June 4
Okay, today's been... interesting. The home computer has a virus that won't even let it boot up. I was going to print out the directions and where we were supposed to register and all that this morning. So much for that. At five in the afternoon my uncle and I set off for U of L, thinking we'd be there at about 7 with the rush hour put into play. Somehow we avoided the rush hour, but there was of course still the whole thing of not knowing where to go. Thankfully we had gone to the Accolade and Open House days earlier this year, so we at least knew the best way to the University. But there was still the problem of which building to go to. We went to the SAC and I went in to ask the first university person I saw where the orientation stuff might be. No signs had been seen yet.
The rec. person had no idea an orientation was even going on. He tried his hardest to get me in contact with someone that did, but all that could be gotten on the phone was the Orientation office telling me they would get back to me within two days if I left a voicemail, and the Admissions office referring me to the Orientation office. This makes sense, but was annoying even so. After a while of driving around we spotted a sign near an information booth, almost pointing to it. But the booth was closed. I looked more closely and it finally led us, with the help of other signs, and with no help from Parent Orientation signs, toward the Miller Hall. The back of it. Going around the corner I saw a guy holding the door open and asking some other passers-by if they were there for Orientation, saying with their "yes" that they were at the right place. I went to the car, got my things, waved my uncle goodbye and headed into the dorm.
I didn't see the same guy again. Instead there was another behind the counter that asked me my name and explained the two keys and the funny-looking grey thing on the keychain (to get in the building after everybody had checked in). I got to my room, and immediately figured that I would go get my laptop checked out with a computer center, as I had had problems with the memory earlier, and had to anyway get set up with the network and the required software (talked about in some of the pre-orientation mailings). So I go back down, and ask where I could find the building. That was simple enough.
I got to the center (south IT center, in the Miller Building, not the same as the Miller Hall) and it was almost deserted. For that matter, there weren't many people on campus at all. Guess there weren't that many early arrivals. The one person I did see in the center helped with getting my computer set up with the wireless internet, and suggested a particular anti-virus software to use. I install this, and head back to my dorm, an hour later, to find it still deserted. Oh, well.
By this time it's about 8:30. I had been at U of L two hours, and the official time for checking in for early arrival was over. It seems I am going to be sleeping alone tonight. I think. There's a sheet on the bed at the moment that wasn't there before, but that's all... don't know what's going on there. Anyway, I go out and decide to play volleyball. They had a couple games going for the early birds, but I couldn't find them. I instead found a group of summer school engineering students, mostly juniors. Yeay for the guys. I suck at volleyball. Too bad. I'm there until almost 11. I get back to the dorm and still find it deserted, this time not really including the lounge, which had a few people watching TV and things of that nature. Hanging out and talking. I was ready to go up to my room, though. At my room I found no ethernet cable except the one that was working the phone. I felt like I was stealing, but after the person behind the lobby desk said it was okay I used it anyway.
The dorm network connection is more secure than the wireless one. Wireless can't really be gotten on the second or higher floors of the dorm. When I connected the first thing it did was want me to install Clean Access Agent. Now, this is only one of three programs required for the network. I had already installed Odyssey Access Client, and had heard of the Symantec AntiVirus, but the computer center guy had given me something else, AVG. Well, Clean Access Agent installed and thenceforth decided to make my computing experience a living hell. Or nightmare. Or something. It didn't recognize AVG. It wouldn't let me online except on certain school sites, in the interest of getting the right software. Anyone out there reading this, please do yourself a favor and install it before you get here. It's free on the school's tech store website, under free downloads. I was given a timeout period. An hour and a half. Okay, I can do this, right? Just one little download and I'll be fine, right? No. It would not download the first couple times I tried, even after the almost half an hour to find it in the first place, and when it finally did download, my system was scanned and I thought I was home free Clean Access Agent decided to inform me that my Windows Updates were out of date. I had updated my system a couple hours before. So I tried to get it to run the updates again. No, it said. Error really long number says that something is wrong that won't let me install them. I tried the Microsoft troubleshooter to no avail. An hour and a migraine later, I gave up. I am now writing this, wondering why there's a sheet on the other bed and contemplating how it would feel to be on those of my own. Another plane's just passed by overhead. They're kinda loud. Pretty frequent, too. Must be near an airport.
Bathroom's fine. Community bathroom. I don't think I saw curtains or anything around the showers. This may be a problem. I think the "flush" signs over the toilets might indicate almost anything. I hope the reminder isn't that necessary.
