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| From Cow Tipping Creamery. The "Cherry Bomb" shake. DELICIOUS. |
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| The loverly nerdy wall of the bathroom in the FAC. |
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| My new friends: Jen, Abby, and Sharon. |
Friday, August 30, 2013
Friday Night (pictures)
Actual College Life
Here I am, sitting in the Student Activity Center, drinking a tall cookie-something-or-other frappuccino (I don't like coffee, but they didn't have my favorite creme frappuccino, and I couldn't justify spending three bucks on a strawberry drink that wasn't a smoothie), listening to "Welcome to Night Vale," waiting out a three-hour break between classes. It's the third class day today, and... I don't know. Classes are okay. My professors all seem great, but I can already tell it's going to be a ridiculous amount of work. Especially Hindi. We can only speak Hindi in the classroom. Which is great; we have already learned a bunch of phrases through context clues. But the alphabet (or, actually, it's a syllabary), is extremely daunting. I am nervous about beginning to write in the language. I think my UGS class -- Justice, Liberty, and Happiness -- is going to be hard too. It's basically a philosophy/history class, and we have to read excerpts from ancient classics like the Bible and the Iliad. Which is okay, I suppose. My professor, Dr. Pangle, said that for the first six weeks of class we won't read anything less than two thousand years old! I think it's funny that my two liberal-artsy classes are the ones I'm most worried about. But who knows? That may change soon. Both my Bio and Chem professors seem very nice, and the classes shouldn't be TOO bad. My chemistry professor, Dr. Laude, is a vice-provost or something, and our class champion. He also teaches only one class. He is hilarious, and has pretty much the same voice as John Lithgow, which makes it even better. He sort of spins around when he gets frustrated. He is teaching us to do math without a calculator.
We have a three day weekend starting... today, I guess, for me, which would make it a three-and-a-half days weekend. Which is perfect, since I already have a considerable amount of homework. Plus, I need some sleep. College life keeps me up late and gets me up early!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Spilt Milk
Not so much spilt as overflowing. Because, you know, liquid expands when it freezes, and our fridge is ridiculously cold. It expands, then leaks, then turns to yellowish sticky awfulness that will try its darndest to stay stuck to your tile floor. It took two teenage girls, armed with fingernails and cleaning wipes, to finally clean the floor. Those girls were Sharon and me. In case you were wondering.
In addition to Sharon, I have made two new friends from my floor: Jennifer and Abby. Jennifer is really chill and funny and Abby reminds me more of myself. She is from Chicago! Her accent is pretty cool. The four of us had dinner together, then went exploring, then hit up Milkshake Monday at the dorm, THEN -- of all things -- went and worked out together! And by worked out of course I mean spent 15 minutes struggling on the elliptical machines. But, hey, it's a start!
In addition to Sharon, I have made two new friends from my floor: Jennifer and Abby. Jennifer is really chill and funny and Abby reminds me more of myself. She is from Chicago! Her accent is pretty cool. The four of us had dinner together, then went exploring, then hit up Milkshake Monday at the dorm, THEN -- of all things -- went and worked out together! And by worked out of course I mean spent 15 minutes struggling on the elliptical machines. But, hey, it's a start!
Monday, August 26, 2013
Walking, Soccer, and Awkward Mingling
Sorry, everyone, I was too tired last night to post. So, here's my Sunday post (a little late).
The thing about Sundays is that most places aren't open until, like, 11. Which sucked for me because I decided to go shopping for some essentials that I forgot at about 9. Walking down to the Drag is bad enough in this heat, and then discovering that there's NOWHERE to buy flip flops for another hour and a half is just the icing on the cake.
So, to kill some time, I went exploring. And by exploring, I mean searching the Tower area for a comfortable place to wait it out. Turns out, all the libraries are closed so my plan of sitting in the beautiful Life Science library I discovered last year was foiled. In fact, the entire main building wasn't doing much for me, so I found Garrison Hall, the one building that I have a class in and was not sure where it was located. There were couches in Garrison (thank God), so I sat there for about an hour before I ventured out of the A/C and toward Tyler's, where I purchased some overpriced flip flops and moved on with my day.
Sharon and I went to a soccer game in the afternoon with our neighbor across the hall, Brooke. It was hot and we were hungry, so the three of us left at half time and walked to Kerbey Lane, the most insanely tasty cafe on the Drag and maybe in Austin.
In the evening, the residence hall hosted a cookout in the courtyard. It had a luau theme, and was decorated with leis strung from trees, tiki torches, flyaway napkins, and RAs doing the Wobble. Needless to say, watching people dance got old pretty fast, so we ventured over to the Start Fresh Fest, which was equally disappointing. We did, however, meet a few other girls from our hall, so that was an upside.
