Before you watch the online documentary of Thursday’s Activities Fair, please know that the video was all Ryan’s idea(Ryan is the director of this Engage Furman website thing) and that I do NOT giggle after every sentence in ordinary DOWNTOWN!! (left to right: Katelyn, me, Katie)circumstances. But despite the fact that I had a camera guy stalking me for an hour and a half, I had a great time learning about all the organizations I never knew existed at Furman (such as a skydiving/doing-really-scary-dangerous-activities-you-should-never-tell-your-mom-about club, bowling/fencing/ultimate frisbee/rugby teams, and a jewelry-making group). It’s hard to say “no” to club leaders though, especially when the “no” is being caught on videotape and the recipient of the “no” has no idea why there’s a lurking camera guy recording her failure to convert you to Tri Delt-ism.

My advice to you: put your e-mail on the club list, stick your hand into the candy bowl (Activities Fair =trick-or-treating college style, so bring your backpack), and don’t commit until you’ve got time to go through your inbox and rationalize your schedule.

Okay. On to highlights of this week.

Caleb, Spencer, Jordan, Nick and their dream car

Every time I went downtown to Greenville, I kept thinking how much I’d like to live there. And then I realized, I already do. If you visit, be sure to stop by. The school’s gorgeous, but you can’t understand Furman until you’ve been to the city. Even though there are all sorts of little shops, restaurants, and art galleries lining the streets, my favorite place to go is Falls Park, which is located smack-dab in the middle of downtown. It’s sort of a little refuge from all the craziness, and I could stand on the bridge which runs over the waterfall for hours, watching as a bride poses for pictures, as the kids play in the stream, as a family picnics on the grass. Sometimes late at night I’ll come there with a few friends, and we’ll climb out on the rocks, just listening to the roar of the rapids as we sit in silence for awhile.

But, if you listen to any of my advice, PLEASE, for your own sake, take this majestic pearl of wisdom:

GO TO SPILL THE BEANS.

Spill the Beans is the best ice cream shop in the entire world. It’s sort of like a Marble Slab or a Cold Stone (if I even dare to compare), although the ice cream tastes a million times better. Heaven in an ice cream cone is the only way I can tthink to describe it.

 Pre-My Tie: Brittany, Ella, me, Emily

Other things that were fun:

1. My Tie. The girls tell their roommates who they’d like to go with, and the roommate asks that boy’s roommate for his (the desired boy’s) tie. On the night of the event, the boy finds the girl who has his tie, and they meet up for dinner downtown and a huge dance for all the Furman freshman.

Wow. That was really hard to explain. It was a blast, though, and Spencer (my date that I met at the President’s Picnic) and I danced like crazy.

2. Shagging lessons for the entire dorm building. Life lesson: NEVER wear spiky heels when learning how to dance.Pre Needtobreathe: Katie, Fiona, Katelyn, Brittany  Stepping on toes doesn’t attract the boys.

3. Needtobreathe concert. Needtobreathe is a band that came to the Handlebar in downtown Greenville (the lead singer went to Furman!!). The concert was AMAZING, and there’s nothing better than the natural high you get from screaming out the words to “Washed by the Water” at the top of your lungs while in the car with friends.

4. Hiking with my philosophy class. I’m in the Engaged Living program, which means I have one class this semester (for me, that’s philosophy) with a group of people from my dorm building. We do all sorts of stuff to “enhance our learning experience,” such as hiking up a mountain one Saturday morning a month. When you’re from flat land, it’s a pretty cool experience.

5. FURMAN FOOTBALL GAME!!!!! YAY WE WON, just don’t ask me the score.

Personally, I’m not really a big football person, especially since we never had a football team at my high school. I was in it more for the social occasion. A bunch of my friends wanted to go tailgating, but, since Die-hard sports fanatics (left to right me, Caitlin, Tabby, Katie, Kirby-Annah, Hannah,Jessica) we were inexperienced with the whole pre-game football thing, our mob of wandering freshman bombarded the Fellowship of Christian Athletes table, where they were kind enough to entertain us and let us eat their food. Afterwards we walked over to the game (if you come visit, bring a set of keys. You’ll understand when you get there) to get good seats. I’m proud to say that, though I have yet to be converted to ESPN fanaticism, I made some friends, learned some cheers (FU one time! FU two times! FU ALLL the time!!!), and, thanks to an informative commentary from my friend Jordan, I even learned a little something about the game of football.

6. Paladin Nites. Free stuff, and lots of it. They had wax hands, a photo booth, a comedian, a movie in the theater, and all kinds of craft stuff, but my favorite part was the recording booth, where you could sing karaoke and make your own CD. Lauren, Katie and I rocked out to Goodbye Earl and some Britney Spears. Be looking for us on itunes.
7. Ella and I debated for a long time about this last one, particularly since my most faithful readers consist of my Mommaryanneandwandawerethebestoffriends and Grammy, but we decided in the end that it wouldn’t be fair to give potential students the wrong idea of what college is really like. Labor Day weekend was my first real weekend on my own, without a curfew, with no obligation to call home to let my parents know where I was going or what I was doing. It was kind of exciting, so I stopped by a couple frat parties with some friends. Let me tell you, they were a lot different from what I’d expected… just a lot of people standing around or dancing. It didn’t really matter whether you were drinking or not (by the way, Mom, I didn’t even consider it – I swear), and it was kind of boring if you didn’t know anyone.

