Stress

Classes haven't even started yet and I am incredibly stressed. I like the house I am in within New House, and I like my roommates, and I like the other people, but we got the loudest room in the place, right next to the lounge and I am the one who probably needs to go to bed the earliest because of rowing. Then someone told me that German House has an opening and now I have to consider that. The pros are that they cook everynight and it's quiet, but only like one or two actually speak German. I haven't met everyone, and one guy is uber annoying, but most of the others seem nice. This is just causing me crazy stress. I feel like German House has a lot of things to offer, but it wasn't what I wanted. And I don't really want to leave New House 4, but I feel like having trouble sleeping and having to worry about dinner everynight could be bad. If I was staying up on the same sleep schedule as the people in the lounge, it would be fine, but with rowing, I have to get sleep. We probably should have put that we wanted a quiet room on the sheet, but there weren't things to check and we didn't even think about it.

The other thing I'm stressing out about is classes. I really want to take this globalization class, but I can't if I'm in my seminar, which seems okay, but I'm not sure. I'm more interested right now in the cultural part that comes with globalization than with the development part, but maybe that would change with development experience? I talked to Donna Friedman who is like the head of UAAP and she sounded like changing was possible, but she didn't seem very happy about it. She said I could do the seminar as a listener, but I'm already supposed to be taking Czech as a listener once or twice a week at Harvard. I'm just worried I am stretching myself to thin, and nothing's even started yet. I really don't know what to do.

FPOP/Orientation

I have never been so busy in my life. FUP was really fun. I met 50 awesome people, and we may not be best best friends, but I have probably 45 people I am comfortable going up to and talking to. It would take a really long time to explain it all, and it's midnight right now, but I'll try and post it later. But to say we did community service, skits, late nights and it lasted from 7am to 1am.

Orientation is also crazy. Events happening around the clock, at every dorm and more than that. I think I am going to enter the housing lottery for Burton Connor, and if I don't get it, I'll stay in New House. I was excited about looking at German House, but it isn't that exciting, and all the freshman who speak German are leaving because no one speaks German. Seriously like 5 out of 24 people actually speak German. But anyway, this is just a small update, more to come later.

I'm Here

So it's really strange to actually be here. On the plane I was kind of freaking out that I'm not ready for college- I'm not old enough, I haven't spent enough time at home, but right now I'm okay.

I haven't actually met any other freshman yet, other than a girl who I got lost at the airport with because I'm the only freshman in New House 4 yet (I think, or so I'm told). I went in and registered, and then played Rock Band with 2 upperclassmen and then ate pasta with some others and now I'm back in my room.

The room is kind of typical dorm room. It has ugly wood furniture and a linoleum floor. It's actually a triple, but I'm the only one here, so I took the single bed, partly because I know one other girl is getting here Friday, and I don't know if the other exists, and I really don't like bunk beds. I made my bed, and the rest of my luggage is still unpacked.

Leaving

I leave for the airport in about 15 minutes, and I don't know what to think. It wasn't quite this bad when I was leaving for Czech for a year. Now this is the end of when I can really call home, well, home. I feel like everything is about to change and I don't know if I'm ready for that. Boston suddenly seems very far away.

FAS Results

So I kind of have mixed feelings about the FAS results. I got into 16.A48, the iHouse seminar. But I'm not in iHouse nor have I had any intention recently of being in iHouse. I did put it on my housing application, but since then, nothing. I thought you could only get into this if you were in iHouse and I put it on my seminar app because I was interested at that time in being in iHouse.

I am still interested in international development, but the other three FAS I signed up for are all completely hands on and I was so looking forward to trying something completely new and doing projects. To say the least, I am sort of bummed. I emailed someone at iHouse to ask about whether I am supposed to be in the seminar because I'm not in iHouse nor do I want to be a social member, but I just wasn't expecting this one.

Nonetheless, I am still looking forward to MIT, but I am starting to freak out. I'm nervous about meeting people, getting dorm stuff (traversing the city to various stores), where I'll end up living, how classes will go, whether I'll be able to take Czech, how I match up in rowing, everything I guess.

Schedule

So this is basically what my last week looks like:

Monday- work work pack
Tuesday- row work pack hang (Hannah gets home)
Wednesday- work pack hang
Thursday - Waterworld pack
Friday - work pack hang
Saturday - volunteer hang movie/dinner
Sunday- fly far far away

And the Days Disappear

I was just looking at my calendar to see when I could work at my Mom's office next week, and I realized, I LEAVE NEXT WEEK. This is crazy.

I've been looking forward to going to MIT for so long, but as it gets closer, I get more nervous. I'm still excited about the possiblities, but it's more the logistics I guess- how to get dorm stuff, what to eat, how to meet people. I guess I'm also sad that I will probably only get to see my parent's a couple times a year. I've done it before, but the realization that this could be the last time I ever really live at home is really daunting. I mean, I'm only 17, and this could be the last 2 weeks where I can ever really call my house, home.