"It's a marathon, not a sprint!"

Class starts in an hour. Here are some things that have happened in the past couple days:

• Yesterday was orientation. It was, for lack of a better word, interesting.
• There are around 25 people in the Public Relations program. Three are guys. All three are straight. SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE. (On a side note, I still haven't found a new gay best friend up here.)
• I'm pretty sure my four years at LSU were simply training for grad school. If I thought LSU was a hardcore drinking school, I think I may have found it's northern match. Where undergrads are enticed to events by free food, the faculty here know the secret to getting grad students involved: FREE ALCOHOL. It's like they're mind readers!
• On that note, every time I told a professor what my schedule was they all got that wide-eyed "better you than me look" (or as I fondly refer to it, the look I give people when they say they're majoring in physics or chemistry). I wanted to ask, "I'm going to be drinking a lot this semester, aren't I?"
• I still don't have an assistantship. I NEED THIS TO CHANGE.
• In lieu of this, I've started carrying my resume with me wherever I go, and I am thrusting it in the face of anyone who mentions the word "assistantship".
• Tangent: Boston high-schoolers are obnoxious, and I can see that sharing a subway with them is going to try my patience.
• I woke up at 4:30 this morning to catch a 6:20 train. I'm exhausted, but extremely ready for class to start. Not so ready, however, for all the reading that's going to come with it.
• I miss: CCs and PJs. There is no equivalent (besides Dunkin Donuts, which is OK, but not really a place I want to kill time/study in) up here.
  
• I drove to the train station with my heater on this morning. Heater. On. In September. THIS IS CRAZY TALK.
• Apparently, marathons are very popular among BU's faculty. I spoke to a handful of professors who run them. All I could think of was the old adage, "It's a marathon, not a sprint" that my friends and I used to tell each other during tailgates or other periods of extended drinking. It was all I could do to bite my tongue and NOT say anything during these conversations except for the occasion smile-and-nod and the well placed "Oh wow!" I think my filter is getting better.

Well, that killed 30 minutes.

Freshman Year: Smells like hopes, dreams and cheap beer.

Well, I spent yesterday on campus. I was greeted with two of my least favorite types of people: Stupid, self-righteous law students* and pretentious overbearing undergrads.

*Note: I do not hate all law students. I have several friends that are in law school, and I am quite fond of them. Some of the funniest people and best drinking buddies I know are law students. So, when I say stupid, self-righteous law students, I really do mean people who are dumb as posts and probably paid their way into law school and now think they are better than anyone else because of it.

It was orientation week for everybody that was not me on campus, which means I picked The Absolute Worst Day to go because there were a shit ton of orientation guides, holding up their little signs, being followed by freshman. My issue with this is obvious. Orientation groups do not move with precision, or with any implication that there is a goal in mind. In fact, they saunter. It takes them 12 million years to get from point A to point B, because God forbid they lose someone, and some unfortunate 18 year old has to find his/her way around because they were lost from a group they probably didn't want to be a part of anyway. My main problem is that, unlike LSU, BU is located on one single street, so instead of being a sprawling campus, it's organized length wise, leaving few safe ways to get around a group of freshman who are taking up the side walk. Also: Their parents were there. Kill me now.

Anyhoo, I had several clear missions yesterday: Get my TerrierCard, drop of my medical forms and get textbooks. That is all. These three things, collectively, should have taken me an hour, tops. It ended up taking me three, almost four hours. Here is a rundown of my day.

10:30 a.m. Arrive on campus, momentary mental hissy fit over shear amount of people on campus.
10:40 a.m. Fight throngs of freshman in front of the George Sherman Union.
10:45 a.m. Ask Law School welcomer how to get to the TerrierCard office. This was my first mistake. Here is our conversation:
Me: Hi, you look like you know what you're doing.
Welcomer: Yep.
Me: Can you tel me how to get to the TerrierCard office?
Welcomer: It's downstairs. You were heading in the right direction, but I'm lazy and the elevator is here. I'll show you.
Me: Thank you.
Welcomer: What program are you in?
Me: Grad student, College of Communication.
Welcomer: Oh. (this was a very loaded oh, like the oh someone says when they are unimpressed with something and therefore think they are better than you) How long is that program?
Me: Year and a half.
Welcomer D-Bag: Oh. (see above.)
10:48 a.m. Find TerrierCard office. There is a line. I have arrived right after and before many first year law students. All of whom are too busy flirting with the original Welcomer D-Bag and his tool friends to listen to the lady at the front of the line, who was instructing everyone to have a form of picture ID out, as well as to know their BU ID number. None of them did, and they acted like this was someone else's fault. Also, everyone ignored me because I did not have a law student name tag on, and it was obvious that I was not part of their clique. It was ridiculous. Hence: Stupid and self-righteous.
10:55 a.m. Leave Union with an awful ID picture. Probably because I was so disgusted by my company.
11:05 a.m. Arrive at Student Health services, only to be informed that they are closed on Thursdays from 11-1 for staff meetings.FML.
11:15 a.m. Buy text books. Spend $377.
11:25 a.m. Eat lunch by myself.
11:30 a.m. Wander around campus bookstore.
11:40 a.m. Take a nap in comfy armchairs on sixth floor of campus bookstore.
12:15 p.m. Walk around outside.
12:30 p.m. Sit on a bench. Outside.
1:00 p.m. FINALLY drop off medical forms.

Obviously, it was a long day. It made me re-evaluate this decision, but in the end, I am still looking forward to classes beginning, because I desperately need some friends my own age up here. MY orientation is Tuesday, probably planned that way so there won't be as many people in the way. At least I hope so.

My first days as a Southern transplant in the North

Well, I made it alive.

I have a nice outline of an entry to be entitled "Things I Learned on my 30 Hour Road Trip to Massachusetts," but unfortunately I don't have regular access to the internet right now (and I left my notes at my Noni's. Oops.) so it'll have to wait. Also in the works: "Things I Learned my First Week in Massachusetts," to follow.

So, this is to let everyone know that I am alive, I made it and yes, it's weird being up here. I keep thinking I'm going to be leaving soon, so I have to keep reminding myself that I'm here for a while. WEIRD, I'm telling you. I'm so thrown off, even though I knew this was coming.

Also: For the first time since freshmen year at LSU, I'm looking forward to starting school. Simply for the fact that it will give me something to do. No friends = constant boredom. I did however, start knitting, so there's that.

Less than one month to go!

As of Sunday, I have less than one month till the big movin' day. I am nervous and excited! Every now and then I wake up in a panic; there's nothing specific that I'm concerned about. More than likely, it's just the overwhelming fear of starting a new chapter in my life. Also, this will be the first time in almost 23 years that I will be more than a couple hours away from my mother for an extended period of time (excluding my summer in Europe, which I do not count because I always knew I was returning home). This time, I will not be returning to Mandeville in a couple months. This move, likely, is permanent. It's more than a little frightening!

Also, everyday my move and life in Boston gets more and more real. I received my schedule this week, as well as my "bill". Seeing the classes that I will be taking as well as how much I owe them makes everything more realistic and palpable. It's like all of a sudden I realized this is really happening (as if it was pretend before, I know).

In unrelated news, I am going to learn to knit. I really need a hobby, and since I have been told by my lovely boyfriend, John, that shopping is NOT a hobby, I've picked knitting. I have a few reasons: 1) It's cheap(er), in comparison to other hobbies I dabble in, such as scrap booking, 2) I can make my own scarves and hats for the cold winters, which makes it economical, 3) My noni can teach me, making it a Grandmother-Granddaughter bonding experience. So, basically: I get to make things, and John has to wear them. Everybody wins!

My first impression of BU

So, I finally have a little more Boston action to report:

I spent the past week in Boston/Plymouth. On both Saturday and Monday my parents and I took the "T" (for those of you not accustomed to MA mass transit, the "T" is the subway, but also encompasses the commuter rail) into Boston.

On Saturday, our day mostly consisted of getting a little of the lay of the land. I accepted BU's admission offer sight unseen, so I was pretty keen to see the campus I will be calling home for the next year and a half. I have to say, it was pretty damn impressive. It's a totally different type of campus than LSU is. Obviously, it is located in a real city (let's face it, Baton Rouge was built around LSU; BU was built within Boston), and it looks like it. Boston is a really old city, so naturally, BU has acquired some really old buildings. Lots of elegant brownstones that they have converted into offices and classrooms; in fact, I have been told that Alden Hall, one of those brownstones, houses many PR classes. The only downside? No AC! In fact, I found that many buildings on campus do not have AC. I guess that's part of what they call culture shock.

On Monday, we actually met with a couple professors. When I say that they are as different as day and night, I mean it. However, both were really helpful, and I really look forward to working with them. After my visit, I actually feel smart enough to go to BU. For a while, I was under the impression that I didn't really deserve my acceptance, and that I was not quite up to par. I don't have that feeling anymore. And let me tell you, it is a nice feeling! In fact, all of my worries about school, internships and jobs have evaporated. I feel really good about my future. I know that I made the right decision and the best decision. I can't wait to start!

In the meantime, though, I have a lot of packing to do...

The DAY I never thought I would live to see...

...came and went.

:) I graduated from LSU today!

Next stop, BU! Watch out, Boston...y'all will never know what hit ya.