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A lot of people have asked (by e-mail) to know what’s going on at my college (Purdue). I was going to e-mail them all, but then I thought that would be cheating since an e-mail is supposed to be a personal correspondence, and there is no way I’m writing out the last few days multiple times. So now I’m posting it here and letting you all enjoy the college goodness with me.
Tuesday night (one week ago) I went for a bike ride with my Dad and Mom (kind of a “last ride” since the bike was leaving the next morning). Then I played a last game of tennis with a friend (about the only one who plays tennis, but that’s another story ) and headed to a Star Wars party where I (unfortunately) caught the end of Episode II and (fortunately) got to see a good part of Episode IV. I had to leave in the middle since I was getting up vaguely early the next day and it was already like 2:00 am or something.
The next morning my Aunt and Grandpa come over to pick up the bike. My Aunt gets Wednesdays off (by working extra on other days) so they were leaving a day early than us and also had tons of space (not because of their leaving earlier ). So my bike went into the car, we discussed routes and said goodbye.
That night I see my friends for the last time for a while (I’m probably coming home for thanksgiving), I throw a “party” at my house. This “party” was us watching A Clockwork Orange followed by a couple episodes of Fawlty Towers (of which I have every episode on DVD) and then kick them out at around 11:00 (I think). We were getting up at 5 or 6 the next morning.
Thursday morning I’m packed (I had finished putting stuff in the car the previous night after people left) and we get going pretty early. There really isn’t much that happened after that. After all, we were driving through the flat part of Colorado, and it was probably the most exciting part of the drive (i.e. not exciting). We stopped at a motel that night with very poor quality rooms, but livable. We watched a little bit about the blackout and went to sleep.
Friday we get up around 7:00 our time, which was really 8:00. We get going about an hour later and continue to traverse through corn fields at 75 mph (well, on a road through them). We managed to cover a lot of ground on the first day, so we make it to our hotel at around 3:30 that afternoon. Our hotel is on the East edge of Lafayette (Purdue is in West Lafayette, Lafayette is just across the Wabash). We spent some time in the local Meijer (I don’t think that’s how it’s spelled, but it’s the best I can do). We get some stuff I need and return to the hotel. An hour later or so my Grandpa and Aunt come in. They were later than us since they were picking up my sister at the Indianapolis airport, so now my entire family is basically at Purdue. We go out to eat at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, and I get my bike out of the car and tool around for a short time. Later we drove down to campus since my sister hadn’t seen it.
Saturday is moving in day for me. I’m supposed to check in and get stuff transferred to my room from 10:30-12:30 we naturally get there at about 9:45 (which is typical of my family and me). Purdue (as usual) was very organized, and I got checked right in. We start to move stuff up to my room. All over the place people are running around with suitcases and bags, lofts are going up in the rooms. My residence hall is an all male, very small dorm. It was the first dorm on campus, which means it is excellently designed and built. The walls are clearly lathe instead of cheap insulation, and block off sound quite well. Stuff gets strewn all over the room, pilling up. I begin to doubt my ability to get all the stuff to fit, even without my roommate.
My family left to move the cars (so other’s could begin to unload) and tour the campus on their own. I kept putting away stuff until they returned and we headed out to lunch. We went to a O’ Charley’s (I think) and I had 7 glasses of coke. It was very hot and very humid, so I spent a lot of time drinking various fluids. We then went to a few stores where I got a 25’ Ethernet cable and some good speakers and few other things. We return to the dorm where I continue to un-pack as my family leaves again.
When my family returns I’ve got most of the stuff put away and I have confidence that I can keep everything I’ve brought. We go out to dinner at the Bob Evans, which was decent. After that we go back to the hotel for a little bit and to Super Target. After this, I was dropped off at the dorms and my family returned to the hotel. I watched some Simpsons for a while and went to sleep since my internet connection wasn’t going to be up until the next morning. I got to sleep pretty late, but I can’t hear a thing through the walls.
In the morning I get up and play a little on the computer and put everything away. My family arrived a little later and did nothing before going out to try and find the pedestrian bridge across the Wabash. The internet was up for me so I sat there and waited for my roommate who was arriving at 10:30-12:30 that day. He arrived a little after 11:00, and my family got back about 30 minutes later. I helped him carry stuff up to the room and we talk a little. His dad is wearing a Marines cap and seems to friendly enough if he likes you. His Mom was quite nice as well, she reminded my of my Grandmother for some weird reason, even though I barely know my Grandmother.
