
Anyway, I'm attending Southern Virginia University, located in Buena Vista, Virginia. Technically I'm a senior already since I have 157 transfer credits from the local community college, but I'm also kind of a junior since I still have another full year to go after this one before my degree... and I'm sort of a freshman too, since this is my first year and I literally do not know anyone. Pretty weird, but then again I do tend to be pretty weird.
Now, in some ways, coming to SVU makes a lot of sense for me.
- I wanted to take art classes. The art program here seems to be good--the students of last year came up with some pretty neat stuff (which I saw some of during the first visit here last year) and they set aside an entire floor just to showcase the art projects.
- I didn't want to go to some hugenormous school with 300-person classes and a maze-like campus that's bigger than the city next to it. While the campus is still somewhat maze-like, it's maze-like in the "lot of neat little things to explore" way rather than the "lots of places to get horribly lost for hours in" way. Plus, if I recall correctly there's only enough people here to fill up three of those 300-person classes at a time (plus maybe a few extras for some other class), so it's usually not crowded enough to trigger my lots-of-people-I-don't-know-in-large-groups-aphobia.
- I wanted to try living away from home... but not so far away from home that I couldn't make emergency trips back if necessary. It's about a 40 minute drive from home, and the city (Buena Vista) downhill from SVU reminds me a lot of my "second hometown" Clifton Forge... so not only can I get back home quick if I need to, taking a walk should help fight off homesickness a bit.
- I didn't want to go somewhere where I'd be surrounded by booze-guzzling drunken partiers every other hour, and SVU doesn't allow booze on campus. Also not allowed: cigarettes! Which means no more walking through noxious clouds of death just to get into doors! And illegal drugs are a no-no too, but that kinda goes without saying.
Why's that potentially a problem? Well, let's see...
- I'm not a religious person. I have my own beliefs about various things, but I don't buy into any particular organized religion in its entirety, and I haven't yet found one that actually matches up with my beliefs closely enough to just say "I'm ______, but instead of _____ I believe _____" or something along those lines. So questions about religion could get pretty complicated! So far "I'm not LDS" has been enough (like when people ask if I've been on a mission) but I figure it's gonna come up in more detail eventually.
- In the past, I've been... a little less than 100% tolerant of very religious people. Mainly during my first year at Dabney when I had my very brief "teenager rages against THE MAN!" period and hated any sort of far right conservative political position or religious belief. This caused me to miss out on what was so far the only potential relationship that's ever gotten to the "we both know we like each other, and have actually managed to communicate that" point. It also caused me to argue about stupid political/religious stuff over the Internet, and write a really awful poem for one of my English classes about how the Republicans and fundamentalist Christians are going to destroy the world... yeah, it was so bad I even knew it was bad then, and threw it away almost as soon as I got the graded version of it back.
Now, I'm still pretty far on the liberal end of the political scale and not religious at all, but I've calmed down a lot about it and now would rather just avoid talking about politics and religion, rather than arguing over them. Basically, I went from "Hey, stop being so religious, you stupid religious guy!" to the much more sane and argument-avoiding "You can believe whatever you want as long as you don't try to shove it down my throat." Plus, I've always thought it was kinda neat to learn about other people's religions, even during my hating-religious-stuff phase. - The segregation of guys and girls just seems a little odd to me. I mean, I know it's to keep them from humping all over the place, and I'm all for preventing those nasty teenage pregnancies and cutting down on the spread of STDs, but... it still kind of bugs me. I guess it's mostly because of the fact that I tend to get along better with girls than I do with guys. It's probably not going to be a real problem in the end (when would a girl actually want to come to my bedroom anyway?), but it's one of those things that still bugs me a little, for some reason, even though I can't think of a really solid reason why it bugs me so much.
- I was also afraid that I'd get stuck with a roommate I couldn't stand, though that wasn't really related to religion--95% of the population is LDS, so there's a chance I could've gotten a nutjob from the other 5% as well. Or just someone who's an ass, where the problem with them has nothing to do with their religious-ness or lack thereof.
Fortunately, that one looks like it's not going to be a problem--my roommate seems to be a generally decent person, and he likes video games and stuff like that, which is always good. We even ended up traveling over to another dorm and playing some Super Smash Bros. Melee with a few other guys last night (which I, surprisingly, didn't completely suck at despite lack of practice.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)