College Life - Part First

Okay, so now I'm almost two weeks into college and I'm having a pretty good time.
Let's run through the basics.

Orientation - Drove up with the whole family (oh what a JOY) and arrived early afternoon Friday. RA's and SA's were all around, helping everybody unpack the cars and through it into the rooms. That was very nice of them, cuz instead of taking an hour to get all the stuff out of the car and another hour to get it up the steps into the room, it took less than 5 minutes. My roommate seemed very quiet, almost as if he was mad at me. Wes, he's from Maine. Seemed like such a goof on Facebook, now all quiet and shy. Orientation schedule was crazy, just throwing all of us together in an effort to get us to meet new people. Tried to get online with my Linuxbox, but they fixed it so we couldn't get online (so we would get out of the dorm and not be antisocial). Bonfire, comedians, general session, food, icebreakers, ultimate frisbee, and more. It was a lot of fun.

Class - Got my schedule all set. Calc 3, Physics 1, Chemistry Honors (plus Chem and Physics Labs), College and Life Skills (advisory/homeroom, just a general lame one), and Engineering Practice 160 (design class, work with a team on a LEGO robot competition). The homework freaked me out the first day, but I'm getting used to it. Actually, I'm actually kinda ahead on my work for two classes, with a lab report for Chem to work on all day tomorrow. I think I've got a handle on things. Falling asleep in a lot of my classes as a result of staying up too late doing homework, and also as a result of the subject matter being INCREDIBLY BORING AND EASY!!!!! Learning about vectors in two classes at the same time is not the best for keeping me awake.

People - I was always worried about heading off to a college where I didn't know anybody, leaving all manner of familiarity behind. For the first little bit, I was a tad lonely. Getting thrown in with all these strange people was definitely jarring, and for a while kinda depressing. Finding a group of friends has taken a little bit, but now I've got some. I met a few people that I forced myself to talk to the first night, and I've stayed friends with those people too (especially one very special person). There are a lot of really really nerdy people here (like the antisocial dirty and weird-dressing/talking nerds) but also cool nerds (people who look like normal, but are really very nerdy). In general, they are very nice, and I'm having a great time with almost everybody I meet. Mees Hall is really great, filled with funny kids who love to have a good time. I'm lucky to live there.

Girls - Okay, Rose-Hulman is definitely not known for its gender-diversity. One big sausage-fest. There are a smattering of females here and perhaps there, but on the whole (tee-hee!) it's all guys. I feel bad for them, surrounded by intelligent morons who wouldn't know how to talk to a girl if they had a map and a list of suggested response topics (Don't talk about what operating system they use, compliment them on their necklace or nails). People are actually starting to pair off, kinda. It's noticable. And I'm proud and extremely ecstatic to say that I have my eye on a certain chica, and she has her eye on me. We're taking it slow, which is very different than my normal practice, but I believe this is the right way to go and am enjoying every blessed second with her. We'll see where this goes from here (I'll post juicy details later).

Clubs - I don't know about intramurals, but I'm not doing Quiz Bowl, those kids are lame. Going to try Ballroom dancing (not the most masculine, I know, but I am actually very excited to learn how to dance. Perhaps I shall impress the lady-types!) and Sustainability Club. Not sure, I hope I find some niche to fill.

Oh, and the laptops that cost $2000? The exact same ugly-ass model that I unboxed 200 of this past summer. I knew it. I KNEW IT. Ugh.

Will continue to post updates on what I'm doing here and on Twitter.
Adios.