June 5
Okay, I don't even know where to begin on this one. I wish I had had time to write some of this down, or even to think. Craziness. I'm in Hillary's Hulas. We're all honors A&S students. I guess this makes it easier for advising purposes. It's cool to be in a group with people in the same advising section. You get to meet the people most likely to have classes with you. Another aspect of being in a group was the mascot. This concept is supposed to get you engaged, albeit in thievery. The mascot for our group was a hula hoop. I held it. Holders of mascots had to have their particular one in one of their hands, at all times, or another group would steal it. Once stolen, you could expect at the next major meal that your group was going to have to do something particularly devious (standing on chairs singing and doing the motions to "I'm a Little Teapot" comes to mind). I never let go of mine. I was bodily jerked around by people trying to get it. When I say it gets crazy, I mean it.
Bombarded. That's how I feel at the moment. Though the last couple hours have been better. And not to say the bombardment wasn't a strange kind of sadistic fun, but I prefer the nice quiet of the patio by the art building, surrounded by flora and fauna, with the water gushing out 3 portions of an in-ground fountain. Sun dappled makes it better, as I had found out in Accolade when I had fallen in love with the spot, but by the time I got there it was dark. Still wonderful. But that was sort of an on-my-own thing, nobody went with me, even probably on that side of campus with me, as there was a dance going on in the Red Barn, Rock Band being played in the Baptist Youth Center and smoothies being poured in the Interfaith Center. Somehow none of those really anchored me. I didn't feel the click. So I went exploring. Or rather I may as well have been for all the time it took me to get to the sought-after fountain. I have no sense of direction. Thankfully after I get somewhere all I have to do to get back is look for the tower. Tallest thing on campus, makes it easy. If only getting everywhere else was that easy.
So I've had the offerings of the REACH program pounded into my head, and expect somehow that the same will happen tomorrow. I've been to advising, or at least the more group-based portion for honors students, and have a general idea of what I'm doing there. Sort of. The site for the major requirements is helpful in this regard for more specific things. Irony that this network would allow me to do this and not to get onto my email, or onto the course catalog. Irony. I have gotten my Cardinal Card with the ugliest picture of me on it ever I think as of now. I could have taken the math placement test. Thank goodness I didn't have to. People with math ACT scores of 26 or below are the ones that can benefit from such, really, to challenge their placement they would otherwise have. I have a 27. Highest math class bracket.
I cannot express the sheer relief, especially the appreciated benefit of having more time to eat breakfast, or to sleep in this morning. I slept. Or tried. Blasted fact of my waking up at 7 every morning for no apparent reason on a normal basis, and suddenly the time is 6:30. Why I got up at that time I have no clue, except maybe anticipation of the day, particularly meeting my roommate. It turns out she had actually dropped off her stuff the previous night, and I just hadn't noticed her bag in her closet. She had gone to spend the night in the hotel room with her mom. I went outside at 7:15ish, having given up sleep and showered in the bathroom shower that did, after all, have not only curtains but thick concrete walls separating them. Wonderful shower. Good luck with the separate hot and cold knobs. Hard to master when you're used to one knob for both. There's Dial soap in a dispenser in each, so if you forgot your body wash you're still okay. No panic. Not slimy on the floor or anything like you get in some camping area showers. However, there is the nice little fact of there being really no in-between area. A small shelf within the shower is all you have to hold clothes, towel, and bath supplies, hoping they don't get too wet (they didn't, just point the nozzle away from the area)... unless you like streaking in public to the bench just outside the shower area to get your stuff. Not so much for me. I hope, for my sake even more than yours, that you don't like doing such, either. Yeay dorm life. This brings to mind the poster they have in the lobby that states what to do about these sorts of things. You shouldn't miss it. It's entitled "The Naked Roommate".
Eat breakfast. By lunch I was starving. They will have you walking everywhere, on the campus walk (exceedingly abbreviated for the honors A&S people- by that meaning walking really fast) or otherwise. Try to remember how you get places. Look around at each stop, ahead and behind you, so it will look familiar when you try going the other way. In other words, use the same conduct as if you were on an unfamiliar backwoods hiking trail. Try not to be too dependent on other people for directions. At night when you most want them, there might not be anybody else there. When in doubt, head toward the tower. It's right next to the SAC, Etscorn Honors Building, the Floyd Parking Garage, the Interfaith Center and probably a couple other things that I just didn't notice as much. And, oh, it's decently near Miller Hall and that other hall that starts with an S that others are staying in. I think.
I thought the lunch was good, but I like pretty much any food so don't mind me. Some people said it was bad, and actually the admissions dept. head apologized for it. It seems nobody else has to worry about having oriental food. The next meal was something in the order of fried chicken, which, because of my body's low tolerance for some kinds of fat, was actually worse for me. I couldn't eat anything but the dessert. Irony. Oh, well. Cooking for the masses. I guess my hunger wasn't helped by the whole fact I hadn't eaten dinner the previous night. Starving. Anything tastes good on an empty stomach.
