Seeing my parents

This week went by very very fast. School went well, I found out I got a B on my French test and my Psychology test which I was really happy about! Also it was Chelsie's birthday so me and some girls got her a big gift certificate to Target and also took her out to eat at this Italian restaurant with probably ten girls. My roommate and I are still getting along except for one thing: our room SMELLS. I do my laundry once a week and my clothes smell good,but she never does laundry and her stuff smells so bad but she doesn't understand. There's a roommate contract that we just signed and it said something about hygene on it but I felt bad and didn't want to say anything so I just try to keep the window open as much as possible.
My parents came down for parents weekend like I said. It was great to see them! We saw Superbad on Friday night, which I thought would be very awkward to see with your parents but they ended up loving it so it was fun. Saturday we went to Kansas City because I had never been and we went to the Plaza to go shopping. Another great thing about having them here was the food! I finally got to get away from the dorm food and had steak, ribs and just normal food all weekend. Also staying in the hotel was great, I got to shower without shoes on for the first time in over a month and finally take a bath. Saturday night my dad and I went to the football game. It was a great night for a game, nice and cool and we had a lot of fun. Sunday was basically just eating and doing a Target run before they left. Now that they came, I dont feel homesick except I miss my sister and my younger cousins, it's been really hard not to see them but I will fall break! This week I have a math and french test to look forward to so it should be very busy with studying...once again!

WOW Week

After all my excitement and anxiety over college, it has finally come. Now, a week into it I can hardly believe it has only been six days since I moved in. At my university, the first week is called WOW Week, and is an orientation for all incoming students. Every freshman is put into a group of about fifteen kids, and is led by two WOW leaders. I was extremely nervous to see who would be in my group. Would they be people that I would enjoy spending my first week with, or would I not be able to connect with any of them? Thankfully, I have ended up loving my group and the people in it. We have gone hiking, to the beach, to the town’s farmers’ market and even made pancakes one morning at my leaders’ apartment. Every moment that I have away from my group I try to use making new friends. I am not naturally outgoing and so this is quite a task for me, but I have been able to find quite a few freshmen that I get along with and share my desperation for making friends. Over the last few days I have found the true art of meeting new people. I have discovered that the best way is to be painfully blunt and just go up to them and introduce yourself. Although this might be weird is most settings, it has become the norm on my campus. After the first hello, discussion topics include your major, what you plan to do with it, where you are living, and what classes you are taking. When you start to feel more comfortable with your company, it is time to move on to topics such as your roommate and their weird habits and funny stories about the few days you've had on campus. For those of you that don't have any problems making new friends, this info might not seem needed. However, I hope a few of you understand where I am coming from. All in all, this first week has been incredible, but it seems impossible that I will be spending the next nine months here. It almost feels like summer camp, but that will most likely stop with classes on Monday.

Moving In

How do I describe moving in to my dorm? It was so exciting and nerve racking at the same time, not to mention exhausting. When I got to the campus that morning there were already hundreds and thousands of students moving box upon box into their rooms. After going through this a few days ago, I feel that I can give you some advice for your own experience.
1. Find out if your residence hall has elevators. I am on the 3rd story, and my hall does not. My legs are still burning from all the stairs!
2. Don't kick your parents out right away. Let them help you set up and take you out to a meal or two. You will discover that most students are spending some last minute time with their families, which makes making friends move-in weekend a little difficult.
3. Bring storage boxes. The closets in most dorm rooms are not very spacious, and the same goes for the dressers. You will also need little containers to put miscellaneous items in.
4. Once you are moved in, meet the neighbors. My room mate and I went down the hall and introduced ourselves to everyone with their doors open, and it helped a lot. My floor is already starting to feel like a little community.
5. Leave your door open. People will stop in and say hello, which is a nice way to meet people.
6. Bring a fan if you dorm room does not have air conditioning. Mine does not, and my little fan had become a life saver!
7. Most importantly, be friendly. Everyone is going through the same thing as you, so this is a perfect time to make friends.

4th Week at School

Even though this last school week was only four days long, it seemed as though it lasted forever, not necessarily in a bad way but by two o'clock on Friday, I was ready to be done. I had my first French test which I was scared to death about. I still have no idea how I did, but I'm hoping ok because that's another difference between college and high school, you only have a few tests per semester and homework doesn't count for hardly any of your grade so you have to do well on those tests. I have my first Psychology test on Tuesday that I've been studying for, for the past week but on the first day my professor told us that 30% of kids fail his class, which wasn't all that comforting. Chelsie went out of town this weekend on this trip with a fraternity. I was invited to go but decided not to because I didn't know my date and I figured if he was weird, it could turn out to be a really bad weekend. She said it wasn't that bad,but I'm still glad I stayed here. I hung out with my roommate and this other girl on my floor most of the weekend and also met some new, really nice kids. We went over to their house Friday night and Saturday after our football game as well. That was the first game I've been to which could have been a lot of fun except it was about a thousand degrees out so we only stayed for a quarter. I'm really glad I hung out with these new people this weekend because believe it or not, it's still been a little difficult to meet good friends. I hang out with these four girls who I like but most of them are in sororities which takes up a lot of time and one of them kind of bugs me anyways, she makes fun of people a lot and everything always seems to be about her; I kind of feel like these are my temporary friends until I meet some that are like the ones I had back home. At my high school there were six of us that were best friends and it's been super hard not having them here. We're all spread out over the country and I miss them to death. It's weird because I feel like I haven't met anyone remotely like those girls and I'm not looking for replacements, just people that have similar characteristics that I really like and get along with. My homesickness has kind of gone away over the past few days. I'm still very excited to see my parents this next weekend but it's not needed like it was last week. I'll let you know how it goes!

