Good Luck Exploring the Infinite Abyss: College: Week 1

Our Chancellor carrying the torch during the procession after Convocation

Convocation! My Residential College, William Greenleaf Elliot (WGE), is in the green!

"WHO ARE WE?" "WGGEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Our Welcome to the South Forty!!!

Wow! I don't even know where to begin...College is amazing, fantastic, incredible and any other positive adjective. College is nothing like high school, none of the bitchy girls and backstabbing friends. Everyone wants everyone else to succeed! Yesterday I had a friend name Jennifer down the call come into our room and asked us how to do a math problem. This is the kind of openness and friendliness I love. I better start from the beginning.

I arrived here last Wednesday night after an 9 hour drive down to St. Louis while dodging tornadoes (no joke...we were in a tornado warning!). My roommate, Deeksha (I will talk about her more later), moved in Wednesday night because she did a pre-orientation program. This meant that I was able to move in Wednesday night instead of Thursday with all the rest of the students. With all my siblings accompanying me to college, it only took 2 trips to move all my stuff into the dorm! Setting up my dorm room was another story...

The first official event, which consisted of a floor meeting, took place Thursday night. Everyone is sooo sweet! Our RA's, Ben and Dani, are probably the coolest RA's on the South Forty (terminology: South Forty is the forty acres where all the forms are located...everyone at Wash U calls it the South Forty or S40).

Orientation consisted of a lot of College of Arts & Sciences Meetings (shortened to ArtSci Meetings), floor meetings, floor bonding, and night activities. Some night activities consisted of a Convocation, dance ("Club 40"), the comedian Brian Regan, skits of being safe in college, movie on the Swamp (the green area in the middle of the South Forty), WUTube (Washington University's version of YouTube...each freshman floor made a video and submitted it in a competition), and lots of other fun activities. Thursday night was extra special because it was Convocation, which is one of the only times our entire class of 1500 students will be together until graduation in 4 years (Class of 2013!!!). Each Residential College has their own t-shirt, chant, etc and we scream at the top of our lungs to the other residential colleges. My Residential College is the "William Greenleaf Elliot" College (shortened to WGE!). Each residential college also has a mascot. We are the walrus! "Coo Coo Ca Choo!!!!" Convocation was absolutely amazing and is something I will never forget!!!

Ahh!!! What else!? I feel like I have so much to tell you all! The people on my floor our amazing. I love, love, love my roommate. Her name is Deeksha and we are super compatible! We haven't had any issues yet. She is in the ArtSci college and is going into International Relations. My suitemates are also such sweethearts. Joanna is also in ArtSci, is from Cali (SanFran), and is going into Environmental Studies! We definitely bonded right away! We are very similar and like the same music, movies, fashion, magazines, etc. My other suitemate, Carmi, is about the cutest person you will ever meet! She is in the art school going into graphic design. Other notable people on my floor include Kyle, Jennifer, Zac, Joe, Mark, Nabi, Bryan, Jason, Justin, etc etc. Kyle and I will just look at each other and start laughing uncontrollable. He is HILARIOUS and we get along so well. His nickname for me is "Jordi". I hang out with him a lot. Jennifer is a sweet, quiet girl in engineering who probably wouldn't even hurt a fly. She is just a nice person to be around. Zac...wow...he is crazy! After hooking up with a girl over the weekend, he was left with a neck that looked like it had been mulled by a bear...haha! It was my job, along with with Joanna, Carmi, and our make-up, to help make him "presentable" for his Dean's advising meeting that next morning. Joe is on the other side of the hallway but we have become good friends. We have many of the same values (really close with our family, etc) and have many of the same classes so we have kind of become unofficial study partners. lol. I will definitely need help in Chemistry. Mark lives right across the hall from me (when we both have our doors open, I can be in my bed and see him in his bed...haha!). He loves to make fun of me and kept asking me if my room was ever going to be complete! haha!!! Nabi is Mark's roommate and there are really no words to describe Nabi. He was born in Puetro Rico but lived most of his life in Pakistan. A few days he called everyone out into the hallway and proceeded to read Cosmo's article "50 Sex Tips for Women" to us...highlighting (no joke) the tips in different colors according to effectiveness (keep in mind...this is what Nabi thought was effective!) He is hilarious and definitely a womanizer! Bryan is my southern friend from Georgia who plays tennis for Wash U. He lives down the hall and is someone nice to talk to about anything. Justin lives on the 1st floor in a single and has, by far, the coolest room ever! He calls it the "Sex Lair" because of all the red lights he put in his room. Furthermore, he set up a whole music studio in his room and decorated it amazingly! Probably the best decoration job by any man I have ever seen :) Jason also lives on the other side of the hallway and is really nice. I just started getting to know him. I went to Joe's room yesterday and he was in there talking to Joe. He ended up telling the two of us all his worries for college and all his apprehension due to his class schedule. I thought it was really cool he felt comfortable enough to be so open with me. We ended up chilling in Joe's room for 2 hours while listening to 90's music. As we got ready to leave for our floor meeting, he turned to me an said, "Jordan...you're cool as shit."...and I replied back, "I have never had someone tell me that...thanks!" haha! It was an awesome moment! I know I am forgetting a ton of people but I am sure they will be mentioned in later blog posts.

