Kindergarten

A picture of the Low Library from this morning

We woke up at about 6:15 AM today. Most days, we'll probably wake up around 9, but today we had to attend an orientation at 8 AM in Lerner Hall and our group had agreed to meet at 6:50 to head down over John Jay for breakfast a little earlier than other groups (1000 kids would be waiting breakfast at the same time). We got our breakfast on time, and finished and got in line at about 7:40 to enter the auditorium. The breakfast was ok, there were plenty of options but most were pretty dull, although my breakfast at home is usually pretty dull anyway. We ended up waiting in line for 20 minutes and then in the auditorium for over an hour for the presentation, which was only about 30 minutes. We were also given our schedules, maps of the campus, subway and bus, and information about activities, among other things.

The Furnald building, where my dad stayed when he was
attending Columbia

At the conclusion of the orientation, we walked to our first class; my class was with a guy named Jeffrey Lenowitz (I'm not going to be formal, because he prefers to be called just "Jeffrey") on the 7th floor of the Hamilton building. We (all the other Con Law students) all introduced ourselves to each other, and after a few minutes, the teacher (professor?) showed up. We entered, and the class turned out to have 29 students, still small enough so that you don't feel at all like a number, especially considering that some of my suitemates' business and engineering classes have something like 80 or 140 kids. The 10 AM class, it turned out, would be short, as he was simply giving an introduction to the class, and an introduction to the first topic we'd be studying, the Bill of Rights. I don't remember exactly, but I believe our teacher is in the 7th year of trying to get his Ph.D, and it has something to do with the different ways in which constitutions are made. He has a sense of humor and seemed like a very intellectual guy, definitely somebody whose class would probably have an atmosphere I would enjoy.

This class, on the other hand, did not start off well for me. As our teacher/professor (I'm not sure which to use, but I'll refer to him as my teacher from now on because that's what I'm used to) got into the introduction of the Bill of Rights, he began to go over a lot of the history of the Bill of Rights, and while I followed everything he was saying without a problem, I was unable to participate just because I didn't know the majority of what he was saying until after he said it. I love to participate in class (and I also NEED to because it's 40% of the class evaluation), but was unable to because I just didn't know the answers to many of the questions he was asking (ex. He would give some information, and then basically ask what happened next). For anyone reading this because they googled the name "Jeffrey Lenowitz" or "Columbia's High School program on Constitutional Law," I'll tell you before you get the wrong idea that this would completely change; I would end up loving the class.

But I didn't know that yet. Anyway, I knew we would be learning about Constitutional Law, but, to sum up my problem in a nutshell, the questions he was asking everyone seemed to be more about what we "know" than what we "think." I am a person that definitely would have more success in a class about what we as students think than what we know (not that I don't know anything, just that I like to give my opinions and thoughts). I was frustrated and a bit concerned because, while I had learned, I has sat quietly taking notes the entire time and had not answered any questions. The class ended up getting out at 10:45 instead of 12, and I used my free time to get started in my blog and walk down to the bookstore to get my class textbook, which looks and weighs about the same as a brick. It looks interesting though. ( http://www.amazon.com/Constitutional-Law-Politics-Rights-Liberties/dp/0393935507 )

I used the rest of my lunch time to blog and eat in the dining hall; lunch was good, but not great in taste, but fantastic in that I didn't spend any money for it. I went to my second class of the day at 2 PM. This class is usually taught by Luke MacInnis, but today was taught by the teacher of our first class, (Mr.) Jeffrey Lenowitz. In this class, we spent the entire class on the Bill of Rights and some of the class' law vocabulary. Going over the Bill of Rights, though, was not simply just reading; the majority of the class asked a question at some point or the other, and many students asked more than one. While discussing how the United States' judiciary branch was the only branch of government who's leaders were not chosen by the people, I asked what reasons the U.S. government had given(and/or gives today) to justify this in a nation that was supposed to be a democracy. Anyway, going over the Bill of Rights fascinating to me; I had a general idea of what they did/said, but I had never spent a full hour going over each of them with class discussion, and to be honest, I was not as familiar with them as I would like to be.

