Those Crazy College Kids.

So some updates...

The York BBQ was really fun!  Riding in the Boilermaker Special was the shizznazzzz. For those of you who don't know, the Boilermaker Special is our mascot.  Yes, our mascot is a train.  So stick that in your juicebox and suck it.  I mean lesbehonest..can you say you are able to ride in your mascot?  Didn't think so.  My floor, 4 East, and the guys' side, 4 West, (or as they like to call it, DeltaFourth) played a big game of Catch Phrase while we waited for our turn to ride.  The ride there was awkward because we were all crammed in together and nobody knew each other that well.  The ride back was 10x better.  The song, "Livin' on a Prayer" came on, and we all jammed out, hair blowing in the wind and everything.  It was like one of those '80s montages of a group of friends having fun in a convertible together...except we were in a train.  Which again, is just awesome.
Anyways, we ate like kings at Dr. York's house.  The cheeseburgers were absolutely phenomenal, as was the fruit and...wait for it...the home-made macaroni and cheese!  Yep, what a feast.  But who could forget about the dessert?  Brownies and cupcakes and ice cream, oh my!  Point of interest: Dr. York keeps bees.  He pulled out one of the honeycombs and let us eat honey straight from it.  It was so sweet and delicious.  This guy is legit. 

The girls ready to go to Dr. York's house--we were imitating how the guys took their picture.  We totally pulled it off...

Annie, me, Julia, and Hannah!

Boilermaker Special, whaddup.

Just the girls :)

4East, represent!

Taking an awkward picture...

I can't even remember what night this happened, but I'm pretty sure it was Monday because we hadn't run out of energy from the weekend yet.  My friend and next-door neighbor, Alyssa, and I got back from class and were just feeling a little crazy.  So, before anybody knew what we were doing, ourselves included, we had donned sweatpants that we hiked up to our chests, piled our hair on top of our heads, and got our bath towels which we wrapped around our necks like capes.  We each started at opposite ends of our hallway, and on the count of three, we sprinted to the other end and back, high-fiving in the middle.  Though we weren't making much noise, before we knew it, heads started poking out of rooms to see what the commotion was.  Between gasping for air and laughing hysterically, we told them about the race we just completed.  Suddenly, a challenge was issued to us: run to opposite ends of the hallway, sprint up the stairs to the 8th floor (we're on the 4th), sprint down to the opposite stairwell, and sprint down and back to the beginning.  Well Alyssa and I were not about to back down from this challenge, so we did it and were both dying by the time we were halfway up the stairs.  But we finished it, and I lost...by a lot.  Oh well.  We had a lot of supporters waiting for us at the finish line, so it was just a good time.

Alyssa and I, pre-race.

Well obviously we weren't about to do homework after that, so me, Alyssa, and our two friends and floormates Julia and Lilly all got on the elevator and proceeded to reenact a birthing scene.  I have no idea where this came from, but we ended up stopping on every floor and getting strange looks from people.  Then we decided to have all four of us stand in a straight line across the door of the elevator, and every time the door opened, we stared straight at the people trying to get on and didn't move to let them on.  They looked so confused and one girl even asked, "Can I use the elevator?" in a shy, timid voice.  After a couple seconds of this staring, we ended up just bursting out laughing and letting them on.  Except there were some girls who had absolutely no sense of humor and thought we were the craziest people in the world.  Sorry we like to have fun...  But this fun ended when Lilly accidentally pressed the help alarm in the elevator and it started ringing.  In a panic, we dashed out of the elevator laughing our heads off.  Our RA, Leigh, thought it was funny too.  She didn't even get us into trouble or anything...best RA ever!

Don't ask...

On a sad note, Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon and student of Purdue University, passed away last week, so Purdue held a memorial service for him in front of the engineering building named after him with the statue of him out front.  There were so many students there!  There were some speakers, but some of my friends and I got there kind of late and we couldn't hear much, so we ended up leaving before it was over.  I wish I had a picture, but there were soooo many bouquets of flowers on Neil's statue from students on campus.  Seriously though, I love this school.  How awesome is that?  And people say college kids don't care about anything but partying...

Huzzah, Brooke and I were both voted floor senators!  We now represent our floor and have to attend all the Shreve Club meetings and act as the liaisons between Club and floor.  It was pretty cool to know that we have already formed a network of people here who respect us and think of us as leaders.  If only they all knew about my hallway races dressed like a nerd...

