September 7, 2000 — Masonic rituals and cynicism

Only one more day.

I think living this way, constantly counting down for the end of something and the start of what will ostensibly be a more enjoyable life, is going to take its toll eventually and is most certainly horribly unhealthy.

But frosh week is almost over, and that's what counts.

Our spare, and very keen, roommate for the week was the first person awake this morning and actually had the nerve to wake me up to say good morning. He's lucky I was too tired to leap out of my bunkbed and do something about this early morning greeting. Although I admit I'd never actually do anything about it, I can talk big so long as it remains hypothetical.

After that... I barely even remember. I walked to what is supposedly the closest Pita Pit to campus, which was still a fairly decent hike from good ol' Burwash Hall. The guy making my pita was short with me, and they use whole-grain pitas, so I think I'll likely stick to the Ryerson location.

We got to see a hypnotist in the afternoon. I enjoy seeing people embarass themselves, so it made for a good time.

With only a scavenger hunt in the hot sun to look forward to for the rest of the afternoon, we headed back to our room and managed to get our phone setup. I'm happy to say that there are now personalized phone and pager messages all around, and that the 416 260-0457 number is up and running. The second year guy we share the bathroom with managed to convince me around this time to go to the semi-formal dinner, so I popped on my Star Trek tie and got ready to feel like the biggest slob on campus.

(Quick aside: I haven't bothered shaving in a few days either, as I don't really feel that at this point I've anyone to impress. If I know I'm leaving campus to talk to people, I might, but I've already made the snap decision that I'm sick of most Victoria people and that I don't want to look presentable for their sake. I'm brilliant.)

Anyhoo. The semi-formal dinner wasn't that brutal; I got to eat a decent salad and some garlic bread. I had cheesecake for the first time and wasn't really blown away by the experience. I was told that it wasn't very good cheesecake and that I ought to still consider myself to never have tried it. Fair enough.

But as I'd suspected all along, the dinner was little more than a scam to get us to go to the traditional initiation crap afterwords. This involved an hour and a half of standing up waiting, an hour sitting down waiting, and a half hour presentation. In between standing up and sitting down, we were walked around campus in a chain with our eyes closed, and then lead into a dark hall where a CD of chanting monks was being played to lend that we-wish-we-were-masons feel to the evening. I should also add that we were divided from the girls before the start of the festivities to really give it that ancient brotherhood feel.

The presentation was kind of hokey, but quite sincere. I could have taken it a lot more seriously if not for the hours of preamble.

And that was today.

I think at the end of the week I'm going to do a week-in-review journal entry as well as the normal daily one. I'll be able to sum up the current situation as far as my inability to make friends, my constantly changing opinion of my room in residence, and my horrid lack of a sense of direction in Toronto are concerned. And won't that be fun.

Time to take off the Star Trek tie.