By the end of the class, though, I felt completely comfortable with what I was learning, and I had even applied it to real life already. While I was not as informed on the Constitution as I would want to be, I feel very informed about some of the issues in society, and off of the top my head I could think of numerous laws and issues in our society that were direct violations of the Constitution. There are numerous violations all over society, I feel, of the First Amendment; to name one, California Penal Code Sec. 407 states, “Whenever two or more persons assemble together to do a lawful act in a violent, boisterous or tumultuous manner, such assembly is considered an unlawful assembly.” By definition, anything "loud" can also be considered "boisterous," and by that line of thinking, any police force who finds a protest to be "loud" can criminalize an assembly, which, while loud, is peaceful, meaning it is protected by the First Amendment. Just a quick example I came up with, although there are many others: the death penalty I feel is a blatant violation of the 8th Amendment, although that is completely a matter of opinion. On that note, that was another thing we learned today, that the Bill of Rights is EXTREMELY vague, and as times change, so does the meaning of "cruel or unusual punishment."

The sky about 5 minutes before a downpour - conveniently right when I was walking outside

After class, our cohort met up for a recap of the day and any concerns (my internet, although it's been fixed now) we would like to express. We are all enjoying ourselves, though! After that, we all went to check out the statue in front of Colombia's main library; we were trying to find the owl because, according to a friend of Morvarid's, the person to find the owl will be his class' valedictorian (or something like that). I actually got extremely lucky and found the owl in about 20 seconds (I won't say where), which of course brought out instant accusations of cheating. I actually just got really lucky, and I think it must be something good, although I've probably countered all that by upsetting the Columbia gods for not knowing the name of their statue or their library or for not knowing the rules of the game. Maybe an hour after that, I ate dinner with a few other members of the cohort, which was fun as usual. The food (spaghetti and meatballs) was very good, although not as good as my mom's.

By the way, I named this blog Kindergarten because today was similar to the first day of Kindergarten in that I was extrememly excited to try something important I had never done before. Pretty random, but it probably caught your attention more than "First Day of School." And it makes sense, right?

Anyway, I'm really enjoying the class, and although I have homework, I'm actually looking forward to it just a little bit because I actually enjoy learning these kinds of things!

"Cutting the Umbilical Cord"

This blog, although posted today, is from June 24^th. I would’ve posted it then, but for reasons beyond my control (problems with my internet) I was unable to. It turns out my ethernet plug thing (I have no idea what it's called, but it's where you plug your cord into the wall) does not work, but my roommate's does. He's currently out of the room and I'm using that plug right now.

Yes, the past week has been fantastic, but after all, today was the day we had all signed up for. Today was the first day of what we had written numerous essays for, the first day of what we had interviewed for, and the first day of what we have been blogging night after night for. I woke up at around 9 so that I could get a good night’s sleep before my first day on my own (the again, I DO have 3 friends on campus, so I’m not actually on my own) and so that I would have enough time to pack the giant mess that had accumulated and formed a pile in my corner of the room. We went down to breakfast at around 10:30, my clothes and things now organized, but yet to be packed into my suitcase. After eating, we went back up to the hotel room and I hurriedly stuffed everything into my suitcase, finishing only a few minutes before the checkout time of 12 PM. I doubt they would have charged us extra for being a few minutes late, but it was better not to test them. We hailed two taxis and as a group went about 40 blocks north up Amsterdam Avenue (a block over from Broadway, where out hotel was). 

My room in Carman Hall

After arriving at Columbia at 116^th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, we crossed the street and entered John Jay Hall, where we checked in and received our room keys. I’m not sure if it was coincidence or not, but five of us (not Morvarid, for some reason) were assigned to Carman Hall, and each of us somewhere on the 9^th to 11^th floors. We all went up to our rooms, and I was surprised to see that my room was a double, not a single as many of the past ILCers at Columbia had received. It ended up working out just fine, though, as my roommate is super chill. I can’t think of a word that perfectly describes “chill,” so I’ll just go with the slang term. If no other word than the slang term can say what I’m trying to say in the same way, though, then I guess “chill” should be added to the dictionary. Anyway, he’s from Northern New Jersey and knows quite a bit about sports and all of the things going on around the world and in our country, so it was very easy to hold a conversation with him. After settling into my room, we gathered as a group again to go get some ice cream and then buy our supplies and a sweatshirt from Colombia (the bookstore did not have our textbooks). After that, we said goodbye to Mrs. L and went on to live on our own for the first time (the first time for me, at least). Mrs. L referred to it as “cutting the umbilical cord;” I thought that was pretty funny.