As much as Purdue as a whole is fun, the school aspect is already not fun.  This past week I've been running frantically between buildings getting signatures from professors and advisers for my honors contracts and staying up late trying to revise them to make them fit the Honors College and professors' requirements.  It was so stressful, but I was finally able to turn everything in today, which was the due-date.  Procrastination at its finest.  

Another outstanding thing that happened this week was that Megan went to fill up the giant water jug we keep in our fridge earlier this week.  It was late when she did it, so when we woke up in the morning, our floor around the fridge and our food drawers was sopping wet.  Upon opening the fridge, we found out that she hadn't closed the lid properly and the water had leaked all through our fridge and spread across our lovely carpet.  Let the panic ensue.  Okay just kidding.  We're college kids and we can totally handle this situation.  We mopped up the water with some paper towels and pulled out the fridge and drawers so the carpet would dry and not mold.  Then, after going door to door on the floor asking if anyone had a box fan and coming up empty-handed (who would have thought that there was a downfall to having air conditioning in our rooms??) we had to resort to using my tiny personal fan to take on the task of drying the carpet.  What a fiasco, but all's well that ends well.

Some other reasons why I love college:

1. Some guys were doing hardcore parkour on campus.  I'm not even sure if that's how you spell it, but what it is is guys doing jumps and flips and such off of buildings and trees and everything.  It was awesome.

2.  The wildlife here makes me feel like I'm in a zoo or something.  Besides the usual gray squirrels we find here, there are cute little chipmonks and the other day we saw a flippin' hawk!  It was just perched on top of the railing of some stairs, and there were a bunch of students clustered around it taking pictures.  There was a dead rabbit on the ground off to the side too.  All of a sudden, the bird took flight, and Brooke screamed bloody murder and took off running, so convinced that it was coming after her.  What a sight.



3. People are just weird.  They just sit outside of the residence hall, doing homework and smoking hookah.  I'm just like, whaaaaa????

This is really hard to see, but it's some kid with a hookah.  Awk.

4. I went to the Exponent (Purdue's newspaper) callout and am seriously considering being a part of it because a) I loved working on the paper at West even though I hated it just as much, and b) You actually get paid to do it.  I just feel like I might not have enough time, but we'll see.

5. I also went to a Catholic Bible study called Renew, which was pretty cool considering I've never been a part of such a group before.  So many opportunities here...

6. On Fridays, students have the opportunity to "Swipe out Hunger."  If we have extra meal swipes, we can go to and On-The-Go location at one of the dining courts and instead of getting food, you swipe your card and money is donated to local or international hunger organizations.  It's pretty neat, especially because I have 15 meal swipes a week and always have a ton left at the end of the week. (Always?? Who am I kidding, I've only been here a couple weeks.  I act like I've been here forever.)

7. We watched clips of The Lion King, my favorite Disney movie, in my Biology lecture today because we're studying ecosystems and it related so perfectly.  My professor also likened the lecture hall the the Oprah studio when he was walking up and down the aisles.  Man, I love college.

Yerp, college is awesome.

8. The brownies Brooke, Christian, and I made last week were a success!  The girls loved them and we took the leftovers to the 4th floor guys' side to make some friends...because everyone always says a way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  We'll have boyfriends in no time...

Well, I won't have much to report for this weekend because I'm going home to see mi familia!!  I can't wait to see them all, though I do regret not being able to see the first game this weekend.  Oh well, there will be other games.  My mom will be here in about an hour to pick me up, and I'm totally procrastinating because I'm supposed to be packing, but this is 10x better.  Have a good Labor Day weekend everyone!

Some other pictures:

This was the sign outside my door...that some of the guys I met decided to defile.  Thanks, guys.

Brownie night!  The girls loved them!

I Made It Through The Week.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have done it: I have made it through my first week of college classes without a scratch.  None of the upperclassmen bit me either.  I knew I picked the right school.

To be quite honest, I wasn't too thrilled with my classes last week.  Granted, it was my first experience with college classes, so I know I need to give it some time.  But it was just so...different.  After four years of knowing what I was doing in high school, this was total shock to me.  I'm so used to waking up at the same time every day, being at school for 7 hours straight, being in each of my classes for only 50 minutes, and then coming home, only to do it again the next day.  But this...this was different.  I only have 3 classes each day, but they're all spread out, and some of my labs are two hours long.  ...And I don't even like science that much.

So, how 'bout them lecture halls?  Yeah, just another thing I'm totally not used to.  My history one is really big but in a smaller room, so we are packed in like sardines.  My biology one is in a huge lecture hall too, and it's filled with girls because apparently only girls are allowed to be elementary school teachers.  We are in the 21st century...
My integration of technology in the classroom is another "lecture" of sorts, but this one is just a huge room full of students sitting at round tables.  These classes are such a different dynamic from the typical "sit in rows all facing the front of the room" that I'm used to.  Yeah, so if you're ever really bored of the monotony of your life, go to college.  Nothing will be what you're used to.

