First Day = New Experiences

After yesterday's outing, I was so exhausted that I could not open my eyes. I had about 6 hrs. of sleep, which could've been worse, but I just wanted to lay in my bed for a couple more hours. I woke up at around 9:30 AM, which was perfectly fine, considering the fact that we had to walk over to campus by 11 AM. Sadly, this did not allow time for breakfast, but our lunch at Mad Mex University City made up for it. 

We first dropped off our things at the Quadrangle dorm, and we also checked in and received our ID cards, our keys, and a free bag that says "Summer Discovery." When I saw my picture on the ID, I was so embarrassed. That was definitely an unflattering photo. Anyways, once we checked in, they made us go through these gates where you had to slide your ID and enter a pin number to go through. My first couple of tries didn't work, but I eventually got the hang of it.

We then brought our luggage inside through a giant crate that was made out of cardboard, and we each went our separate ways to our dorms. I was placed into the Morris dorm, and I also had some difficulties here. When I tried to unlock the door to the building, the key felt like it was going to break because of how difficult turning it was. With the help of one of the Summer Discovery counselors, I was able to go in. The entrance didn't necessarily give off a luxurious feel, but you get what you get. I entered the elevator with my luggage, and we went all the way up to the 4th floor. A lot of the counselors were talking about how the elevator was broken, but we still went in anyways, which was pretty terrifying.

I finally found my room, and I was having problems yet again. This time, my key did not want to turn, and was really difficult to open. I managed to do it after a few tries, but I knew that I had to learn how to do it in one try. Once I went inside the room, I had a lot of mixed feelings. On one hand, I was disappointed that I was in a single, but on the other hand, I was glad that I was able to have a room to myself. It's kind lonely being by myself, but I'll definitely be fine. I just hope that I won't lock myself out of my room. 

After we set our luggage down, we all met up with Mr. Hillyer in the quad area, and we walked to the Summer Discovery office. There, we met Eli, one of the head officers in charge of the entire program. We briefly talked a bit, and he mentioned that he was going to start reading our blogs. Hopefully, everyone enjoys our blogs.

Mounrain of Nachos

When we finished chatting, we then went out for lunch at the Mad Mex that I had mentioned earlier. We were actually supposed to go eat barbecue at a restaurant, but both barbecue places we had walked to was actually closed. Also, for some reason, our cohort was rowdier than usual today, and I'm guessing it's because it was going to be the last time we would all be together with Mr. Hillyer for a while. While we ate, we laughed and joked more than usual, which made me think about how much I'm going to miss spending every single day with them. I would still be able to see everyone, but we would probably be in our own groups. Anyways, I didn't actually enjoy this restaurant too much. Although the food was great, the serving sizes were much too big to eat. It was mostly because of their service to us, since we were practically ignored the entire time and our food took extremely long. Nonetheless, it was still an enjoyable meal with our group.

On our way back

After lunch, we finally walked back to the dorms and said our goodbyes to Mr. Hillyer. I was still going to see him around, but it doesn't change the fact that we were all going to miss him. We went to our dorms first to finish packing, then our cohort regrouped to explore the area. During this time, I was able to meet a lot of different people in a lot of different programs. What I noticed was that most people were going to be attending the Law and the Social Justice courses. I was trying to find someone that was going to attend the Physics course, but I couldn't seem to find anyone. I actually wonder how many students are going to be in the class.

We visited each other's rooms, and when it was finally 4:30 PM, we went back to our own rooms to wait for the meeting time with our Residential Counselors (RCs).  My meeting time with my RC was at 6 PM, so I ended up just exploring the floor and fixing my room. I looked around the bathroom, only to find that there were only two stalls and two showers for an entire floor. I went back to my room to finish unpacking, and found that I actually liked having the room to myself. After I was done, I simply said hi to all of my neighbors, and we just chatted until it was time to go to dinner.

Everyone on my floor walked with our RC to the 1920 Dining Commons, and I was surprised that the line was long, considering the fact that dinner started at 5. The food wasn't as good, which was expected, but it was decent enough. After eating, we just went to the quad again to do some ice breakers with other groups. We ended up throwing a ball with questions on it, and we answered the  question that our hand touch, and many other short games. These were great ways to get to know each other, even just a little bit.

Afterwards, we did a mini orientation, and everyone went their separate ways. The girls on my floor decided to hang out, so we just went in Shanon and Kelli's (my neighbors) room and play the human pretzel. It was almost 10 PM at that time, and so I decided to do my laundry before it was time to go to our dorms at 11:30 PM. At the laundry room, I was joined by Elexis, Joanne, Jun, and Chiamaka, and we just had a short "blogging party" while we waiting for our clothes to be dried. I finally made it back to my dorm at around 11:20, and I just got ready for bed.

Today was a very long and exhausting day. I learned so much about the diversity of the people attending this program, and I can't wait to finally meet my classmates in the Physics course. I hope tomorrow will be amazing!

The beautiful campus of UPenn