The view from my room

I returned up to my room, made my bed, and then walked out into the hallway, where I found a group of about 5 other guys watching the Euro Cup in a room at the end of the hall. I don’t follow soccer extremely closely, but I am a fan and so I stayed and watched the reminder for the Italy-England game as it went into overtime, and eventually, into penalty kicks. I really had no preference as to who won, because whoever wins will get to be destroyed by Germany, who will win the entire Euro Cup because they are the best and because I’m part German. I’ve had my conversations with tons and tons of people in the Bay Area about sports, but it was cool to hear what people from New Jersey and other parts of the country thought of my teams. It turns everyone thinks my teams suck, which is partially true but….but yeah. To many it might seem like no big deal to have a conversation about sports, but I thought it was pretty cool; I’ve never heard an actual Jets fan’s perspective on Tim Tebow.

Later, at 5:30 PM, we all met for an icebreaker between my RA and suitemates, a barbecue, and then orientation, which involved going over the rules and discussing what living at Colombia on a daily basis would be like (when breakfast is, when certain events will be, who to contact, etc.). I have students in my group coming from places like Turkey, China, Chicago, among other places. After the barbecue, we returned to our rooms, where I got started on this blog and discovered that the wi-fi is there one minute and gone the next. Later, I went downstairs, where there were a few activities going on, some which I found to be very strange and not for me (some cowboy singing game). For the most part, though, people were just throwing themselves into random conversations just to try to meet new people. I’m not exactly an expert (is anyone?) at walking up to people I have never met and starting a conversation at random, but the fact that it was weird for everyone made it much easier for all of us. I returned to my room about 15 minutes before curfew, and the RAs on our flow brought about six tubs of ice cream for all of us to eat.

By the end of the day, I’d say I had met anywhere from 25-100 people, depending on what qualifies as meeting somebody. Nearly everyone was very open and easy to talk to, with plenty of interesting things to say and an interest in learning about you. I had expected this to be fun, but this experience now seems like it will easily exceed those expectations; I’ll be on campus with over a thousand other intellectual kids my age, which is much more than I expected. Of course, I knew there’d be plenty of intellectual kids to talk to; however, I was completely unaware of all the things planned on and off campus. I’ve heard everything from carnival to laser tag to visiting Coney Island and Central Park. These three weeks seem like they’ll be even more fun than I expected.

I Lost My Self In a Book and Found Myself In a Story

This is where it shall all begin. This is the very moment we've all been waiting for anxiously for months, and the day has finally come with welcoming arms for all of us ILCers.

This morning we exited the our hotel rooms permanently and entered a new world in which none of us ILCers are quite familiar with. We were greeted very kindly with the Assistant Dean of the school and the head coordinator of the summer program as they expressed the great reputation of Ivy League Connection students at their Ivy League institution.

We all started out by first going in line to get our room keys and heading to our appropriate destinations after signing in. Above my name I recognized an Iranian name as I was particularly excited to know someone here in this program has a similar background as I do. However, that excitement slightly faded away after realizing that EVERY Ivy League student is in one house, excluding me...

I actually didn't mind being separated because I understand we are here to reach out to different individuals and take opportunities that are not presented to us as soon as they strike, but that's when I thought we were all going to be jumbled up together and only a few might be in the same house. I know I will make new friends, but I just felt so excluded knowing that all my ILC  friends are going to be together except just me. At that very moment, I felt so empty inside seeing everyone so excited and me so scared about what was going to happen next...

The story turned out pretty ironically, though. I live in Hartley while Adrianne, Lucas, Lenny, Tomi, and Aurea all live in Carman. They all have smaller dorm rooms sharing with another individual while I have a two story suite including a kitchen, television set, living room, and a room approximately double their size!

But wait for it, it gets even better... My room has TWO beds, TWO desks, TWO closets, a carpeted floor, and an amazing view all to myself. All I can say is, "thank you God...”

So this can simply goes to show that anything we ever find "unfortunate" can only lead to more prosperous gains, just something I learned from The Alchemist.

I told everyone in the ILC that if they ever want to meet up for a discussion or anything in particular, they are all totally welcome and I will invite them all with open arms. (As long no rules are broken such as the curfew rule). Like Adrianne always jokingly says, "Mi casa es su casa!”

