As the week comes to an end...

Hello, everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I wrote, but now that I'm a fully fledged college student, I find I have a lot less time than one would expect. Since the last time I wrote, orientation finished up and I started classes.

On the last night of orientation, there was a hypnotist show. He went through the audience picking volunteers, and they did some pretty crazy things. Here they are, all "passed out" from first going under...

...and here they are "fanning" themselves. The hypnotist made them think that it was super hot, and they all started rolling up each other's pants. It was hilarious!

In other news, I've had all of my classes at least once. I'm taking Ancient Philosophy, Greek and Roman Literature and Culture, and Advanced Writing Practicum, all of which are interesting but involve a lot of reading. Hopefully I can get most of it done this weekend so I can start over fresh next week! I'm also taking a physics class entitled "Einstein, Black Holes, and the Big Bang." There isn't too much math involved, but just enough math to be intimidating. But all of my teachers seem great; they are all very into what they are teaching, and I have yet to have a class that was boring.

I guess you could say that I'm adjusting to life at college fairly well. I know enough people that I don't feel awkward talking to anyone. It really does help that I know Wade from high school, and that my roommate and I get along splendidly. The food continues to be an issue, though. And it's not that the food itself is bad, it's the environment. When I get nervous, the first thing that happens is that I find it harder to eat. Some people cry, some people get crabby, I have problems eating. Breakfast is fine because there are never that many people in the cafeteria, and they always have eggs and rice and hashbrowns and the works. But for both lunch and dinner there are so many people in the caf that it is absolutely crazy in there and I just can't eat. My roommate and I were talking about it and she can't stand it either. We're both kind of nervous eaters. So I think I'm going to stop at the grocery store this weekend and pick up some stuff to keep in the room.

Oh, well. That just means more midnight snacks!

Hopefully I will be able to write more regularly, as I get used to my class load and whatnot. Well, off to Greek and Roman!

My Internet Works!

Guess what, everybody! Thanks to the genius of one of my friends, Wade, my internet is now working again!

And so, as promised, here are some pictures from the past few days. I apologize in advance for the not-great quality of the pictures, as they were all taken on my handy-dandy Blackberry. Being the slightly ditzy person that I am, I keep forgetting my camera!

Here are my shoes on the Bart yesterday. It took us over an hour on public transportation to get to the San Francisco Food Bank for our community service project. Long story short, we bagged 5,600 pounds of pinto beans!

A glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge from today as we journeyed by charter bus to the Marin Headlands.

While at the Marin Headlands, we went to a marine animal hospital to see the animals. They had this statue, which made one of the guys here (who stands at about 6'8") look like a dwarf.

And lastly, my parents took Ashlie, Wade and his parents, and myself to dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant. We then walked up to this hill, where I took this amazing picture. It was really, really windy and cold, but we all braved the elements to take a few pictures and enjoy the view.

That's it for now!

Orientation... The Beginning

So, after literally blowing chunks the first night, I am settling in quite well here at school. No, really; I'm starting to figure out who I don't want to go walking around town with at 10 o'clock at night and who is actually very nice. I'm valiantly struggling to remember everyone's names (God knows I'm terrible with names), and I'm actually eating regular meals again. Well, for the most part. I'm still terribly indebted to my stash or sourdough rolls.

The worst thing that has happened so far is that I can't get into the dorm's wireless network. Please allow me to repeat: I DO NOT HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION. For a self-professed Internet junkie, this is a fairly bad thing; kind of like going to the doctor for a routine check up and being told that they have to amputate an arm. Okay, that was a little overly dramatic, but hopefully you get what I mean.

So you may be wondering, how are you posting to your blog if you can't access the Internet? I'm using my roommate's computer, that's how.

Speaking of my roommate, she's actually quite nice. Her name's Ashlie, she's majoring in Advertising and she's actually from the Bay Area. This means she has a fairly good understanding of the city and talks a lot about all the cool places they hold concerts and the good record/poster stores and what not. She seems pretty clued in to that whole scene. Anyhoo, Ashlie's really nice and low key and I probably couldn't have asked for a better roommate.

That being said, I feel kind of bad because she likes to go places at night and has been inviting me along. Now, reader (if you're out there), please keep in mind that I am not a very adventurous person. Actually, I can be, but never at night. I'm kind of a grandma when it comes to having taken a shower by 10 and lounging around my room rather than going out. So I keep turning her down (nicely, of course), but I still feel bad. I probably shouldn't though, as she seems to understand. I just don't want to her to think it's because I don't want to hang out with her, it's just because I don't like walking around at night, especially if it's not necessary.

But back to orientation. I'm in a kind of honor's program, and everyone in it is super nice. I mean, there are a few exceptions, but I'm talking about one or two people out of like 50 or something like that. Not surprisingly, I've been hanging out with more boys and girls. We went out for ice cream last night at the famous Mel's Diner, did a community service project today, and I just got back from a semi formal dinner. Needless to say, they are keeping us very busy.

Tomorrow we are supposed to be going for a hike, and then the real freshman orientation starts. So I'm going to be busy through Monday. I don't know if I'll get up a post before then, but definitely by Tuesday! That's our first day of classes, and I'm sure I will have lots to report. Hopefully by then we will have gotten this Internet thing sorted out and I can post some pictures from my computer.

Until next time!