Actually, one of the things that surprised me most about college is that there’s the party people and the not- Caleb at Mellow Mushroom party people (excuse my lack of vocabulary), and it doesn’t matter which group you want to be in, because college is not like high school. No one cares what you do on your Friday night, unless they’re the one scrubbing your throw-up off the carpet.

Wow, this has been the shortest weekend ever.

I guess I should get going on that Spanish homework…

Hope you enjoy the pics. They're more trouble than they're worth.

HEY.

Wow, this is so cool. I’m still having a hard time believing that someone actually hired me for this job. There’s nothing I love more than writing about myself, a self-absorbed activity usually frowned upon by the more humble members of society. And that’s not even the best part. Apparently, people actually read this thing.

So, to all prospective Furman students, high school college councilors, the Furman admissions office, and my Mom,

HEY.

You know, I always thought that going off to college would be an emotionally draining time wrought with homesickness, loneliness, and a constant craving for Dad’s Saturday morning banana pancakes (okay, THAT I definitely miss), but I’m not too sure what’s going on here. I mean, where are the smudgy, mascara-black water droplets which should be marking a trail along my cheeks? My tear ducts should have begun to flood six days ago, and it seems only appropriate that snot be pouring out my nose like a water from a faucet. I mean, I was that girl who cried (okay, wailed) all through middle school graduation, when I, along with every single one of my friends, would be attending the high school building adjacent to the middle school building the following September. Then, the summer before sophomore year, I had an emotional breakdown when my dad dropped me off at a Wofford leadership camp, just because it reminded me that I'd be going to college and I'd have to leave home for good someday.

A tiny part of me wants to be terribly upset, just so that those other meltdowns won’t have been a complete waste of time.

Anyway, tomorrow will be the one-week anniversary of my Furman move-in day. It’s crazy – I sort of feel as though I’ve been here for months, and I can’t believe it was just last week that Dad and I drove through the gates of Furman for my first time as an actual student. As soon as I parked the car in front of Poteat, six O-Staff members unloaded all my stuff for me and took it to my room as if I were a VIP guest at the Ritz Carlton. Dad kept saying over and over that it was worth paying the tuition that he didn’t have to carry my ginormous suitcase full of hair products up across campus and up two flights of steps. And then, after that, I FINALLY got to meet my fabulous roommate Ella Kribitchenko (she had to tell me how to spell that) after a month-long conversation over facebook inbox, which could probably be printed out and formatted into a Hannah and Lauren dressed up for our hall theme: Dr. Suessfairly length novel.

Let me tell you, SHE’S SO COOL.

We actually had this discussion the other day about the fact that Furman seems to have done an awesome job with roommate match-ups, because everyone on our hall gets along great. Ella’s one of those people who always goes out of her way to make others feel good about themselves. She’s not incredibly outgoing, but she’s a great person to talk to. Plus, she laughs at my jokes. ALL of them.

It’s getting late, but I have to tell you all about O-week, because it definitely ROCKED. In case you’re not up-to-date on your Furman lingo, here are a few keywords: FU is not an insult, Quesadilla Thursday is defined as heaven in burrito form, and O-week is code for the four days of orientation which occur before classes start (O-Four Days takes to long to say).

Ella’s got an 8:30 class tomorrow, so I better finish this up fast.

First of all, I love all the girls on hall. They were my first friends here, and I think it’s so cool how such a heterogeneous group (in terms of personality, beliefs, ethnicity, and even clothing style) could be so accepting of each other and mesh so well. We do lots of hall activities, such as watching 27 Dresses in the RAs’ room (I’ll tell you all about them later), learning how to shag, (which we’ll do tomorrow night), or going downtown for dessert for Mollie’s birthday (Flat Rock Grille has the BEST brownie Sundays). To get all psychoanalytical on you, I’ve already gained a new sort of confidence that I never had in high school, because I don’t feel that I have to be anyone but myself. And surprisingly, that’s okay with everybody. We’ll see how long that lasts before I drive everyone up the wall, but, for right now, it’s good to feel comfortable in my own skin.

Okay. Back to O-Week. Poteat 200: Pre-Blackout (left to right: Lauren, Katie L., Katie V., Ella, me, Victoria

Just in case I succeed in persuading you to come here, I don’t want to spoil any of the activities. I’ll just give you the basics of what goes on: speed-dating with our brother hall, the Blackout party, Field Fest, and the random dance parties were REALLY fun, but my favorite part was when the boys serenaded us girls from below the balcony over the quad. I was a little sad that most of our outside activities were monsoon-ed out, but it was nice to have a little down time. At the President’s Picnic, I got to meet Dr. Shi, the Furman president, who, as my Spanish professor puts it, is next to God in terms of the respect he receives around this place. I’ve have to add that I now know exactly why.

Speaking of my Spanish professor, I really like my classes so far. One of the best parts of college is that you get to take what you’re interested in, and you can pretty much ignore the boring stuff such as calculus and chemistry.

Speaking of calculus and chemistry, if you’re one of those crazy people who’s into that stuff, I hear there’s some pretty good professors for those classes, too.

Speaking of classes, I have to get up for one in about seven hours, so I should probably call it quits for tonight.

So,

Goodnight.

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 12:31AM by Kristin | 2 Comments