September 3-4, 2000 — The longest journal ever

Brace yourself; two eventful days to cover (and one to put on hold for tomorrow), in which I had a rather substantial (and vocal) running commentary for everything; my internal monologue was even worse.

September 3

This was my day to get packed up to go. This was a brutal experience, and the list of what I managed to forget, as I've discovered in the two days since, is as follows:

my calculator;
my computer chair;
a telescope (more on this later).

So all in all, while things could be worse, fun was definitely not had by all as I tried desperately to get the vast majority of my packing done a couple hours before leaving. I actually consciously remembered to pack my calculator, and did so, but then I took it out to calculate my final invoice for work and ended up leaving it in the living room. So really there were only two things that I outright forgot, and only one that I knew I'd want prior to getting to Toronto.

Moving right along. I should mention that my allergies were completely brutal all day on Sunday; not getting enough sleep and going through my dusty room to pack did not make for a good time. At dinner, I was so insanely hungry (really bad allergies make me eat a lot; don't ask) that I got two pitas from the Pita Pit in Peterborough (on white pita bread -- zany) and two muffins. I felt better after I'd had something more to eat, though.

Jumping back slightly, we drove to Peterborough to stay the night at my grandmother's house, since it would make it easier to show up earlier in Toronto the following day, and because my dad wanted me to see my grandmother again before I went to university. My dad got KFC, while I got my two pitas, and it was a fun family dinner with a couple of my uncles and a cousin or two dropping by for good measure. Other than my being sick, it wasn't so bad; I get along with my relatives really well, so it was fine by me.

(I'm planning to do far more elaborate pages about who I am, since it shouldn't be at all obvious that I get along well with my family and whatnot. These are things I ought to mention before assuming too much. And I need a place for the drawing Matt did of me with carpal tunnel syndrome, so all will be well.)

I ended up going to sleep really early, due to my continuing battles with unhealthiness.

September 4

My dad woke me up and we were out of rural Peterborough in time for an arrival at Victoria College for 8:45AM. Before I take you out of Peterborough, however, I should mention my one crisis of the stop-over: the water had tested positive for E. coli bacteria and was undrinkable. So I decided not to clean my ears, as it would likely mean smearing a bit more bacteria-ridden well water on my open wounds than I'd be comfortable with. My ear was more than slightly swollen by the time I got to Toronto.

But yes. Despite warning that Ryerson residents ended up waiting a solid three or four hours for room keys after showing up first thing in the morning, I still decided to be there for the 9:00AM check-in time. And it turned out for the best, as it was a five-minute wait for keys. It was amazing.

Until I got to the room. I have very mixed feelings about the room. Initially, they were very much on the negative side of "mixed," but the room itself has been growing on me.

The main problem to start with was that it was a single room that had been converted to a double. Johnston and I have bunk beds over our desks, and only one of each of the following: shelves, closets, phone lines, Internet connections. It's a bit of a scam, since we're both paying $3,550 for this and are in a single room.

But.

It does have a balcony. And a private bathroom that we only have to share with on other guy.

So it's a tough balance, is what I'm saying.

I really don't have much room at all for all my stuff; with the stereo, two computers, a turntable, a mixer, and a scanner, my side of the room is a little packed. I have absolutely no place to work, which I suspect may be a problem at some point during the coming weeks. Or not, depending.

So anyways. Day one was pretty relaxed as far as zany orientation week activities went. (A good thing, to be sure.) I had no clue what I was doing, and a second-year girl, Amanda, ended up showing Johnston and I around a bit and whatnot. She'd had one of the balcony rooms last year, and wanted to visit the new recruits. I suspect that team sXe might not put the balcony to as many wonderful uses as were found for it last year.

After getting over how filthy the balcony was, the first things I noticed were my ability to see the CN Tower from it, and the fact that there is a massive apartment building about a block or so to the north with a massive amount of windows with which I can fulfill my voyeuristic urges.

Our residence building is kind of silly (we have to stand for this drawing of an owl before every residence meeting, for a start), and I didn't get much out of our first meeting. There don't seem to be very many interesting people. Johnston can feel free to debate this fact in replies, should he feel the need.

Shortly before the residence meeting, I cleaned off the balcony using a dust pan and a lot of boxes. One of the boxes leaked and managed to get my frosh week t-shirt quite filthy. (What a shame.) But I feel less disgusting about going out there now.

We went to dinner with everyone from our dorm, and the girl who ended up sitting with Johnston and I has turned out to be the person that I hate the least in Victoria so far. Kim went to school in England last year and is taking Humanities. After we got back to the residence, Kim dropped by to take a look at the balcony. It was night by now, and there were countless windows in the apartment building without curtains and with bright lights shining out into the night. She has promised to bring binoculars from home; I plan on bringing a telescope. Hell, I might buy a telescope. This could be quite a hobby.

Just to quickly clarify: Kim has a boyfriend and everything; there are no anti-greg love interests for you to be monitoring. The free condoms in my orientation kit will more than likely still be unused come their expiration date of March, 2005.

I don't have the energy to do today's journal entry (it now being the fifth), so I won't. I have so much trash-talking to do that it could be another long one. There was a lot of Kim, Johnston and I standing around and not participating in cheers. And apparently engineers are my enemy. Mmm hmm.

Oh, and the revelation of the day: I'm apparently now in the worst drinking college at the University of Toronto. How this happened is beyond me. I will close with excerpts from one of our cheers, based on a beer commercial, quite appropriately.

"Victoria is the second college in reverse alphabetical order, the first college of academic probation, and four years is just a suggestion." This is followed by shouts of, "I am Victorian," and plenty of hooting and hollering. I'll hide my excitement.