and compares it to Cosmopolitan. That was my first surprise when I went to Florida, USA this past week. Clearly, that showed me that I needed to understand the fact that my bro is 31 years old(!!), and I am already a (young) adult of 18. This means I must accostume(sp?) to my brother talking about his love interests and seeing men’s magazines(Stuff, Maxim, Men’s Health, etc.). All that in just one week, and it was only the first day.
Second day was spend going to Gainesville via Greyhound bus. Does someone knows of a cheap way to go to Gainesville that doesn’t involve a 10 hour ride??? Understandably, I reached UFL tired and unhumored. Only to realize my stay during 2 nights will be on an university’s dorm. I never understood the communal bathroom part. Ladies, how did you manage it? My roomate for this visit was a nice girl from Colorado. Only her Preview bag was in the room, and when I went to sleep, she hadn’t arrived. For some hours I thought about the different possibilities: she was with friends, parents, maybe changed her room, or who knows, maybe that was a ghost bag.
Third day, first day at Preview:
Went to see a cheesy video of the university. It was funny because of the bloopers. Next went and met with my orientation group. Seeking for my group, I realized how small I was compared to the other students. I couldn’t see my group sign even when I walked on my toes. I was the only one whose first language wasn’t English, and came from PR.
That made for some nice introduction, including me talking about the medicinal properties of the coca tea. I found out that crappier schools that mine exists, and got evidence that they also have much better schools (hmm…International Baccalaurete…drool…if only my school offered that program). The other students treated me well. When it was eleven o’clock in the morning, we all went down to get in line and order our food. yumyum, it tasted good.
Later on, I had to go to some orientation sessions, and found out what courses to take for my pre-vet specialization. Also got information about how good was the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and was just wishing my dad could hear that and stop wishing I had decided on zoology.
During the rest of the afternoon, I made my schedule for my first semester. Turned out, except for the science courses, I am a semester ahead of my major. This was because my SAT scores exempted me from taking the basic English class, and also because the university accepted the math courses I took while in dual-enrollment. Again, thanks to those courses, I was able to get in the first semester of the 2 semester general chemistry program.
That night, I reunited with my parents for a talk about financial aid. Mom and I decided to go the next day to check on my awards. Dad, of course, was left out of the picture. The final session was about college life, interpersonal relationships, sex questions, etc. Afterwards, again to my dorm…and the dreaded bathrooms.
Fourth day was the last orientation day, and my most important task was to register for my courses. It took about an hour, easy and simple, and I was glad that I could take all my first choices. Next, mom and I went around the campus, checking on my financial aid(all was ok), housing(I am going to live in Lakeside, the most expensive housing on campus), ID card (I have the omnipotent Gator1 card…feel the power), and bus schedules. We later reunited with dad and walked to the Greyhound station.
The Greyhound bus to Miami came an hour late, and it boarded another PR guy. Now this guy was drunk and who knows what else, and that made my dad very tense and stressed. I just ignored it. The guy remained on the bus until the Orlando stop, but afterwards the bus remained full. It was not a nice bus experience, I can tell you.
On the morning of the fifth day we reached Miami. My brother took us and we all went to sleep at his house. It was mid-morning when we all woke up and prepared breakfast. Most of the day I spend reading and seeing cable TV, but during the afternoon we went to the Dadeland Mall. My judgement? It is ugly, ugly, and ugly. At least Burdine had a bathrobe sales, and mom bought me one for about fifteen dollars. That night my brother invited us to the Cheesecake Factory, and we accepted. My brother’s housemate(yummy…he was good looking) also went. The group walked around the mall where the restaurant is until it was our time to be seated. The food there was delicious, but the service was not so good. They got my mom’s dish wrong, and took too long to serve the other one. Anyways, we reached my brother’s apartment with our stomachs full.
Sixth day was Sunday, and we decided to go and visit a cousing of mine that lives nearby. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, so we cancelled the trip and spend the day seeing the movies my brother had on DVD. Among them (and the only one I saw completely) was Jacob’s Ladder. Good movie, although I knew what it was about and the ending(I read it in another thread). It made me argued with my dad about the ending and the movie for a while. Afterwards, just seeing TV.
Seventh day was returning day. Not much, I came home about 2 hours ago and just wrote this to get it out of my mind.
Oh, and congrats on the advaned class placement!