David (my roommate) seems nice, nothing to be worried about. He didn’t arrive with any giant posters of women which was kind of a relief since our neighbors did. I still don’t really know that much about him, but nothing to complain about.
David had brought a loft he got from his uncle. However, his uncle had given him the impression that it was a double, and it wasn’t until a day before when they’d looked at it they realized it was a single. We looked at prices and set ups and it became clear that a double loft was the way to go. The people making the lofts had been kicked off of the dorm’s lawn since the police thought they were soliciting, but my Dad and his managed to flag down one of the pickups that was driving around. We got an appointment for 3:30 to get the loft installed. David unpacked and I mostly stood around and helped out a little as our families talked. My Grandpa (the coolest man on the planet) and his Dad took an immediate liking to each other and stayed deep in conversation about the whole day. We go out to lunch at the Union.
After lunch my parents drive my sister to Indianapolis to fly back home and my Aunt and Grandpa take me to Wal-Mart to get 3 or so things for the room and race back to the room just in time to help David and his Dad move stuff out of the room for the loft guys. We finished a little early and waited around for the loft guys to tell us they were about 45 minutes late. So we sat there and looked at our stuff in the hall making sure no one took our computers or something. Kind of boring, we talked the whole time and I’m not sure I learned a thing about anyone.
At about 4:15 the loft guys arrive and start to assemble the loft. They move the bed frames around, and after a heavy drop to the ground, one of the frames splits in half. David’s dad managed to get a replacement from the main desk (no charge, it was a bad weld) and we David and I go the RA’s meeting. The RA’s room is directly across from ours, so we had to walk about 2 feet. We were informed that doing stupid stuff is stupid and then went back the room to watch them finish up the loft.
The workers leave and we begin to push stuff back into the room. We’ve found a configuration we like and get everything semi-put away. However, we don’t finish since we have to go to dinner and then everyone else has to leave. Jimmy Johns is the dinner since it’s close and easy. Afterwards David’s parents begin to drive home (David live South of Chicago) and my family head back to the hotel. We say goodbye as we aren’t going to see each other again until Thanksgiving.
That night we met for BGR: Boiler Gold Rush. It’s an orientation program for Freshman, and the only way to check into the dorms a week early. We went down to the courtyard in the middle of the dorm (the dorm is a quad and there’s a park with grass and trees and whatnot in between the four sections). We divide into teams of about 12 or so and meet our team leader. Afterwards, we go meet up with the female version of our team (remember, my dorm is all male) and the go Eliot Hall of Music which is a really, really big theater where do exciting things like shout and stand-up a lot. Afterwards we return to the dorms and crank around there. David and I finish setting up the room, do various thing on our computers, take a shower, and go to sleep.
The next day we meet for meals (from now on, meet means meet our team) and then go to a Purdue athletics talk that involved chanting and standing up/sitting down a lot. Afterwards we take a tour of campus that was rather boring as I’ve already done it, but that was OK since it was followed by lunch and free time. Later we do various stupid activities and return to the music hall to yell. I managed to fit about 10 minutes of biking in there which was fun at least. That night (last night) we went on a “Wal-Mart Run” in which buses continually take us from our dorms to Wal-Mart and back. David and I got some various things we needed personally. We also got a refrigerator and a third fan for the window. Here’s the condoms part, rather melodramatic really. Someone slipped condoms into our shopping cart or something and I ended up paying for them. Exciting huh? I had to carry the fridge to the dorm and up, though David did offer to do it. We didn’t find a futon/sofa we liked so it was the only really big item we got.
Today was basically the same, though I got a lot more biking in and registered my bike. We did a few activities, including watching a little PC (politically correct, not computer) play about diversity and then doing a really stupid “game” that got me absolutely incensed, but that’s OK. Afterwards we had dinner and free time. We went to the union and watched the college’s improve group which was fun. We could’ve stayed and done a whole lot of free stuff at the Union (like bowling and pool) but I was tired so I came back here. Of course 10 minutes later I was on my bike and went for a semi-significant ride. Afterwards I came back, took a shower, and typed this. So there you are, my college experience which has already involved condoms.
Note: I'm perfectly aware that I switch in and out of tenses, my only excuse is that I'm really tired. Thank-you.
posted
Next job application I fill out, when they ask me my education, I will put "Has purchased condoms."
Posts: 7600 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Good Luck, Hobbes. May you have an enlightening year... with condoms. Don't forget the condoms.
EDIT: Did you feel weird buying condoms? I always feel weird. I think that drug stores need to hire clerks tragically born without imaginations, so insecure males like myself don't have to worry about what they're imagining...
I'm off to school in a week or two, and I can't wait. I got to see my dorm today (my college is only about 40 minutes from home) and it is suh-weet. And it's filled with responsible grad students to boot, no more crazy bass people downstairs making my computer monitor giggle from the vibrations from their stereo.
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Hobbes is in college? That's worse than my baby sister graduating high school!
I just got back from presiding over this year's freshman AB retreat as the obligatory keeper of Duke (and ABD) lore, and have come to the conclusion that I'm officially a dirty old man.
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
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Hobbes, did you get the kind that are ribbed for her pleasure? If you didn't, you're just being selfish.
Seriously, it's great you're all set up now. One of my regrets about college is that I didn't live in a dorm my first year. I got an apartment with a couple of friends from high school. Between that and 600 person classes, I didn't meet a whole lot of new people that first year.
Finally, I'm going to let you slide on hiring someone to build your loft, because you probably did not have any tools handy. In the future, as a Civil Engineer, you will be expected to build strutures like this yourself.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I've already had 3 different people ask me and/or my roommate if we had condoms at various hours of the night. You can charge some desperate people a lot of money for a condom at 3 AM, trust me Posts: 252 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Since your roomie lives near Chicago, you can always hitch a ride with him and come see the Southern Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Jatraquero clump!
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I always thought buying condoms and feminine products were GOOD things for a guy to do. I mean, it means you've got someone waiting for you at home. The sad thing is buying a lot of men's magazines and ramen.
Posts: 2048 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Heh. I always thought it would be funny to go to a pharmacy with one of my male friends and buy condoms and KY jelly. He's got a girlfriend, and they swear by the stuff, so it's not like they don't buy it anyway. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I was one of those folks who was surprised to learn that Hobbes is so young. I mean, I knew it before this thread, but this just drives it home.
Good luck. Have fun. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Congrats on moving in Hobbes! This thread brought back some pretty great memories of when I moved into my dorm freshman year. My roommate and I got along so well and so quickly that everyone was surprised to find out that we had only just met.
Sounds like your experience has been very similar to mine (without the condom part ). I was quite amused by all the orientation activities. During one of the campus tours our leader said "Cougars don't cut corners" ( ) when we cut across the grass instead of walking on the sidewalk. It was classic. Posts: 1635 | Registered: Aug 2002
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So that would mean the crying face after the eek face is actually still the guy.
Hobbes, always carry one of those condoms around in your wallet in one of the outer pockets. Chicks really think that circular impression is really cool and will flock to you.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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One of the topics at the Student Issues forum during freshman orientation at Harvey Mudd is, of course, sex. Each frosh gets a folder with some pamphlets on campus health resources and support groups and what not. It also includes two condoms, one flavored and one lubricated.
The Super Sex Packet (as it is referred to at Mudd) always comes with a slight warning. Apparently, a while back, some frosh in a big hurry needed to hand in a paper. He grabbed the first empty (or so he thought) folder that he could find, stuffed the paper in it and handeded it in. As it happened, he was male (hence the he), his professor was female, and the folder had once contained his Super Sex Packet. As you might imagine, the professor didn't quite know what to make of the term paper that came with two condoms. It ended up working out alright, with many profuse apologies from the unlucky frosh, but to this day incoming freshmen are cautioned to remember to check to make sure a folder is actually empty before using it to hand in a paper.
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![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) and headed to a Star Wars party where I (unfortunately) caught the end of Episode II and (fortunately) got to see a good part of Episode IV. I had to leave in the middle since I was getting up vaguely early the next day and it was already like 2:00 am or something.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Later we do various stupid activities and return to the music hall to yell. I managed to fit about 10 minutes of biking in there which was fun at least.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[No No]](graemlins/nono.gif)
) when we cut across the grass instead of walking on the sidewalk. It was classic. ![[Party]](graemlins/party.gif)
![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
![[Monkeys]](graemlins/monkeys.gif)