At one point, Sharon commented that all the mingling we'd been doing felt like a waste of energy. At a school with 50,000 kids, it's unlikely you'll ever see anyone again.
Today is the Liberal Arts Honors walk I signed up for. I'm pretty excited! Only two days left before classes start.
The thing about Sundays is that most places aren't open until, like, 11. Which sucked for me because I decided to go shopping for some essentials that I forgot at about 9. Walking down to the Drag is bad enough in this heat, and then discovering that there's NOWHERE to buy flip flops for another hour and a half is just the icing on the cake.
So, to kill some time, I went exploring. And by exploring, I mean searching the Tower area for a comfortable place to wait it out. Turns out, all the libraries are closed so my plan of sitting in the beautiful Life Science library I discovered last year was foiled. In fact, the entire main building wasn't doing much for me, so I found Garrison Hall, the one building that I have a class in and was not sure where it was located. There were couches in Garrison (thank God), so I sat there for about an hour before I ventured out of the A/C and toward Tyler's, where I purchased some overpriced flip flops and moved on with my day.
Sharon and I went to a soccer game in the afternoon with our neighbor across the hall, Brooke. It was hot and we were hungry, so the three of us left at half time and walked to Kerbey Lane, the most insanely tasty cafe on the Drag and maybe in Austin.
In the evening, the residence hall hosted a cookout in the courtyard. It had a luau theme, and was decorated with leis strung from trees, tiki torches, flyaway napkins, and RAs doing the Wobble. Needless to say, watching people dance got old pretty fast, so we ventured over to the Start Fresh Fest, which was equally disappointing. We did, however, meet a few other girls from our hall, so that was an upside.
At one point, Sharon commented that all the mingling we'd been doing felt like a waste of energy. At a school with 50,000 kids, it's unlikely you'll ever see anyone again.
Today is the Liberal Arts Honors walk I signed up for. I'm pretty excited! Only two days left before classes start.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
First Night
Random thought: I never thought that I'd have too many photos for my dorm bulletin board! Granted, I did bring almost 100...
I moved all my stuff into my dorm last night. That was quite an adventure! Parking at my school is hellacious, and we had to park around the block from my dorm. So we carried four loads of extremely heavy furniture, clothes, and general STUFFS all the way to my dorm, then up three flights of stairs and down the hall. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I live on the fourth floor of a dorm with no elevator.
I unpacked most of my belongings last night as well, getting my room as close to perfection as possible. My mom insisted on making my bed for me. That almost made me want to cry, for some reason. Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster, though, so I guess I'm not surprised. I went from excited to terrified to sad to this "unfeeling of nothingness" more times than I can count.
I slept at the hotel with my mother and sisters last night. I didn't sleep very well.
This morning, my family and I explored the campus while my roommate, Sharon, moved in. We dropped by to see her and meet her family, then headed over to Phil's Icehouse, which is this AMAZING burger place connected to an Amy's Ice Cream which also serves the nectar of the gods (aka cactus fruit lemonade). I was getting really freaked out at that point. We swung by HEB to grab a couple things and then my mom drove me back to campus and literally dropped me off on the side of the road. I teared up a little, I'll admit, as I walked back to my room. But then I started hanging my photos (not enough room for all of them) and my roommate came back and I was sufficiently distracted. Sharon and I explored the campus, grabbed sandwiches for dinner, and are headed to a comedy show at one of the dorms tonight. I even squeezed in a tiny (and unexpected) nap. So far, so good.
I moved all my stuff into my dorm last night. That was quite an adventure! Parking at my school is hellacious, and we had to park around the block from my dorm. So we carried four loads of extremely heavy furniture, clothes, and general STUFFS all the way to my dorm, then up three flights of stairs and down the hall. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I live on the fourth floor of a dorm with no elevator.
I unpacked most of my belongings last night as well, getting my room as close to perfection as possible. My mom insisted on making my bed for me. That almost made me want to cry, for some reason. Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster, though, so I guess I'm not surprised. I went from excited to terrified to sad to this "unfeeling of nothingness" more times than I can count.
I slept at the hotel with my mother and sisters last night. I didn't sleep very well.
This morning, my family and I explored the campus while my roommate, Sharon, moved in. We dropped by to see her and meet her family, then headed over to Phil's Icehouse, which is this AMAZING burger place connected to an Amy's Ice Cream which also serves the nectar of the gods (aka cactus fruit lemonade). I was getting really freaked out at that point. We swung by HEB to grab a couple things and then my mom drove me back to campus and literally dropped me off on the side of the road. I teared up a little, I'll admit, as I walked back to my room. But then I started hanging my photos (not enough room for all of them) and my roommate came back and I was sufficiently distracted. Sharon and I explored the campus, grabbed sandwiches for dinner, and are headed to a comedy show at one of the dorms tonight. I even squeezed in a tiny (and unexpected) nap. So far, so good.
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