A Short Break

A long hallway in the basement. I always check behind me for axe murderers.

Can't sleep at all? Is it six in the morning? Why not...practice piano for an hour in your dormitory's creepy basement? That was my idea this morning. Alex (my roommate) and I both woke up around 6 AM, so we decided to just not bother going back to sleep. I decided to try out the practice rooms that the RAs had said were in the basement. Basements always have that "turn around, he's right behind you" kind of effect on me, and this one was no exception. Someone (or something) had made lots of chalk drawings on the smooth stone walls, some beautiful, and some quite unsettling. But I still found the practice room, and played piano until breakfast.

It's a little faint, but you can see the wall drawings. Elsa from Frozen is on the right side!

After an uneventful breakfast, there was a scheduled Ultimate Frisbee session headed by Lucas, one of our RAs, which I decided to go to. It was held on the Midway, a long strip of flat land that was originally for the World Fair, but now stands as a park of sorts. There were around 35 to 40 students in total, so we split up into teams of around 10. We all introduced ourselves, and as I tried to remember everyone's name, our team decided that we would be "Team USA." 

We played Ultimate Frisbee for over an hour; even after Lucas and several other students left, we kept playing. It was really fun, and a good way to get to know everyone. After Team USA disintegrated when disinterested students left, I joined a new team with seven other students on it. Even though we barely knew each other at first, we threw aside our differences and came up with a killer play that totally wiped out the other team 5-2. 

After the games and lunch, everyone just relaxed for the whole afternoon. We had a meeting and an orientation, about transportation and campus policies respectively, but that was about it. Right after the orientation, the RAs announced a trip to downtown Hyde Park to eat dinner. I had planned to go originally, but realized that I had left my wallet back in my room! I thought about making a run for it, but everyone left almost immediately, so I just decided to go eat dinner at the dining hall and explore the campus with whoever was left.

This library is really awesome.

My first (and only) destination was the library. There were three large libraries on campus, so I decided to go to the fanciest: the Mansueto Library. It's basically a huge glass dome that is used mainly for studying, but also has an underground storage system that houses up to 3.5 million books. What's more, no one has to go down and find their book. You can find the book on a computer and a robotic retrieval system gets it for you. Pretty amazing.

I was originally planning to try out the fitness center, but it was closed early, since it was a weekend. But looking on the bright side, it's another excuse not to exercise! No wonder they say that freshmen always gain weight. 

So, the rest of the evening was peaceful. I helped work on a 1500 piece puzzle depicting the Hagia Sophia. There was a short meeting with our residential groups for what's called a "study break." Basically, you get free food and you get to see everyone again. 

Class starts tomorrow, so I better sleep early today. I can't wait, but I'm very anxious about the work. After a quick glance at the first day's assignment, I was intimidated by the use of confusing computer programs. But I'm sure that everything will be alright. After all, I haven't been selected by the ILC and given this generous, wonderful opportunity just to give up on the first day. Anyways, I should get some rest...we'll see how it is tomorrow!