Waking up this morning, I felt pretty bitter about the fact that we were leaving the comfort of our soft hotel beds and the guidance of our chaperone. I washed my face and packed the last things into my suitcases and went down to the Biltmore lobby to meet with the cohort. There, we waited for our shuttle to drive us to Brown.
Although I said we were waiting for a shuttle, the shuttle actually never came, so we just called taxis. After a short drive, we arrived at the Main Green of campus where we checked in for our summer at Brown. At check-in, we received our nice, red Summer@Brown lanyard and an envelope containing a letter from our instructors, a campus map, our dorm keys, and our Brown IDs. I met up with the rest of the cohort after checking in and we proceeded to move to the quads. I found myself situated in the dorm furthest away from everyone else, Jameson Mead. I'm currently on the third floor in a double with a fairly nice RA and hallmates. I didn't get time to unpack immediately as we were to go back down to pick up our rental fans, come back up to drop those off, and then leave for Thayer Street to find breakfast and to buy laundry detergent and our sweatshirts. We went to the Brown bookstore where we all bought our own sweatshirts courtesy of the ILC. I myself got a burgundy-red shaded hoodie from the store.
We ate at a restaurant called Andrea's, a Greek restaurant on the corner of a block. There, our cohort shared our last consecutive meal together with a few cheers from Ms. Scott, Arnold, and Kevin. I had an Olympian Burger, a burger complimented with Greek fries with mushrooms, Swiss cheese, bacon, tomatoes, and lettuce inside. I honestly found the burger to be slightly on the burnt side, overpowering all of the flavor and leaving a dry feeling in my mouth. After the meal was finished, we went to the local CVS and picked up laundry detergent since all of us only brought about one weeks worth of clothes and haven't washed anything since arrival.
Following that, we caught half of a campus tour by hopping onto a passing by tour group. The tour was fairly short and only covered the Main Green and Hughes Court. After, the cohort returned to our dorms where we said our goodbyes to Ms. Scott until Thursday. From there we split, where I walked the extra half-block to my residential hall to unpack in my dorm. However, rather than fully unpacking, I just took a nap until 4 PM, the scheduled time for our orientation.
I set an alarm to wake me up 15 minutes prior, but unfortunately I set it to AM instead of PM. Thankfully, my roommate woke me up just in time for me to rush over and not miss the orientation. The orientation was about an hour long and covered rules and thing we needed to know during our stay here at Brown. Afterward, the students broke out into groups according to which RA will be watching us. My RA's name is Charlie, a bright character for sure. He greeted us and we proceeded with an icebreaker where each of us would have to add an adjective to our name, but the twist was that we had to remember everyone's adjective and name who went before us and state them. I was near the 2/3 mark of about 16 of us, so trying to remember about ten of my hallmates' names was definitely not pleasurable. After we were done, we all went to Sharpe Refectory, one of the two dining halls on campus. The food wasn't the highest quality, but it was definitely bearable.
We actually had a "fire drill" in the middle of our meal, but thankfully I was already finished. We were outside for approximately ten to fifteen minutes when we were left back in, but I just left about five minutes after going back. I stopped by my room to unpack some more, then headed over to the ice cream social at 7 PM. Nothing particularly special happened there, as I wasn't able to make much conversation since my hallmates were all at the dorms still watching the World Cup.
It was about 8:30 when I decided to pay Jack a visit in his dorm with Arnold, but it was short-lived as the RA meetings were at 9. I left a little bit after arriving and typing a bit of this blog, but unfortunately could not find where my RA meeting was. I bumped into one of my hallmates, Brian, where our adventure of finding the meeting place ensued. In the end, we did not find the meeting place and had to join with another RA's group, but Charlie doesn't seem to mind. Now I am sitting here finishing my blog getting ready to sleep for my first class tomorrow and about to start on my room descriptions.
Since my first nap here in the dorm, I've realized again that I'm feeling alone without the comfort of my family and friends. Thankfully we have phones and instant messaging today, so I was able to call home and talk with my friends a bit. I'm sure my homesickness will go away again, but come back later when I'm sitting in my dorm doing nothing, but that's the least of my problems now. I'm looking forward to how my class will go and what kind of activities I'll be participating here, so here's hoping for a quick, but fun, three weeks.
We ate at a restaurant called Andrea's, a Greek restaurant on the corner of a block. There, our cohort shared our last consecutive meal together with a few cheers from Ms. Scott, Arnold, and Kevin. I had an Olympian Burger, a burger complimented with Greek fries with mushrooms, Swiss cheese, bacon, tomatoes, and lettuce inside. I honestly found the burger to be slightly on the burnt side, overpowering all of the flavor and leaving a dry feeling in my mouth. After the meal was finished, we went to the local CVS and picked up laundry detergent since all of us only brought about one weeks worth of clothes and haven't washed anything since arrival.
 |
| The cohort in our lovely Brown attire. As you can see, we're alive and well! |
Following that, we caught half of a campus tour by hopping onto a passing by tour group. The tour was fairly short and only covered the Main Green and Hughes Court. After, the cohort returned to our dorms where we said our goodbyes to Ms. Scott until Thursday. From there we split, where I walked the extra half-block to my residential hall to unpack in my dorm. However, rather than fully unpacking, I just took a nap until 4 PM, the scheduled time for our orientation.
I set an alarm to wake me up 15 minutes prior, but unfortunately I set it to AM instead of PM. Thankfully, my roommate woke me up just in time for me to rush over and not miss the orientation. The orientation was about an hour long and covered rules and thing we needed to know during our stay here at Brown. Afterward, the students broke out into groups according to which RA will be watching us. My RA's name is Charlie, a bright character for sure. He greeted us and we proceeded with an icebreaker where each of us would have to add an adjective to our name, but the twist was that we had to remember everyone's adjective and name who went before us and state them. I was near the 2/3 mark of about 16 of us, so trying to remember about ten of my hallmates' names was definitely not pleasurable. After we were done, we all went to Sharpe Refectory, one of the two dining halls on campus. The food wasn't the highest quality, but it was definitely bearable.
We actually had a "fire drill" in the middle of our meal, but thankfully I was already finished. We were outside for approximately ten to fifteen minutes when we were left back in, but I just left about five minutes after going back. I stopped by my room to unpack some more, then headed over to the ice cream social at 7 PM. Nothing particularly special happened there, as I wasn't able to make much conversation since my hallmates were all at the dorms still watching the World Cup.
 |
| Ice cream social! |
Since my first nap here in the dorm, I've realized again that I'm feeling alone without the comfort of my family and friends. Thankfully we have phones and instant messaging today, so I was able to call home and talk with my friends a bit. I'm sure my homesickness will go away again, but come back later when I'm sitting in my dorm doing nothing, but that's the least of my problems now. I'm looking forward to how my class will go and what kind of activities I'll be participating here, so here's hoping for a quick, but fun, three weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment