College- The First Week

To begin, I arrived safely and thankfully at Franciscan University. I must say the drive across Kansas was rather boring. By the time we hit Indiana, Sammi and I found a way to entertain ourselves. We held my giant teddy bear up in the window every time we passed an eighteen wheeler and tried to get the drivers to honk or wave. For the most part we were successful. My mom’s driving drove Sammi and me crazy. She drove exactly the speed limit for most of the trip, stayed behind cars that were going the speed limit and she never really got used to the brake on the mini van.

Moving into the dorms was easy. The orientation team was amazing, carrying all of our stuff up the stairs. Pulling up in a periwinkle purple mini van took a lot of courage but at least we didn’t have to stay by it for long. The dorms have air conditioning and thank goodness for that because it is so hot and humid. It has, however, cooled down. Our internet is not working, making it extremely hard to communicate with people. The RA’s said the internet is being worked on. Our fellow dorm Marian has no air conditioning but they do have internet. Personally as of now I’ll take the ac over the high speed, it’ll come soon enough. I can still get online, I just have to walk down to the JC Williams student center to get online and finding time to do that is difficult.

We are having a tea party in honor of surviving the first week of college. As of today Thursday August 30, 2007 we have been here for a week. The girls on 3^rd floor are really nice, and the lofts up on 4^th floor are really cool. We met some upper classmen who showed us their loft; it’s really big and spacious. The walls of our room look bleak and bare with nothing on them. Apparently we didn’t realize we’d have so much wall space so I have sent home for posters. The girl down the hall had her mom stay till Wednesday that’s a long time.

All weekend masses where in the field house so it wasn’t until Tuesday that I was able to go to Mass in the chapel. Sitting in the chapel is so amazing and looking at the cross against the back wall makes me feel like I am back in St Clare’s in Assisi. The feeling is awesome. I have decided to sit in the front so that I can see and don’t have to go to the back of the chapel for communion. At noon Mass, both times that I have attended, one of the professors and his family have sat in front of me. The kids are adorable but also very distracting. This up coming weekend, September 2nd and 3rd, is opening weekend so once again Mass is in the field house.

Sammi and I managed to find Matt and his good-looking cousin Nathan, not to mention a few other good looking guys, not that we’re out for our MRS degree or anything. There are about 7 of us from Colorado here but I only met one other guy. Oh and it’s a college campus so everyone plays Frisbee. I can proudly say that I bought my very own Franciscan University of Steubenville Frisbee. Apparently one is supposed to name the Frisbee but I am not entirely sure this is true so I will wait a few days. There is also a group or several groups who play Frisbee golf at night, so you have to be careful walking around.

On Sunday we had our “Dinner with 12 Strangers” and went to the Zinno’s house. Three small groups were lucky and were invited over to Righteous B’s house. I hear most of the boys who went to houses with little kids were chased around the house with light sabers and swords. The kids at our dinner were adorable. There were a set of one and a half year old twins and they were the sweetest kids.

Father Dave is still in Austria and no one knows when he’ll be back. Sammi and I just know that the year we go to Austria will be the year he comes back, just our luck. I can’t wait to go to Austria, I’m so excited, but I don’t think I am going till junior year, maybe sophomore.

Classes started Tuesday at 8am. Tuesday and Thursday I start at 8am and finish by 11am so I have the whole day to myself. Mondays and Wednesday’s I have class at 10am, 1pm, and 3:30pm and then on Friday I only have class at 10am and 1pm. The Honors class is fun, people seem to get off topic and others dominate the conversation leaving the rest of us in silence. Some people are also looking too deep and are way too excited. One girl wants to read other books to see if she can find the background of a certain character so we can further evaluate a situation. The rest of us think it’s a little much. A friend, Zach, and I were saying we should keep the intelligence down to our level and suggest that at a certain point during the Iliad they should have ceased warfare for ice cream. It would have been much more diplomatic. University Foundations is one of the weirdest classes I have and I really don’t know what it’s for. They gave us a packet to read but only gave us the even numbered pages so today when we all went back they apologized about it and then found out from the students that both packets they gave us were missing pages and not just one. It’s so boring and it’s my 8am. The rest of my classes are good. I had to drop history which I now think will be part of my major. As soon as I get and academic advisor I can figure out classes, majors, Austria, and my career. French is a nightmare. The Professor spoke in all French and I am happy to say I understood him. That’s a plus. However the rest of the class appears to be a teach yourself sort of thing so I might just die.

The food in the cafeteria is really not all that bad. The pizza there is awesome. I’m not starving just yet. I seem to be eating a lot of pizza because all the weird looking entrees they have don’t seem too good. The one time I did go to get a sandwich they were out of roast beef. I was a little upset. I do have Mac& Cheese in my closet that I can heat up it the microwave anytime. Plus with all the hills around here I don’t think I’ll be putting on weight, aside from building up the calf muscles.

Homework is a little overbearing but with time I will be able to adjust and figure out a schedule. The coffee shop in the JC has also been helpful in those times when I am falling asleep into Luigi Guissani, not because he’s boring, but because I’m exhausted.