Dear Brown Session 2...

You girls are coming over in 2 days! As you begin frantically packing and buying certain necessities, allow me to give you the down low on life here at Brown.

I’m sure you are wondering about the weather here; I know I was. Days usually range from pretty warm to fairly hot. However, bring an umbrella as it will definitely rain. The weather forecast predicts scattered thunderstorms for tomorrow, but they don’t usually come true. You should bring short-sleeves and shorts to wear most of the time, but also bring jeans or pants and a few long-sleeves or jackets. In the classrooms and libraries, the air conditioning tends to make the buildings cold. I usually wear jeans to class and shorts outside of class. I have only worn my jacket once and that was very briefly. But I’ve seen many people wearing jackets, and the temperature drops outside at night. I remember our floor meeting with our RA on the first night. We were outside at 9 PM and everyone was shivering. That was the first night though. The weather has warmed considerably since then. Some rooms are warm at night, like Frank’s, and some are cooler, like mine. I sleep with three sheets so I would suggest you bring a thin blanket. Brown provides you with one pillow (no pillow cover) and one mattress (no mattress cover); that’s it. You need to bring the rest of your bed items. If you don’t want to bring your own sheets, mattress covers, pillow covers, and towels, a set of 2 mattress covers, 2 sheets, 2 pillow cases, and 6 towels are available for rent for $44. I believe blankets and fans are offered too, but I don’t know the price.

You might want to bring fitness clothes because they offer yoga twice a week and other recreational activities. For the total body workout that Erin, Erinn, and I attended, we sweated through our clothes. Luckily, they weren’t anything fancy.

On our second day on the East Coast, we visited Boston. We didn’t have time to drive all the way back to our hotel to change so we wore our formal attire out the hotel. I had to wear a dress for the tours of MIT and BU. Erinn walked in high heels the entire day. Moral of the story: bring slacks and comfortable dress shoes.

There are mosquitoes here, quite a lot outside at night. Save yourselves from the agony of extreme itchiness by bringing mosquito repellant. I speak from experience.

For toiletries, you’re welcome to bring all of them if you’d like. As for me, I chose to forgo extra packing and bought my shampoo, soap, toothpaste, detergent, etc. here instead. CVS is on Thayer Street right next to the campus so buying these items is convenient.

You should also bring a reusable water bottle if you can. You can fill it up at the dining halls or most buildings, although not the dorms. I know some people who buy packs of bottled water and keep them in their rooms, which is completely fine too.

My room gets a lot of sunshine in the morning. If you’re like me and cannot sleep in light, bring a sleep mask. I wish I would have.

You might want to bring plastic bags in case you ever need them. You will when you take out your trash.

You usually won’t get bored at Brown. But bringing a deck of cards would be advisable. Erinn purchased a deck at CVS, and it was a great investment. Better to bring your own.

Remember your alarm clock, your electronics, chargers for your electronics, sunscreen, lotion, and school supplies.

That’s it. I hope this helped. I probably forgot to mention some stuff so Andrew, Frank, Erin, and Erinn, feel free to add anything I’ve missed. I look forward to seeing you girls soon!