Okay, story time!  Some of my most recent experiences will be documented below.

1.  Friday night was awesome.  I mean really awesome.  I got out of class at 1:20, (such an amazing feeling) went to lunch with some friends, and came back to my residence hall and did some homework.  Yes, I know, it's a Friday, why am I doing homework?  Well let me tell you, nobody was around to do anything with right after class, so I took advantage of the quiet residence hall and did some work so I wouldn't have to do it this weekend.  

Well anyways, I was pretty nervous that I'd have nothing to do that night because a lot of the girls  on my floor that I'm friends with were rushing, so they had to start that crazy, chaotic mess that night.  (Side note...I'm really glad I didn't rush.  It was never something I was interested in, and after hearing the exhausting accounts of the girls on my floor, I'm even more pleased with my decision.  I have so much else on my plate.)  But I didn't have to worry for long.  Soon opportunities opened up all around me... go to a CRU (Campus Crusades for Christ) meeting and a dance party after, go to a movie night through St. Tom's church, or go to a Glee Club show?  Well, naturally I chose the dance party option.  Brooke and I and some other girls went to dinner with the CRU members from Shreve, and then went to the meeting afterwards.  It was a really cool experience!  It was in a lecture hall, and the room was packed!  We sang a lot of worship songs, listened to a student speaker, and heard about different retreat opportunities.  It's every Friday night, so I think that'll be something I'll continue going to.  Later, at 9:45, we met up with the Shreve CRU members and they took us over to the Fairway Christian co-op house for a dry toga party!  Us freshies didn't wear togas though, but a lot of students did...definitely something I'll have to do before college is over!  But it was so much fun!  The music was great and everyone was having a great time, despite how hot it was in the room and how sweaty everyone was.  It was my first real college party!  Whoever said you can't have fun without alcohol needs to go to one of these parties.  After leaving the party at 1 am, we came back to Shreve and I hung out with some people until 5 in the morning...hah, yeah, it was a late night.

On Saturday, I woke up at 11, which was sort of a waste, but hey, I needed my sleep.  I showered because I felt so disgusting from the night before and felt so much better.  Brooke and I went to brunch after that and sat with this really strange kid who just sort of invited himself to sit with us.  I really didn't care--I love meeting new people!--but he was really odd.  It wasn't even a "you're really quirky" weird...it was more of a "what the heck is going on?!" weird.  Lets just say that the stereotype of socially awkward engineers is pretty true in many cases...

I totally had to do some more laundry too, which was not good considering that everyone and their moms do their laundry on Saturday afternoons at Shreve.  After that, I went on my first Walmart run with Brooke and our new friend Christian, who is one of the few guys I met here who isn't either really awkward or sketchy.  Since we're lowly freshmen and don't have cars, we had to take the bus.  And yeah, it definitely took us three hours total, just to go to Walmart.  I miss being able to do things on my own time.  Anyway, we bought some school supplies we needed, and also some brownie mix so we could make them for the girls on our floor who were rushing since they'd been so tired and stressed out and nervous the past couple days.  (Walmart conveniently didn't have a half dozen pack of eggs or a small bottle of oil, so I definitely have a surplus of cooking items in my room that probably won't get used.)  Brooke went to dinner with a friend, so Christian and I were in charge of brownie baking.  What a fiasco!  The kitchenette was being used when we wanted to rent it, but there was nobody in it.  So, we went on a hunt for the renter and found her on the 5th floor, struggling to make some cookies on an ancient stove.  After some small talk, she allowed us to share the kitchen with her, and the brownie baking began.  Let me tell you, this Christian kid is a hoot!  He and I was being crazy goofy the whole time, and Sarah, the girl who was in the kitchen with us, said she never saw such an entertaining brownie baking session.  It was a blast!  People kept coming into the room saying how amazing it smelled too.  We're giving the girls the brownies tonight, so I can't wait to see if they like them!

After that, a bunch of us walked over to Slayter Hill for a showing of The Hunger Games on a giant screen.  It was really neat because it was all outside and there were a ton of people there. The downfalls were the thirsty mosquitoes and the fact that my butt kept falling asleep on the hard ground.  I was up till about 2 in the morning and then woke up this morning for church at 11.  I went with a kid from my BGR group who is really shy and quiet, but when he found out we went to the same church, he wanted to go together, so why not?  I like going to church because it's something that's pretty familiar to me, unlike everything else here.

