Something New

See, I knew sleeping past my alarm would come in handy one day. Well…no, but I can pretend, can’t I? I’ve gotten into the nasty habit of hitting the snooze button in my sleep when my alarm rings at 8:30, and not actually getting up ‘til at least 9:00. Those of you still in high school probably think I’m weak for being unable to wake up by the time you’re sitting halfway through first period class, but—actually, there is no excuse; I am weak. It’s especially hard when you were having such a good dream beforehand. There was one time where I had this dream about an epic battle between dinosaurs and I just had to go back to sleep to continue it…but that’s a blog post for another time (or rather, never).

Anyways, on Friday I got out of bed at nine-something and went through my usual routine: bathroom, clothing, and hair-brushing while turning on my laptop to check my email and facebook (I am insanely addicted). I saw an email (which I would never have read if I woke up on time) about a prospective student who needed a host because her original one had canceled last minute. I mulled over hosting for a minute, looked at the time, and figured I might as well. My first time alone at Holy Cross had been for an overnight weekend program, and I had come late because I had an AP practice exam that day. Because I came in the afternoon, there hadn’t been anyone to pick me up, so I spent an hour or so by myself in Hogan reading. It was a nervous hour.

Clearly, there was no reason for anyone else to repeat it.

Aly the prospective was awesome. I really hope she comes here! I felt badly that she ended up sitting through my science classes when she wants to major in something humanities related, but I tried my best. I had never hosted before, and she was incredibly patient with me as I scrambled to figure out what aspects of HC would be most important for her to see. In the end, Clara, Cynthia, and I took her adventuring to all the most important places regular tours don’t show you at HC—the best bathroom on campus (located down the hall from Admissions), Fenwick Theater, O’Kane computer lab (I never learned where it was ‘til a good month into my first semester), Public Safety, various elevators, and out to eat in Kimball, to name some of the less obvious ones. I like to think I introduced her to nice people as well, like Goebel the Kimball captain and Debbie the Classics major.

Of course, introducing anyone to Debbie is generally a good life decision.

In the end, she had to go to her interview with admissions, but I wish her and everyone else applying the best of luck!

I can’t wait to host again!

Hello all!

As most of you may know, yesterday was accepted students day here on the Hill. Since my SPUD was canceled for the day due to unforeseen circumstances, I made use of the time pretending to be a prospective student with my friends Clara and Cynthia.

It didn’t work.

We tried going on a tour of Hanselman, but one of the tour guides happened to have a class with Clara, so eventually we meandered off towards Stein. We ran into another tour guide (whose name I still don’t know), and I asked her a question. She recognized me (and I’ve seen her around campus as well). Clara and I then wandered up towards the “Last Stop Information Center” and were immediately picked up by an admissions counselor, Tran Kim-Senior (despite foiling our plans, she’s still really nice).

We sat in on Father McFarland’s closing speech and I was, quite frankly, a little surprised to realize that everything he had been saying was true. I’m used to taking in admissions speeches with a grain (more like a handful) of salt, mainly because I understand that these colleges want you to go to their schools. But hearing Fr. McFarland speak, it was weird seeing how it was all true. I mean, at any other school, I can’t help but feel that my friends and I could have gotten away with pretending to be prospective students. But because Holy Cross is such a tight knit community, that epically failed.

I think it’s a good thing that it failed.

It’s nice knowing that you’re not going to a school completely filled with strangers. It’s just a pity that we can’t step in on your tours at this point.

Advising is a lot like going to the doctor’s office—terrifying to think about, but pretty painless (and thankfully, unlike the doctor’s office, there is no chance of getting a shot). For awhile now, I’ve been schedule crazy, spending obscene amounts of time searching courses that don’t conflict with labs. I’ve been finding backup classes and backups for my backups. Ratemyprofessors.com has now become one of my favorite websites ever, and when it fails to find the professor I’m searching for, it does indeed make me weep a little on the inside.

Only a little.

For next year, I’ll hopefully be taking Genetics, Organic Chemistry (part two), Creative Writing: Nonfiction (at the urging of my Montserrat professor, and who knows, maybe it’ll teach me to write even better entries than the ones you must already love), and last, but not least, Introduction to Latin. My advisor nearly gave me a heart attack when he told me I had no free slots to take classes that I wanted to take for the sake of taking…but then we recounted and it turns out that I have seven free classes. And, because I am taking a second English class for the fun of it, I’m essentially taking the same courses as a bio pre-med student here. This means that for all of you looking into that means of study, yes, you will have slots open to take classes you want to take for fun.