After settling down I walked a little around to meet my floor-mates and they were all equally unique and I truly enjoy their company so far. We all went to the Barbecue together and later came home to a mandatory suite orientation. It's really cute because our entire suite is filled with crafty works of art and attractive "girly" magazine cut-outs. Each room is personalized with a creative door name-label, and the stairs are wrapped with pink daisy flowers. Also, one of the ways is a "blank canvas" area where we are urged to draw or write whatever we'd like. The people who created all of this were RAs. I actually have two and they're both awesome! They're both exchange students; one is from Bosnia and the other from Israel. I had the opportunity to meet them all really well in the orientation, as well as a variety of very different individuals. We started out with an ice-breaker where we introduced ourselves and spoke about our backgrounds and interests and then later went into detail about the rules we must adhere to. During the ice-breaker, I realized there are actually two other Iranians in my suite! Well, they're partially Iranian but that's still something! One is half Iranian half German which is actually my neighbor in regards to rooming, and the other's grandfather was Iranian but is a Jewish Venezuelan. As you can tell by my excitement, I am Ms. Persian-Pride wherever I go and If I see some sort of Iranian connection between us, I will literally burst with excitement. It's not often I see one, and I love my culture and heritage so I enjoy communicating with others who share such similarities with me.

Aside from those two, we also have 9 other students in our suite -- all amazing in their own way. For example, one student is directly from Taiwan, another from Latin America, and another speaks 7 languages. I connect with others very well so by the first 15 minutes I was practically talking to all of them, laughing, telling stories, and just sharing ideas. One thing I did notice was that they were all part of a more elite upper class, even our RA.

After the orientation a group of us gathered together to head out and buy some supplies. The stores were actually closed but we ended up exploring the campus more. The campus is beautiful and very welcoming, I love it! Also, for the very first time I saw fireflies! I was especially excited about that because for the past 16 years of my existence on this planet, I've only seen fireflies in cartoon shows like "Fairly Odd Parents.”

Last but not least, the day officially ended with many of the summer program students outside mingling and getting to know one another. Faces were blank with a sense of awkwardness creeping amongst the students at night in thoughts of how to approach one another, but by the end of the night I'm sure people met a lot of different individuals. Speaking for myself, I'm sure I met at least 50 people from at least 10 different locations.

I Hope no one thinks I'm weird by now but I just went up to people and introduced myself.

Just a few of the many awesome individuals I will be sharing a suite with for the next month.

Today and every day that shall come, the sky will be my only limit. Even the connections made with students is an important opportunity. Opportunity is something that I will not miss out on on this trip, trust me.

Now the story will begin tonight at 12:00 AM; the story of a simple bay area girl living above and beyond expectations in an environment of high competitive nature. The story begins now.

Once upon a time...

A Laundry List of Emotions

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.

Keep Calm and Roar On

Today was the day we had all been waiting for - we would finally move out of Hotel Beacon and into our dorms at Columbia University. Tomi and I awoke at 10 in the morning and organized our suitcases. Then we went to the lobby and went with the rest of the cohort to the local diner to eat breakfast. I had a wonderful breakfast of waffles with scrambled eggs.

After we all finished eating, we went back up to our hotel rooms to get our luggage and take it downstairs. We took two taxis to Columbia University, and in no time, we were there. I must say that the university is absolutely gorgeous, it looks just as beautiful in person than it does in the brochures. Blue and white balloons were decorated around the campus and RAs were running around, giving directions or getting a slice of pizza. We were directed to John Jay, where we checked in, received our room keys, and even met the Dean of the summer programs! Everyone except for Morvarid is in Carman Hall, and Aurea and I are even on the same floor.

Columbia University!

Welcome to Columbia!

We took our luggage up to our dorms, where I found I was sharing a suite with six girls! The two girls in the room next to mine are Nas and Tori. Nas is from Washington, D.C. and is taking Intro to Business, Financing, and Economics. She also participated in the Summer@Brown program at Brown University last year - what a coincidence! Even though I didn't meet her there, it was interesting to know she went. She took a financing course there as well. Tori is from New Jersey and is taking Biomedical Engineering. The girls who are in the room that is connected to our suite are Jennifer and Sangia. Jennifer is from Ohio and is taking Biomedical Engineering and Sangia is from Hong Kong. She was originally going to take Leadership and Law but plans to transfer into Creative Writing. My roommate arrived much later due to flight delays, but she is absolutely wonderful. Her name is Nathalie and she is from Lebanon! She is already so sweet and loving. She is taking Intro to Business, Financing, and Economics. We've bonded pretty well.

A wonderful welcome

My side of the room when I first walked in

The amazing view!

In front of Columbia's library

After settling into our dorms, Ms. L took us to Pinkberry (think Yogurtland) and brought us all frozen yogurt. We then went to the bookstore, where we bought school supplies and one piece of Columbia clothing that the ILC pays for. I bought a long-sleeved Columbia shirt. While we were originally going to buy our textbooks, they were not in storage. We'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to get them.