The Count Down

This summer has inched by, the count down from college going from two months to two weeks at a snails pace. It is strange to realize that now I have only one day left before I leave for college, for the day never did seem like it would truly arrive. For so long the fall has seemed like another world away, one that would never actually come. However, tonight I am facing the truth that I only have two more nights in my bed (a fact that I would never mention to my mom). Though I had planned this time to be relaxing and comforting, it has turned out to be no such thing. My list of things to do is growing exponentially, and I am starting to realize how many details I have overlooked. Tomorrow my main goal is packing my clothes, which actually requires a moderate amount of planning. I have to make sure none of my favorite items are stowed away, unable for me to reach in the next few days. My wardrobe must be planned so that I don’t end up digging through all my boxes and bags for that favorite Gap t-shirt!
Over the last few days, I have continually gone over the plan for my move. I will arrive at the dorms in the morning, meet my room mate, unpack my basic things, and then say goodbye to my parents for the day. The rest of the day is a mystery to me. I hope to start making friends and get to know my room mate. The next morning I will show my parents my newly decorated room, have breakfast with them, and then say a tearful goodbye. I wish I could say that I wouldn’t cry, but I know myself well enough to be certain that I will. My only comfort is that my room mate seems close to her parents as well and will hopefully understand and sympathize with my red, swollen eyes. Although I have carefully drawn this plan for move-in weekend, I know that the next few days will fly by in a whirl of sadness, confusion, and excitement.

So Much Work

Now as I'm into my 4th week here, classes seem to keep getting harder and harder. At first I think I was so nervous that I did all of my homework immediately after class and didn't think about it again until the next day. Now as I'm starting to feel really settled in, it seems like there is so much more that I'd like to be doing than homework: SLEEPING, going over to my friends' dorms, watching TV, making a Target run, eating, working out, and the list goes on. So lately I've been putting my homework off until later in the day and it just makes it feel like I have so much more work to do. So one thing that I would advise anyone not to do is procrastinate! My roommate and I are getting along well, she's from a town that's just about a half hour away from mine back home, so we originally we had some mutual friends which was nice to have something in common. It almost seems that when one of us is in the room, the other isn't which makes it fairly easy. I'm starting to get sick of the food here already, which is bad. Apparently the dining hall that we always go to, that's closest to my dorm is the best food on campus. Not going to lie, it's pretty good food and there's a big variety, but after a while it seems like everything is the same. As for the boys we were hoping to meet, there are a few that we hung out with during the week, but no one that I think we'll stay friends with. Oh well, it'll happen eventually. This last weekend I went to visit a friend in a different state at his school, which was a lot of fun. That's one of the nice things about college, if I haven't said it already; the freedom! The last few days have really been the first time that I've felt homesick, which is surprising because I used to get homesick all the time, no matter where I was or who I was with. My parents are coming down in two weeks for Family Weekend though, so it will be great to see them! As I said, homework seems to be taking over my life, but hopefully this next week will be fun and exciting!

Packing

I consider myself a fairly good packer. By that I mean, I know what I need to bring for a camping trip, a night at a friend's house, or a two-week long vacation. But what do I do when I need to pack up everything I want for an entire school year? First there is the clothes. As I start to separate the clothing I will and will not be bringing with me to school, I start to notice that the pile of clothes I am bringing is considerably larger than the one that is staying home. This does not bode well for extra closet space. Then there are the school supplies. Considering I am going to college to go to school, this category is, sadly, necessary. But as I have obviously never been to a college class, I do not have a good idea of what I will want. I can't decide between binders or notebooks, a laptop bag or backpack. Do I bring a scientific calculator, or go and buy a new graphing one? After the school supplies come everything else. And when I say everything, I am not exaggerating much. I need laundry soap and hampers, printers and ink cartridges, toothpaste and shampoo. I am bringing pictures, frames, posters, coffee cups, books, and purses. All the day to day items I always have at home I am relocating to a very small dorm room. I have 6 boxes crammed full of these items, plus one large storage box and a laundry hamper full of bedding. This seems to be too much and not enough, all at once. It will be interesting to see, in 4 days, if all my boxes even fit inside my room!