Honestly, this past week has been kind of a blur. The mandatory meetings made the days feel long and the nighttime fun made the days actually long. I am 100% sure that no pictures and no words that I come up with will fully capture the experience of acclimating to living in a dorm, away from home, full-time. Before I attempt to explain that experience, though, I want to say that I’ve had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I can’t share all the details with everyone I know. (Though I am getting to know all sorts of new, amazing people.) Yes, I’ve missed home some, and I’ve missed “my” food and routines and cooking and all that. But what I’ve really missed is having people who really know me around to see what’s happening in my world and relate to it and understand it – and get to experience it, too.
Anyway, enough semi-depressing talk. Let’s talk about the time post- parental departure.
They kept us busy for Monday night and Tuesday. Busybusybusy. After ushering us through Hull Gate, away from our parents, we were cheered on and welcomed by tons of upperclassmen and shuffled into the shape of an “18” for our class picture. After that, we met with our residential houses, had dinner, and headed off for an evening of activities. My house? We went to The Second City!
I don’t tend to think of myself as really enjoying sketch comedy, but the sketches and the improv were absolutely hilarious. By the time we trekked downtown, watched the three-hour show, and headed back, I was completely exhausted, but it was a wonderful first night.
Tuesday, we had more meetings to learn about registration for classes and campus life. Admittedly, they weren’t that interesting and we were all tired, but it got me started really thinking about (read: getting excited for) my classes. After all our meetings and listening to the Aims of Education address, given every year by a UChicago alum, my house walked to Promontory Point. The night and view were beautiful, though the picture doesn’t do it justice at all.
{Chicago skyline in the distance}
We hung out at the Point for a while and made s’mores and ate leftover graham crackers before heading back to the dorms.
Wednesday was when everything started to die down a little. We had little we had to do, so we got to relax and explore a little more. I took a quick jog around campus in the morning to sort of orient myself and SERIOUSLY. The views. Beautiful.
{Kind of dark, but the SKY is so pretty}
{Joe and Rika Mansueto Library}
After that, we hung out in the library while looking over schedule stuff and then headed to some open houses to look at extracurricular opportunities. Nothing too exciting, until… free shake day!
Ugh. So delicious. UChicago has the tradition of $1 milkshakes on Wednesdays, but for the first-years, our first ones were free. And delicious. Chooooocolate. <3
The evening honestly wasn’t too exciting for me. I was starting to get kind of a bad cold, and so I called it a night pretty early (This will be a theme. What a great time to get sick.)
Thursday was another free day, and the most noteworthy thing was this beauty I found in the dining hall.
Birthday cake ice cream so wonderful I can’t even explain it.
In the evening we had a scavenger hunt through our dorms followed by a party with the best chocolate and butterscotch fondues and all the fruit and marshmallows and pretzels you could ask for. It was lovely. Aaaand I went to sleep early. Lame.
FRIDAY. Last day of O-Week, and the day I got my schedule. I got the classes I wanted (one at a different time, though), so I’m super excited, and my schedule actually might work out better than the one I planned originally. Whaddya know. I ran some errands on campus, picked up my books, and then hung out and played cards and relaxed and tried to recuperate from the gross cold overtaking my system.
And that’s my week, minus descriptions of the wonderful people I’ve met and such. It’s been a great week and I’m excited to start classes after a seriously long summer!
Wish me luck!
