Orientation to Present

It's been a long time since I've posted anything.  I meant to do an "Orientation Part II!" type of thing, but I obviously never got around to it, so this will cover my college experience so far, without going into the detail that you read about in my previous post.  Also, the pictures aren't related to the paragraphs they're next to this time, so I'll put some captions with them.

Dave's Birthday Party

As I've mentioned, I see this stage of my life as both an opportunity to change (or fix, rather) the way I live and a necessary rung in the ladder of my career climb.  Since orientation, I've kept up, for the most part, with eating better, sleeping more, and getting more exercise.  I joined the ultimate Frisbee team, go to the gym with my hall mates (when I'm not coughing up a lung-- I've been kind of sick lately), and eat lots of mysterious Asian dishes and subway-style sandwiches.  I'm trying to be cleaner, but that comes in spurts that arise conveniently whenever my room mate or I am expecting company.  I make flashcards, do homework, read books, and spend more time with friends than I did back home.  Overall, I live a completely different life.  Kind of.

A lot is the same.  I still send letters to Glory, wake up two minutes before my alarm, hold off on laundry for as long as possible, and plug my nose when I sneeze.  My fashion sense is still kind of wack.  My showers still take longer than they should.  I still walk on the left side of people.  Sunday mornings are still spent at church, and Friday night, staying up way too late.  

I've met a lot of new people!  Obviously.  I have friends in all of my classes, minus British Literature II (vomit), and get along well with just about everyone on my hall.  I have to give a shout out to my boys in Gooch Second Upper because they truly are like brothers to me.  All of that's not to say that my friends back home have been replaced.  I can't wait for my cousin to receive his acceptance letter.  I have to glance around from time to time at the pictures that I've taped around my dorm room of Chaddy, Glory, and my family.  And, duh, I miss everyone else too, but the point is, I'm not lonely, despite the absence of some of the most important people in my life.

The Infamous and Miraculous 3-D Copier

Church deserves its own paragraph.  I went to Grace Covenant my second week here, and I didn't dislike it.  I was a little peeved when they didn't warn us that the communion was real wine, but I guess I can say from now on that I had my first (and last) taste of alcohol in church.  I decided, though, that other churches were worth visiting and attended one called "Relevant" with my friends, Honor and Jonathan, and loved it.  The worship was amazing, and the pastor seemed very genuine.  I may visit somewhere else at some point, but for the next few weeks, that's the one I plan to attend.  For those interested, it's a pretty small group that meets in a hole in the wall next to grocery and consignment stores.  The worship consists of pretty contemporary songs to the accompaniment of a few guitars, a mandolin, and a drum set.

Freaking Thor (A phrase we use often in Gooch Second Upper)

One of my favorite things about the college so far has been the company.  To give you an illustration of the kind of people I'm surrounded by, I'll walk through last night's shenanigans.  After a day of fun with the Rogers, Pucketts, and Mrs. Cotton, I went to a diversity session with my G6 (my hall), which we followed up with celebratory ice cream cake (because that was our final extended orientation session).  Afterwards, we put on a search for a football, so we could play what I've decided to call hallball, which is exactly what you think it is: football with smaller teams in a much smaller space.  Unfortunately, not even the black people (What we've been calling roommates, Devin and Louis) didn't have one, so we did what we always do when there's nothing fun going on and played a game or two of League (don't ask to play with me-- I'm terrible).  Around 10:00, a discussion about the economy started up between a few of the guys who were chilling in Spaceman's and my room.  Four hours later, a group of about ten of us were sitting in a rough circle, voicing our opinions on politics, economics, business, ethics, sexual orientation, and religion.  The best part about these guys is that we were able to have a discussion instead of an argument; even with consersatives and liberals, trickle-down believers and government distribution advocates, opposite ends of the financial spectrum, completely different sets of values, varying sexual orientations, and atheists and believers represented, the conversation never devolved into argument.  It was purely a chance to indulge our curiosity and hear different perspectives on familiar issues.

Long story short, I miss people, but I'm not torn up, and college is going well.  If anyone's REALLY interested in the specifics of what's going on and how I'm doing, I'd be willing to start a weekly email-- just Facebook me, and if enough people care (for some reason), I'll get that going.

PS: I'm not going to proofread this, so...  There's that.