Glimpse of Orientation

Packing ended up being a crazy, last minute process, so to make up for not posting any packing pictures, I thought I would show you guys some pictures from my hectic move-in day. But first, I want to tell you what it's like when you arrive at Saint Mike's for move-in day. There's a group of orientation leaders with signs in their hands, chanting your name (after asking what it is) and blowing whistles non-stop. The energy from the leaders is welcoming and comforting. After arriving, you pick up your key for your room, and begin the move-in process. A bonus is that the orientation leaders help you carry in your stuff, which I give them major props for. I'm living on the fourth floor of Ryan (by clicking on this, it gives you a virtual tour of the dorm rooms and a view from the outside of Ryan). Like the other dorm buildings, Ryan doesn't have elevators, so going up and down four flights of stairs repetitively was exhausting enough. After hours of lifting and unpacking stuff, this was the final result to mine and my roommate's (Jaycie) room!

Jaycie's side of the room

My side of the room (with me lounging on the bed, after a long day)

 Move-in day doesn't stop after you move in. The rest of the day consisted of ice breakers with your orientation group, a mandatory convocation held at the Chapel, a class of 2015 photoshoot, floor meetings with RA and floormates (includes pizza delivery from your RA!), and a fun for all hosted by the orientation leaders. The fun for all was full of more whistling, orientation leaders dressed up in crazy costumes, and some more icebreakers that our whole class was involved with. Overall, it was pure madness the first day. All of the events are set up to make you feel comfortable and to make you more familiar with the people you'll be spending the next four years with. It's been awesome so far, and tonight's the orientation dance that is supposed to be the best part of this weekend. I can't wait for it!

I'll be sure to post more on the rest of how orientation went and how my classes are, since classes start Monday!

College Checklist

Woooo! With ten more days left until move-in day, I decided to make a checklist to see what I have done and what I still need to do.

Buy books for classes: Check.
The SMC bookstore provides great deals, with used versions of books discounted from 35% of the new book price. I ordered two of my four books through the SMC bookstore, but through Chegg and Amazon, I found my other two books at a used price cheaper than the bookstore.
Read the summer reading assignment, Eating Animals: Check.
I felt like I had all the time in the world to read Eating Animals, when in reality, I looked at the calendar only to see that it was the beginning of August. Oops! I got an essay assignment for Eating Animals a week later, and that was the push I needed to start reading. I ended up reading the 260 page book in two days! By the way, I recommend reading it because it's interesting to see the truth behind some of the food you eat. I can definitely understand why some people are vegetarians.
Go shopping! : Definite Check.
Honestly, I'm one of those girls who isn't IN LOVE with shopping, but college shopping wasn't something I could get out of. Last week, my mom and I went on a mission determined to get all of my dorm room essentials. Two hours later, we were wheeling out a Target cart filled with numerous shopping bags. Just when I thought Target was going to be the only store we would be buying out, we went to Wal-mart to get school supplies, such as notebooks, pens/pencils, and binders. We took a break after tackling on Wal-mart and Target the same day, and went to the mall a couple days later for back-to-school clothes shopping. Final result: several shopping bags from Macy's, H&M, and Marshall's filled with an assortment of clothes and accessories, such as new cheetah Sperry's, dresses, jeans, boots, and coats. Shopping isn't too bad when you get good results, but man it is tiring!
Clean my room to prepare for packing: Check.

To the left, my pigsty of a room. To the right, success!

Packing and writing Eating Animals essay: Half-checks.
I have organized what I'm going to bring and what I'm going to keep, but I just haven't started the actual packing process itself (storing items in bins, bags, etc). For the essay, I have written a page so far on the struggle between nature and nurture and eating certain foods. I need to write 2-3 pages overall. 

I hope to be done with everything by the end of this week, so next week I won't feel so rushed. Once I'm finished with packing, I'll be sure to post some pictures of everything! 

Time Flies By

My high school graduation song, Never Forget You by Lupe Fiasco, has been a reoccurring song that always finds a way of appearing on shuffle on my iPod. I'll sing along to it any time it plays, but the words of the song never entirely hit me. Last night, Never Forget You came on again. This time, I listened to the words, rather than belting out the words, and it brought me back to the night of my graduation.

It seemed like graduation was just yesterday, but now summer's almost over. Majority of my friends are staying in the New Hampshire area for college, making me the farthest one away out of all of my friends. I was initially scared because I thought that all my friends would be seeing each other more since they are either attending the same school, or are in a close traveling distance away from each other. Now, I've noticed that the distance doesn't seem to matter all that much. I'll miss my friends a lot, but we are still going to keep in touch through texting and skype, and see each other on breaks and visits to each other's colleges. With fifteen days left until move- in day, I'm spending these days having a good time with my friends and family before I leave. I know that within the next two weeks, there are going to be a lot of see you later's (not good-byes) to say to my friends. It's going to be hard, but I honestly cannot wait to start Saint Mike's. I'm so excited to meet new people and to start my time there :)

More Than a Meet and Greet

In mid- July, I got an invitation in the mail to this event called "Student Send-Off." The invitation included that it was going to take place in Windham, NH (the town over from me), and that there were going to be incoming and current students, and also alumni members around the New Hampshire area attending. I eagerly marked the calendar for August 4th, 6:00PM, in the hopes that this gathering would be a great opportunity to meet new people.

How the Send-Off went (rough estimates on time):
6:00PM-6:10PM: The beginning of the meet and greets with the alumni hosting the event. I learned that the alumni hosting the event not only went to Saint Mike's, but also their triplet daughters all went there, too.
6:10PM-7:00PM: Marissa and Lucas, both incoming freshmen, arrived. The first thing Marissa said to me was, "Hey! You look familiar.. I think we're friends on Facebook." It sounds silly, but I think during orientation that will be one of the main icebreaker lines.  It sure helped break the ice with Marissa, as our conversations led to roommates, residential situations, and classes to finding out she's a Psych major so she's in my psych class. I was relieved that I would be going into one of my classes with an automatic connection to someone. Lucas was welcoming with sharing his previous experience with roommates since he attended a prep school. He provided comic relief about how he took full advantage of the laundry service his prep school offered.
The next two people who came were Amy and Meghan, both current students from the class of 2014. Amy is a religious studies and english double major, and also a blogger and tour guide at Saint Mike's (Check out her blog). She enlightened the group by telling her own personal experiences about Alliot (the dining hall), study abroad (she is planning to go to Istanbul, Turkey), and the professors at Saint Mike's. She offered an interesting insight that made me excited about the networking of Saint Mike's. Meghan was a wealth of information providing her perspective on the residential life. I found out that she lived in the 4th floor of Ryan, which is where I'll be living this year.
7:00PM-7:10PM: huddled up the group of students and alumni to take a picture (alumni at each end)

7:10PM-8:00PM (the time my family departed): I listened to my dad, along with other alumni, point out the now-and-then similarities and differences to Saint Mike's. The one similarity that stuck out the most was that the community feeling was still present. That feeling was something that lured me into Saint Mike's, being that it was highly noticeable on my visit, and even during the send-off. Everyone was friendly and openly willing to answer any questions we tossed at their way.

Saint Mike's takes the cake!