| orientation epic: book I, boston, lisps, fuck-ups, and the mystery of the missing roommate |
[Jun. 17th, 2007|12:54 am] |
im done with orientation. it was such a whirlwind. i guess i got so used to not ever having to do anything that when i actually had to do stuff, it wore me out. i did manage to meet some cool people though. i dont want to say that i hated every second of orientation, but im definitely glad that its over.
just so you can get a feel of what i went through, here's a step-by-setp overiview of my past few days.
WEDNESDAY
my brother's friends from spain were coming up to see the mika concert in boston that night, but for some reason were coming into providence. so dan and i had to drive down to prov to pick one of them up (the other one deecided not to come). it was good to see sara because i hadn't seen her since february, but i only got to see her from the time it took to get from providence to quincy. so they dropped me at the station and im waiting for the train when some guy just walks up and starts telling me about how someone just gave him a free week pass but didnt understand why. long story short, despite my attempts to avoid/ not talk to this guy, he managed to talk to me all the way into the city, getting off only one stop before me. topics of our (aka his) conversation included cape cod, tech support, and how a printer works. i took it as a forerunner for what was to come. i got to suffolk at 3 and checked in. a bunch of suffolk students were basically standing around the check-in desk and told me my room number and to be down here again at 4:15. so i managed to find my room; it was in a suite and it was kind of small. anyway, i made my bed and anticipated my roommate. i was sitting on my bed for like 10 minutes because i didnt want to meet people because i was just in one of those moods. i opened my blinds to reveal a lovely view of a graffitti-ed alleyway peppered with trash, and then i fought with the blinds to get them back down (i bent a couple in the process). time was pretty much standing still, and i realized that if my roommate were to appear, i didnt want to be awkwardly sitting on my bed so i began to ponder if i could leave or if i had to be held in like a prisoner. i decided to leave, and i pretty much walked right out of the building with no objections from anyone. i went to CVS and bough cigarettes because i was so pissed and didnt think i could make it through orientation without them. oh, and this is when i realized that i was addicted; i thought to myself, this could be a problem, but at the time i didn't care. after smoking i felt a lot more relaxed, and i continued on my solo adventure through quincy market and up to the north end where i got a cannoli at mike's. i mosied on back to the res hall at 4 and waited in the room for a presentation to start. they separated all the honors program kids (including myself) from everybody else and took us to a class building to work on our schedules. everyone in the honors prog introduced themselves, and surprisingly enough, i didnt want to punch any of them after our first encounter. they told us we could pick all our own classes, and then discovered that they had already put us in 4 classes together and we could pick one more. i told my advisor that i wanted to take spanish, to which she responded
"ok, what about taking MATH" (she really emphasized math, i'll tell this story in person if it ever comes up)
"no, i dont really want to take math, i'd rather take spanish"
"ok, i think math 130 would be good for you. MATH MATH MATH" (or something like that)
so i got signed up for math, and wasnt happy about it because not only did i not want to take math (this one included venn diagrams and linear equations) but also because it would be my only friday class (at 8 am). after the most helpful advising session, we went to dinner at the omni parker house hotel; this wicked nice hotel for which i brought dressy clothes, but they didnt let us change so we all went in t-shirts and shorts. we didnt fit in. we had our own private room at the restaurant, which was cool, and we got good food and we got to meet the other honors prog kids and professors who teach honors courses. i didnt hate it. then after dinner we had an hour until we had another activity, so i walked around looking for people, but there was no one anywhere. i called ceci, and was glad that she talked to me and excited that she got a car so that she could drive me sometime. after an hour more or less locked up, we attended "PIE IN THE SKY," which was coffee and pastries on the top floor of the res hall. then we went to the movies. i saw mr. brooks. it was fucked up, but i kind of liked it. when we got into the theatre, i went to sit at the handi-capped bar so i could put my feet up, and because i didn't know anybody, i did my "somebody come sit with me" line, but no one responded, and i sat by myself. a great start to my firsat day of orientation i thought. then we went back to the res hall. i was sooooo tired and sooooooooooo glad that i wasn't going to have a roommate that night. so i went to bed, but i was awake pretty much all night.