In other news, I did not receive the position of Kimball Captain, but upon further thought, I’ve decided it’s quite alright, and I’m so happy for all the people that got promoted!  I’ll probably stick around Kimball next year, so perhaps I could even meet some of you lovely readers. And, if I’m lucky, you all won’t be bitter towards me for taking advantage of this blog to ramble about the daily occurrences of geeks (me) on campus.

I also finally met my fellow blogger, Melissa, for the first time last night! We were standing in line at Kimball together, and a mutual friend of ours said hello to me, which made Melissa realize who I was (alas, I am horrible with things like this, and would never have caught on that she was the Melissa). She was incredibly nice and we spent a few minutes in front of the silverware having a blogger-bonding moment. It was lovely.

Lastly, congratulations to everyone who got accepted to Holy Cross! As the applicant pool seems to grow every year, it was a tough decision for admissions to make, and you should all be proud of yourselves for getting this far. As I’ve mentioned before, definitely try and get a visit in (to all the places you’ve been accepted to) and see if you can imagine yourself there. Since you’ll be living the greater part of the year on campus, you might as well enjoy where you’re staying.

And please, don’t let the numerous Holy Cross stairs daunt you—they’re good for you!

That is, in my completely biased opinion…

Hello everybody!

Why is it that I always feel I have taken forever to update? This seems to be a common theme here, although when I look back, updates weren’t all too far apart…maybe I just have a bad sense of time. That must be it, for it seems as if the days and weeks fly by here at school. It’s no wonder people say that college time is too short; I can’t believe I’m almost a sophomore. Or, even weirder, that I won’t be a freshman anymore. I suppose there will no longer be any excuse for me to get dazed and confused on campus anymore after this.

It’s a little depressing to think about.

On the bright side, becoming a sophomore has some perks to it. For one thing, we actually get to pick our housing for next year. Housing appointments for rising sophomores were yesterday, and unfortunately, I got a late time—8:40 p.m. By that time, the housing people had already run out of rooms, so everyone after 8:20 p.m. ended up on the waitlist. It’s not as bad as it sounds though. The reason that they don’t have enough rooms at the moment is because the juniors going abroad next year still don’t have confirmation that they can leave yet, so they have to pick housing before they go. Once they get the green light to go, all of their rooms will open up…which is good for us waitlisted people, because we get top priority on getting their (better) rooms.

Also, the class schedule is now up on STAR (our management system here at HC) so I’ve been briefing through it, looking at potential classes to take. So far, I know I want to take genetics and organic chemistry 2 next year…and the rest is finally up to me to decide!

And as I talk about moving up in class grades, I suppose I ought to put a light on you guys, the HC prospectives. Responses from the college are coming out really soon (I’m not saying when, because then it would spoil the surprise in the mailbox) but once more, I wish you all the best of luck. My biggest piece of advice for the moment (obviously I have more advice; isn’t it obvious I like to ramble?) is to take the time to visit each college you’re interested in. One of the biggest factors in me picking Holy Cross over another (_____ College, another Jesuit school in the area that I didn’t particularly like) was the atmosphere of the place. Think about the type of people you run into. If you can, try and get an overnight visit. See what each college is all about, and then…go for it.

I shall have to elaborate at some other time, because the Invertebrate biology lab is calling my name…

Today I was walking back to my dorm from Kimball, when a small family asked me for directions to Admissions. The lady of the group was indicating that they should go to the library, but I told her no, and instructed the little group to head up to O’Kane and keep to the right in order to get to Fenwick. The little family seemed satisfied with those directions and as I glanced back at them trudging up the small (in comparison to the library’s) staircase, I couldn’t help but feel an odd wave of something hit me.

I’m not sure what it was, but it felt really weird being on the other end of the direction giving. I mean, I’ve only been here a month (today is my one month anniversary with good ol’ HC!) but it already feels like home. I was super excited that all those moments of getting lost and finding new ways around the campus had finally come to use, so I could now share my new awesome sense of direction with visitors to the campus.

In fact, I was so proud of my small accomplishment that I had climbed all the way up the Dinand Library steps before I realized that to get to Fenwick from O’Kane, you don’t keep to the right, but stay to the left…

I’m hoping that the little family found one of the numerous “Admissions” signs in the building because apparently, one particular Holy Cross student still needs to learn the difference between left and right.