And then came the time that we "cut the umbilical cord", as Ms. L put it. I'm sad that we're not going to be all together anymore, but we're going to meet with her every day after class. We also have two more dinners, one with Vassar and the other with Columbia, a boat cruise, and Fourth of July adventures, so she's not completely gone from us!

Once we had gone back to the dorms and acquainted ourselves with more of our floormates, our R.A.'s came and gave us wristbands so we could go to the welcoming barbecue. I satisfied my growling stomach with a head of corn, two sodas, a hamburger, and a hot dog (to say I was hungry is an understatement). The food was delicious! My R.A. is Kristen, and this is her second year being an R.A. for the Columbia program. She just graduated from Auburn University and plans to go to graduate school for speech therapy.

Some of the delicious food served to us at the barbecue

After the barbecue, we headed out to the Main Green, where Kristen and the rest of the suite sat on steps of Hamilton Hall and explained R.A. trips and behavioral standards. Essentially, Columbia is very strict and will expel you for any slight violation of the rules. However, the rules seem very straightforward and I am sure everyone will behave accordingly. After that, Kristen treated us to Pinkberry, and even though I had already been there once, I definitely enjoyed another frozen yogurt.

Once we got back to the dorms we were pretty much free to do what we wanted. I went with Aurea and Lucas to the local convenience store to buy laundry detergent. I plan on doing all my laundry tomorrow; I desperately need to. When we got back, I took a small nap to catch up on some sleep but spent time with Aurea in the laundry room, keeping her company. Lucas came as well, and once they finished putting their laundry in the dryer, we went outside to the Gabezo, where a huge meet-and-greet function was forming. Lenny joined us as well, and I met a lot of floormates. I also saw Morvarid and she introduced us to one of her roommates, Demi, who is a sweetheart and from Taiwan. We went in Morvarid's dorm, which is in Hartley Hall, and were jealous behind belief! Her dorm is HUGE and there is even a common room and a kitchen! Can you say UPGRADE? We all agreed that we would definitely have pizza parties in there.

Then the time for curfew came around and I was pretty much done for the day. Tomorrow we have to rise early to go to orientation and be sent off to our first day of class! I'm excited to see what Constitutional Law has for me. I met some of my classmates already - two of them are from Cairo! - and I can't wait to meet all of them. I have such a good feeling about Columbia University...sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember that this is really happening and isn't just a fabulous dream.

Upper West Side

Today we moved out of the hotel and into our dorms at Columbia. Our morning wasn't too interesting, so I'll focus on the important stuff. We arrived at the gates of the school, at 116th and Amsterdam, in the afternoon. Registering, finding our rooms and unpacking were all finished within an hour. I met my suite-mates: Jamey, an Italian, Sebastion, a Puerto Rican, and Mike, a native of New Jersey.

After setting up, Ms. L. took us to Pink Berry for ice cream. I've had frozen yogurt before, but I had never had yogurt flavored ice cream. It was... interesting.

We then went to get school supplies and our Columbia apparel. I chose a light blue hoodie. When we got back to the campus, Ms. L. said her farewells. From now on, she will only see us on most days in a brief meeting. From now on our chaperones are our Resident Advisers (RAs)

My RA is named Danny Chow. He's in charge of my suite as well as one other. He seems pretty approachable. At 5:30, he took us to John Jay dining hall. The Columbia High School Program was having a barbecue for all of its students. I didn't eat too much; wasn't hungry.

When we were all full, Danny took us to a field of grass in front of the Columbia Law School. You could see the endless stacks of paperwork through all the windows. He explained some of the rules of the program as well as some safety guidelines. We also played an icebreaker, but it didn't go very well. After that we just chilled for a few hours. I wandered around the school for a while with some guys from my hall. When I got back to the dorm, I called my sister on Skype. She's doing a study abroad program this summer in Italy, but right now she is in Norway, visiting relatives. I called at about 7:00 or 8:00 PM. It was 2:00 AM there. We kept the conversation brief, and agreed upon a time to call each other again, tomorrow.

Around 9:00, people started gathering in the quad. By 10:00, there were hundreds of students out there getting to know each other. I've come to the realization that there are more international students here than there are American citizens, which is awesome. I met a ton off people, but none were taking Con. Law. Sadly, our conversations were all so brief that I'll forget most of there names by tomorrow.