A funnier part of the day was with the free session periods I had, with the one giving me candy a lot because of my ability to answer their questions (the REACH session), but the other the guy that was supposed to head it didn't show, so the SOSers came in and took over. They made it a discussion period, but since people didn't have enough questions to fill up the time it ended up disintegrating into a YouTube watching session. Yeay for George Washington. And Will Farrell and baby/toddler. This did not prove a complete waste of time, no matter how it may seem. We got a glimpse into frank, honest college life from college students who were showing us what they actually did on their spare time. Also they did make an effort to answer any of our questions first. It was just we didn't have many.
There's another airplane. The SOSers say you get used to them after a few weeks, to the point of not even noticing them unless you're trying to talk to somebody outside when one passes. I think I'm starting to get used to them. That last one wasn't so jolting as the ones last night. Even then it didn't stop me from sleeping. Sleep. Good idea right about now.
June 6
Today was a rollercoaster. That's the best way to describe it. That's probably the only way to describe it. It began with a whirlwind of breakfast provided by the University and eaten at the front of Miller Hall, then going through the morning info. session. We then to advising, getting personalized help, learning how to schedule, how to register for classes and such. Honors courses were approved to take, and we did everything to register except press the button to send the request. We couldn't do that until later. Now, I can't say any details, but you really do need to pay attention to what your SOSer and everyone else lets slip about the school. Try to remember as much as you can about everything. Ask questions. Learn history. Learn the fight song. There will be a game to win priority registration. Not a game show, like you might think, but almost a fail-safe where everyone is mixed up into equally sized groups made up of all the advisory groups and you may actually learn very little-known facts and superstitions. The game is called the Cardinal Challenge. That's about all I can tell you. Either way, it's a pretty fun experience. Be spirited. It helps. A lot. Even if you're faking it. Fake it well. My team won because we could do this.
Before advising, however, we went to two rather disorienting things. First thing was a survey, not in the traditional sense as it wasn't anonymous, to the point that if you did it the letter inside said that it would be attached to your record. This isn't exactly put very much in focus, however. It seems nobody wanted us to realize that our answers might actually affect us. We were, however, not required to take the survey. But not doing it is like we might have something to hide... really a nightmare for anyone used to statistics ethics. Also the whole atmosphere of the room was almost intimidating. It was quiet. Too quiet after the hustle and bustle. And although they were friendly enough, it was like the guy that picks your pocket smiling and talking innocently so you don't notice. Nasty feeling, just in the back of your mind. Nasty.
The next thing notable was a presentation. It was meant to make everyone understand both sides of the departure story, parent with child leaving and student anxious to start a new journey. For me, however it was an emotional moment. I tried to keep it inside, and succeeded for the time being, but the fact of the matter was that however innocent the purpose, it emotionally stabbed me. My father died when I was eleven. He and I had lived in Woodinville, Washington across the country and for the most part with no real contact with any other relatives. After he died, I moved here to Kentucky to live with my aunt, uncle and two cousins. We haven't really gotten along since. I still believe they'll probably have a party when I leave. And I know you're asking yourself, "What about the mom?" Well, about that. She has Schizophrenia. Scary stuff. She still thinks of me as I was when I was one or two and my dad and I left Virginia, her and the rest of my family. So this drama thing with the viewpoints of the average parents and child on leaving for college, well, it made me again envy others. The weird kind of envy for somebody else's pain because of what had to be for there to be pain at all. I was trying to hide behind somebody else for the letter picture. It wasn't overly hard. I'm average height and there are plenty of taller people than me. That and the fact I don't think that individual faces could be seen quite that well. But I didn't want to be seen. I was crying. And there was no time for the alone time I needed to get over things. I just needed a few minutes, maybe even a short walk. But we didn't have time. After lunch, we had the Challenge and I was able to recover through distraction and finally through victory.
From then on I felt better. We registered, it only taking really a few seconds after I got to the computer because none of my classes were really that close to being full and I was registering five minutes earlier than everyone else. After this everybody not in the Cardinal Covenant was able to leave. I, however, am Cardinal Covenant, so I still had a meeting I had to go to. In another hour and a half or so. I went into the Strickler building where it was going to be held and put down the stuff I had been carrying around, and went in search of jobs for work study. We had been told that we were responsible to find our own. I went to the A&S office, as the Student Advocate had suggested, got an application, also getting one from the REACH center in the Strickler building. By this time it was back to the meeting, and food provided us by REACH.
As it turns out, the Cardinal Covenant program is really a REACH effort primarily. The meeting will answer any and all questions, including that pesky one of whether people with a full ride should bother. If that includes you, then this is your answer- unless you are absolutely and positively sure of you’re graduating in 8 semesters, then you should do this. The program goes for 10. Take a look at the stats. Few people graduate in four years. Even then, it's hard to pass up this kind of insider's networking. The people really want to help you, and with there being so few people in the program, they have all their attention focused on you. They will help you as much as they can.
Well, if you all have been patient enough to read all this you will probably do well in school anyway, and I hope it's been entertaining if not informing. This is Laura Arns, signing off.