THURSDAY
i woke up wicked early, but couldnt get back to sleep. i went down for breakfast, but i wasnt hungry. i saw a line so i stood in it because i thought it was a food line, but i figured it wasnt when one girl emerged from a room with no food telling people to have their licenses out. *this was the girl whom i told that i never wanted to see her again (in my head), but i turned out to see her everywhere. the line was for ID pics. for those of you whom i haven't told, i showed the guy my license, he said ready, i smiled and heard a click, went to stand up, and then the flash went off. my ID pic is of me on my way standing up. i grabbed a bagel in the real food line, but as soon as i sat down, we were all transported to another building for a welcome address. after this snoozer, we were split up into groups and went off in separate directions to receive the "no partying" lecture. then ICE BREAKERS!!!! we all had to go around the room saying "i think im the only one in the room who..." i didn't say anything because i didn't like my group. pretty much because one stoner got mad when i said that i had been to spain and so he was not the only one in the room who had been there, which was followed by a ditz saying "i KNOW im the only one in the room who has a house in spain" this girl previously introduced herself as "elyse" when her nametag clearly stated "lauren." dont know what was up with that. this was also the session which i spoke solely with a lisp for my entertainment; the OL had a lisp and thought i was making fun of her. then the tards had to take the english placement exam while the honors kids had to attend a lecture about why we should take a class for which they had already arbitrarily signed us up. i heard the girl who reminds me of christie, allison, calling my name and i looked up and she waived at me saying "i just wanted to waive at you" which is such a christie-esque thing to do. it made me realize that i did like some people i met. then lunch. i couldnt see straight at this point from the lack of food, and to my luck, there was a huge line when i got to the gym, and even more to my luck, it was "barbeque" food. by this they meant nasty colored hamburgers floating in grease-water. i ate a cookie. then we had to take the math placement exam. i took soooo long, and idk why. i was the last in my room and i could tell the lady wanted to strangle me. but somehow i managed to get a 108 on one part and an 84 on the other. still not sure how i broke 100. then i had freetime for like 5 minutes while other kids worked on their schedules, so i hung with the honors kids. it was nice to talk to them because they would actually talk to me. then i attended a free-for-all Q&A session about studying abroad which entailed me and two other girls making fun of the airhead from earlier that morning ask what a "prague" was. i managed to fill out a survey wrong, so i didn't turn it in. then we all attended a lecture about how to get a suffolk e-mail and about financial aid. because i have these already, i wasnt paying attention. instead the girl that reminds me of molly burtis, emma, and i made fun of the people around us, and the teacher giving the lecture. at one point the professor (who sounded like the librarian from lawrence but looked like an indian cher) stopped the presentation, looked at me and said, "we can wait till your finished. are you finished?" (i know i put the wrong your, but i did it because i thought that's how that idiot teacher would have spelt it in the impending write-up)
"yeah"
(semi-long pause)
"Dont you want to apologize to the class for your interruption?"
"not really"
"uh-huh, and what's your name?'
"doug hamilton"
"well, try to keep it down doug"
after this enlightening session, it was back to our groups to do more ICE BREAKERS!!!!! one of which included us writing stuff about ourselves (i.e. fav movie, food, skittle color) on a card and then trying to figure out who wrote what. i got my own card, but didnt say anything and managed to get my group in trouble because no one would fess up to having that card. i was amazed that they didn't figure out that if everyone else had been identified except me and my person was still a mystery than it must be me in both cases. process of eliminaton doesn't lie, but is obviously too complex for my group members. then we did this thing where the OL would read a statement and we had to go to separate sides of the room depending upon whether we agreed with the statement or not. i was bored and tired, so i stayed in the same corner the whole time. somehow a person in my group caught on that i wasn't moving or participating in the discussion, and this small argument escalated into a kerfuffle and eventually ended with him telling me that he'll "fuck me up if i ever step foot in revere." then finally after a day of not eating we got to go to dinner. there was a line out the door. i represented how much of a college kid i was because i ate pizza! (a kid actually told me that i was a true college kid because i was eating pizza for dinner). then back in our groups where we talked about the dangers of facebook and OMG it is sooooooo dangerous. then we went to a performance that the OL's put on about a murder mystery. this was comprised of me and emma making fun of the entire play. before the play, they told us we would get nachos after the show, so when we thought it ended, allison yelled out "BITCH WHERE'S MY NACHOS!!!" i laughed a lot, and even more because there was another act in the play. i left the play feeling like they owed me something for the time they just took from me. Then we got our nachos, which pretty much made me want to puke, and went to this kid's room to hang. i met some more cool kids then. then i had to take the spanish placement exam (at 10 pm). so i had to sit in a wheel-chair with no back, but a sharp metal stick protruding upwards to take my test. it was really easy (ex. which of these would not normally be found in la ducha? a. jabon b. champu c. perro d. agua). they bracketed the scores which responded to each class, the highest of which was 400-440. i got a 587. then more hangin' and later the OLs put on an improv show, which might have been enteratining, but was consumed with the cool kids (aka the kids i liked) putting numbers in each other's cellulars. btw the whole day i had been periodically checking my room for signs that someone else was there, but all day nothing. by 10 when i realized i wasnt going to have a roommate (even though there was another name on my door) i was sooo happy. when i told allison that i had no roommate she said "he probably saw you and went to someone else's room." after the show i told like 3 people they could come chill in my room cuz i had no roomie, so about 56 kids squeeze into my room and we all talked. it was a good time. when they left, i just went to bed because i was exhausted and excited that i could have 2 pillows.
this is getting long, and im tired, so i'll finish my epic later with FRIDAY, maybe the most eventful day yet.
PACE |
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