We had to be back in our halls by 11:00 PM (weekday curfew). All the RAs on my floor brought tubs of ice cream into the halls for us to share.

I'm sorry, but I spent much of today trying to familiarize myself with my surroundings, so I didn't take to many photos. I'll definitely post a ton over my time in this class. We start lessons tomorrow.

Home, Suite, Home

Today was the day that we've been all waiting for--the day that we finally visit Columbia and move into our dorm rooms. Ultimately, my morning can be summarized with three words--packing, panicking, and pancakes. Packing because I had neglected to do so the previous night, panicking because I had no idea of what to expect next, and pancakes simply because that’s what I had for breakfast this morning. When we finished breakfast, we returned to the hotel for the last time and after gathering our all of our luggage, we went by taxi to our new home--Columbia University. 

Each hall has it's own theme--our's is Powerpuff Girls!

At first, I was worried about being separated from everyone, but as it turns out, everyone was placed in the same building--Carman Hall! Well, everyone expect for Morvarid. As it turns out, rather than having single sex buildings, Carman Hall has single sex floors. Because of this, Lenny and Lucas are on the 9th floor, whereas I'm on the 10th, and Aurea and Adrianne are on the 11th. While none of us are on the same floor, I think just being in the same dormitory is lucky enough!

Lizzy!

After we figured out our dorm situations, we made our way to our respective dorm rooms. This was when I met my first of my 3 suite-mates, Elizabeth "Lizzy" Pott. Lizzy and I soon found out that we both had a lot in common. Not only are we both rising juniors and think that flight is the best super power ever, but we’re also going to be taking the same class, Constitutional Law! However, before I could get fully situated in my new dorm room, Mrs. L arrived along with Aurea, Adrianne, and Morvarid so that we could pick up the boys  for a make a quick trip to the University’s bookstore in order to buy or textbooks, school supplies, and Columbia memorabilia.

While there was a minor mishap that prevented us from getting our textbooks, we were still able to buy our school supplies and our Columbia souvenirs.

After we finished shopping, it was time to say goodbye to Mrs. L, since after students move into their dorms, no parents or guardians are allowed on campus until the final day of the program. While we will be meeting with her everyday afterschool, it was still a bit sad to have to say goodbye, since she spent the entire trip taking care of us and making sure that everything went according to schedule. Honestly, I miss her already!

After

Before

After saying goodbye, we went our separate ways once more. When I returned to my room, I finished settling in and met my other two suitemates not too long after. After hanging out and chatting for a bit, we met with Andrea and two other girls who we shared an RA with, Francis and Kristen. We introduced ourselves and then headed down to the auditorium for the mandatory BBQ.  

My RA--or Residential Assistant--Andrea.

Unlike most BBQs, this one was held indoors and after all the grilling had been done. The food on the other hand was a lot more traditional and they had all the classics, including burgers, hotdogs, watermelon, potato salad, and pasta. In addition, all the food was absolutely delicious—I just hope that the dining hall’s food is half as good!

When we finished dinner, we headed back to our floor for an orientation with our RA. During the orientation, we went over the program’s rules as well as the consequences for breaking them, which tends to be expulsion. One of the most important rules concerns our curfew. We’re to be either on our floor or in our rooms my 11:00 PM Sunday through Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday. Being between one to five minutes later results in your curfew being reduced by one hour the next day, while, being five minutes to ten late means that the next day your curfew is at 7:00 PM. If you’re more than 10 minutes late means a referral to the main office. Even if you were to call your RA beforehand about being late, no matter if you’re excuse is valid or not you would be held liable for being late and you will receive punishment. While this may seem a bit strict, I understand that this is both for our safety and to help instill a sense of responsibility within the students.   After we finished going over the rules, we went over the procedures we need to go through to go in and out of our dorms, and when that was over, we received free Columbia water bottles!

Later, Andrea took our group to a local sweets café—Crumbs. There I shared a cupcake with one of my roommates, Francesca, while we talked more about ourselves and our expectations for the upcoming three weeks. When we finished eating, we returned to the dorms for a well-deserved rest after a long day.   

It's only been a few hours since we've arrived, but I already really love it here. The campus is wonderful, and everyone here is really friendly. The only thing left now is one more orientation, this time with all the high school students, and the first day of class. I’m really excited for tomorrow, but also really nervous. Tomorrow is that day that all the work that everyone has put into making this a reality finally pays off, so I fully intend to make the best of everything and make sure that our hard work doesn’t go to waste.