Today is the day the 2012 Columbia cohort has been waiting
for; to live and experience college life at the university! No words can
describe the butterflies I’m feeling from the morning to this very moment. So
my day started with a very relaxing morning; I finished packing the night
before, and I was ready to go. After we had breakfast, we grabbed our luggage
and a cab and now we are all here. Once we arrived on campus, we settled
ourselves into our respective dorms. Morvarid is staying in the Hartley
building while the rest of the Columbia ILCers are in the Carman building.
After unpacking a few things, Ms. L and the group headed to
Pinkberry for a treat of frozen yogurt before going to the bookstore. Although we
did not acquire our textbooks today, we were able to buy supplies and Columbia apparel.
After being shown the subway and bus stations, we faced, according to Adrianne,
the hardest part; separating from Ms. L. Although we will meet up every day
with Ms. L as a checkup, it’s definitely a different experience to not have her
here. It’s okay, it’s our time now to come out of our shells and mingle with
our peers.
So after departing with Ms. L, we all returned to our
respective dorms for the BBQ Columbia holds to welcome all the high school
students taking courses. I finally was able to meet my roommate when I returned;
her name is Abi and she’s from Hong Kong! After a few introductions with all
the other girls on my floor, my residential advisor Jennifer took us to the
BBQ. Here at Columbia, we are separated into groups with a residential advisor
to oversee us. My group consists of my roommate Abi who is taking College
Preparatory, Zoe who is taking Creative Writing, Miranda who is taking Engineering
and a girl from Greece who is taking Theatre Arts. After dinner, Jennifer held
our group orientation in front of the Low Memorial Library on the grass. To
summarize, we went over the behaviors of conduct as well as Jennifer’s RA
rules. We were given a packet with maps, restaurant suggestions, events, and
other useful information for our three weeks in the university.
After our orientation, I headed back to my dorm to do
laundry. Yes only a week in New York and I have so much laundry! It’s okay, I
passed my time with a good conversation with Adrianne. And doing laundry
relaxes me for some odd reason.
I will admit that I really didn’t think anything of it at
first, you know the moving and going to school here for a few weeks. But now
that I’m actually here, my mind is all over the place. I’m meeting so many
different people and living with people I don’t even know so well. Yes, I knew
that this was part of the program but experiencing it has such a greater impact
on me. Let’s go Columbia, give me what you got.
Ah...Pinkberry and laundry--what better way to spend your first day at Columbia?
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you mentioned something about your roomie. Perhaps in the very near future you can tell us more about her and what brings her to Columbia. A few photos would be nice, too.
As dependent as you’ve become of Ms. L, in another week you’ll wonder why you ever needed a chaperone. You will grow and mature to the point where coming home and living under the thumb of your parents will seem burdensome.