Orientation

This is the view from my room. Our window opens up into an enclosed courtyard. The tree is great, provides a lot of shade, and has two mourning doves building a nest right outside our window.
Move-in day (8-28-08) was incredibly stressful, but I was pleasantly surprised by my room. It's spacious and the lack of a/c hasn't been unbearable. We have 2 fans going and our windows open most of the time and the room stays within a pretty reasonable temperature. After mom and dad left we had meetings with our Resident Advisors and our Peer Mentors. We had a Safety Awareness Session where they had us memorize the Campus Safety phone number and a self-defense coach taught us to slap-grab-twist-pull. I tried to sign up for one of her self-defense workshops afterward because she was so amazing, but both were already full. The first night there was also an improv comedy show on the Harvey Mudd campus that we attended. It was funny, but everyone was tired because it had been such a long day.
Yesterday's (8-29) schedule was chock full as well. I got to skip the language placement test in the morning because I'm taking Italian as a new language, but I still woke up at 730 for breakfast. The math placement test later in the morning didn't go so well. I placed into PreCalc, which I've already taken. The test doesn't have a huge impact though, since I plan to either take statistics or logic to fulfill my math requirement. We had group advising sessions where a faculty member talked with us about classes. I register for mine tomorrow. Taylor and I had dinner in the Claremont village, which was fun to explore. The Dean, Deb Wood, hosted a dessert where I bonded with girls from my dorm and met a lady who worked at the Career, Planning and Resources office. And after that Pitzer hosted a luau for all 5 colleges. There was music (a band covering Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffet songs) and some hula dancers, and a fire dancer. For the most part it was just a lot of freshman standing around awkwardly trying to make friends.
Today has been much less hectic, thank god. I had breakfast (the dining hall has great waffles), filled out a job application and wrote a resume, had lunch catered by In N Out, and took pictures around my dorm. In about 15 minutes I'm leaving for a Scripps sponsored Target trip for all those essential things I forgot. Like hangers. So I'll leave you with some more pictures from around my dorm.

1 Week to Move-in

Next week I will be moving into Susan Miller Dorsey Hall with my roommate, Julia. Dorsey is one of the original halls on campus, and was built in the late 20's. Unfortunately, it doesn't have air conditioning. That may mean I do a lot more studying by the pool instead. It's heartbreaking, really. Dorsey's age means it has some especially neat characteristics, though. The hall was built with many themed courtyards, like Manana courtyard pictured here. Manana courtyard is built with plants all native to California and the Southwest. I've heard there's a pomegranate tree hidden somewhere around the building, too!

Hopefully this blog will keep everyone sufficiently up to date with what I'm up to and how I'm doing. I probably won't be writing letters, and I won't be back for thanksgiving. I'll miss everyone, so make sure to leave me comments to let me know how you're doing as well!