Brown At Last!

We are at Brown at last! After five nights of staying in Hotel Providence and four days of college tours, we are finally fulfilling our main purpose of this trip. Over this past week, the five of us Brown # 1 cohorts have become really close, and Ms. Larson has become our ILC mom. Today, Andrew, Erin, Erinn, Frank, and I spread our wings and flew out of Mama Larson’s nest and into the real world known as Brown University. I already miss Ms. Larson, but I am also excited meet new people, learn new things, and live independently here.

I was becoming so situated and comfortable with our hotel that packing felt strange. However, I was looking forward to experiencing a dorm. I live in the Marcy House with Erinn while Frank is in our neighboring building and Erin and Andrew are off in another area. The dorms are not quite what I expected, but in a short while, I'll feel right at home. Sharing bathrooms with the many girls in my house will be a new experience and hopefully not a bad one. The people in my house come off as friendly and approachable. It’s always fun meeting new and interesting people for the first time. A conversation naturally builds from introductions and asking questions about where people are from and what class they are taking. I was one of the many people on my floor to get a single room. I’m not sure if I like this or not. I was looking forward to meeting my roommate, but then again, not sharing a room allows me to have personal space.

The day was pretty busy, and I didn’t have much time to explore Brown thoroughly yet. From what I have seen walking around and driving here, Brown is composed of many red brick buildings, which I adore. We had a student orientation once most people checked in. The room was filled with hundreds of students. They laid the ground rules down for us, including the obvious “no alcohol or drugs” and curfews, which our RAs (residential advisors) expanded on. Our school day curfew is 11:30 and our weekend curfew is 12:30 AM, which means that we must check in with our RA by that time or else they will issue a missing student search, something I’m sure no one wants to instigate. My RA is a sophomore at Brown named Elisa who is extremely nice and caring and lives right next door to me. We had two floor meetings with our RA with everyone on my floor assigned to Elisa. We played several fun icebreakers that introduced us to the people we will be living with for the next three weeks. I have a feeling that I’ll have a blast with these wonderful people.I was eager to experience college dining. I didn't know what to expect so I was impressed that the dining hall had such a vast array of food. There was unique dishes that I hadn't tried before but was enthusiastic to taste. It was laid out buffet-style, with freshly served food such as pasta, rice, salad, fruit, and deserts. After dinner, most students attended an ice cream social put on by the school. I had a great time socializing with different people with my mingling partner, Erinn.

Tomorrow is when the real work begins. I actually look forward to starting my Macroeconomics course with Erin and Andrew. Time to get some sleep to reenergize my brain!