I finally finished decorating my room last night :) yay! It took me a week to set it up. I will definitely brag and say I have one of the coolest dorm rooms I have ever seen :) I absolutely LOVE it! It is super bright and happy! I am still waiting for my duvet cover to arrive though. On Monday, the loop (the local neighborhood with lots of shops, restaurants, etc) had a bunch of specials for Wash U students (along with posters in the windows welcoming us all back!). I was able to buy a bunch of posters for my wall! The most important part when decorating my room was making it "my own" and putting lots of personal touches :) As you will see in the pictures...I definitely have a TON of family photos, etc.

I really quickly wanted to touch on the rules at Wash U as they are quite unique. Washington University is quite a liberal university (and I must admit...I definitely see myself becoming a more moderate republican...yikes!!). Washington University is one of the only universities to allow underage students to drink on campus and not face penalties. After looking at research, they realized that having students drink out in the open and not hiding it was a lot safer. We are allowed to drink in our rooms with the doors open. However, we cannot be seen in the hallways and any other public areas with alcohol. If we are caught in public with alcohol, we can get in trouble. Also, we are not allowed to throw parties..."technically"...lol. We still have a lot of parties...haha! I just think this is an interesting policy and very progressive. Also, our common room (each floor has a common room) has a box of condoms...haha. The day after we were told this, all the condoms were gone. We assume that some people are "stocking up" and some actually used them. It was quite funny though...

As I stated before, each floor has their own common room with furniture, etc. My dorm, Danforth, has four floors (I am on the fourth floor). We also have recycling center, trash center, and study on each floor. The floor is cut in half due to the common room and elevator in the middle. My side of the floor is DEFINITELY more social. It is kind of the running joke on our floor because when people on my side are in their rooms, all the doors are open (currently I am in my room with my door open) whereas the other side keeps their doors shut. I like always having my door open because then people randomly come in my room, introduce themselves, and interact with me! The bottom floor only has a few rooms. Instead it is home to are residential college advisor (who lives in the door with his family), our dorm family (a professor that lives with his family in our dorm), a huge common room with a pool table and tv, small library, computer lab, multipurpose room, music rooms, laundry rooms, etc. Everything is so nice at this college!!!

I finally got my schedule of classes on Monday. I am taking General Chemistry (5 credits), German II (5 credits), Infectious Diseases: Past, Present, and Future (2 credits), and National and Identity: The Making of a Modern Europe from 1798-1914 (3 credits). General Chemistry is definitely the most time consuming class. I meet 3 times a week for an hour for an actually chemistry class, another hour a week for pre-lab preparation, 4 hours for lab, 1 1/2 for my chemistry class subsection and then I signed up for two other study groups for chemistry (one for 2 hours on the weekend and one that meets on Monday's for 2 hours). My German class meets 4 days a week for an hour along with my subsection which meets twice a week for an hour. Whereas my Chemistry class has about 250 people in it, my German class only has 2 other students. I have not had my Infectious Diseases class yet...it only meets twice a week for an hour. This is the class I am most looking forward to because it actually pertains to something that really, really interests me! Lastly, my Nationalism and Identity class meets 3 times week for an hour. The class consists of 50-150 pages of reading a week. Initially I was a bit scared but then I printed out the readings. They are double-spaced, size 18 font, and include lots of pictures! That class only has about 20 students. My Chemistry class will definitely have the strong work load with the other classes kind of balanced out.

I have decided that my current major (double major) is International & Areas studies along with either Biology or PNP (Philosophy - Neurology - Psychology). PNP is a specific major Wash U made! It sounds really interesting and could be really helpful when I go to medical school because I could study many different aspects on medicine (i.e. medicial ethics, religion and medicine, etc). My minor is going to be in Public Health (my Infectious Diseases class counts for my minor...I only need 5 classes for a Public Health minor!). I feel that this combination not only interests me a lot but also will benefit me when I go into International Medicine (Doctors Without Borders, working with the WHO, etc).

Another nice thing about our university is that they give us a free public transportation pass each semester. Washington University has 2 metro link stops (underground metro) and many bus stations. With our U-Pass (free public transportation pass), we are able to go all around St. Louis including malls, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Whole Foods!!!

Lastly, before I sign off and head to Target (again!), I must recount a funny story that will make my brother, Ryan, proud. He always talked about being a different religion each day to get free food. Well, last night I was Catholic because I really, really wanted the lollipops they were passing out!!! Just a funny tidbit!

Sorry for the long delay getting my first college post up. Hopefully I will be better at updating sooner! I love and miss you all!!!

xoxo jordan

Oh ya...I got my first care package form home yesterday...it was awesome! Included was a purse rack (how did my mom know I needed one?), slippers!, gummi bears!, homemade brownies!, cheer shoes! (I am trying out for the Wash U cheer team), a magazine!, cookies!, and lots of other little goodies :)