Tonight I have a cookout for my floor, boys and girls, at our Faculty Fellow's house.  (Faculty Fellows are faculty designated to a floor who are basically just there to help us transition into college.  They're a good resource to have.  Ours is Alan York, who's big into entomology, aka bugs.  He's really old but he's awesome.  We have dinners every Wednesday in Earhart with him too.)  Our mascot, the Boilermaker Special, will be driving us to his house!  Huzzah!

I got my first package today too!  Shoutout to my awesome family--they sent me some candy and a movie and other goodies!  I started crying when I opened it because I miss them!  I'm going home this weekend though, so I can't wait to see them and my kitties!

Floor senator voting is underway...my name is on the ballot, so we'll see what happens!

By the way, here are some pictures I haven't put up yet:

My beautiful campus from the Beering tower, aka the Jedi Room.  It's just a round room made of windows, and you can see for miles!

Me with the author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba.

Some of my floormates!  We were all wearing green shirts this day, so we just had to take a picture :)

Brownie baking time with Christian!

If you have any questions, comments, or advice to get me through the year, just comment below!  Or if you want to send me a letter, you know, that's always fun too ;)  

My First Real College Kid Post!

I know, I know, I've been leaving you hanging!  I've been here for over a week and haven't told you anything. I apologize for the delayed post, but I'll do my best to let you know what crazy things have been going on.  WARNING: This post is extremely long.  I'm thinking about publishing it so it becomes a New York Times bestseller.  Just kidding.  But seriously, pop yourself some popcorn or something so you don't get bored while reading it.  But I know you'll want to read it because there are several embarrassing moments sprinkled in here and there.

Day 0: The night before.

Friday night was an emotional one.  It was the night before Brooke and I left for school, so naturally the girls and I all got together at my house to say our final and official goodbyes.  Unfortunately, I hadn't started packing until that day, so I was still rushing around my cluttered room and shoving things into random boxes and bags, hoping against hope that I wouldn't forget anything.  (I even pulled out my old candy striper vest that I wore when I was a junior volunteer at the hospital and convinced Natalie that all incoming freshmen had to wear it on move-in day--she believed me!).  We chatted for awhile, desperately trying to avoid the inevitable, but alas, we had to say our goodbyes.  Tears were shed, hugs were given, and boy did it suck.  But surprisingly, even with the knowledge that my life would change the next day, I fell asleep easily.

Day 1: Move In

We were on the road by 9 am; it was a little too early for my liking.  But, with my move in time at 12:00, a two hour drive with an hour time change, and the fact that we just really wanted to eat before all our hard work, we had to.  We drove by a couple wind farms on the way up, and it was really ironic because our Common Reading assignment book was about windmills too.  But that's beside the point.  When we arrived on campus, the weather couldn't have been more beautiful.  It was sunny and absolutely perfect.  It was a good sign.  We ate at the Potbelly's on campus to fuel up, and then we made our way, with our two packed vehicles of college stuff, to Shreve Hall, my new home for the next 9 months or so.  I immediately knew  that I made a good choice in college because there were soooooo many friendly people that were there to help carry my crapload of stuff up 2 flights of stairs.  Alright, who's ready to hear an embarrassing moment? Yeah?  Okay, so I'm carrying up my plastic drawers filled with clothes to my room.  Halfway up the stairs, the bottom section of the drawers detached from the top and fell to the ground.  Alllllll of my...unmentionables...spilled EVERYWHERE!!!  It would be fine and all if it weren't for the fact that there were GUYS behind me!!  Luckily one of the girls helped me carry everything up the rest of the way.  Talk about awkward.

So if that wasn't bad enough, just wait until you hear about the carpet debacle.  My mom and sister were in the process of parking the car and my dad and I had the nearly impossible job of lifting the lofted beds and the desks in order to put the carpet underneath.  Megan, my rooommate, had left to buy the tv and she left me a super cute mug filled with candy.  But it was a good thing she wasn't there because my dad and I had to rearrange alllll the furniture.  The desks ended up out in the hallway, the drawers were in the elevator lobby, and everything was mess.  My dad and I single-handedly (or quadruple-handedly) managed to slide the carpet under the lofts and desks and everything.  Boy were we sweaty after that!

Finally Megan came back and I got to meet her and her parents.  We set up the bigger-than-normal fridge, the microwave, the crazy huge tv, and the futon.  Megan and I both put up some Christmas lights around our beds too, and the past few days we've been in the process of decorating.  Let me tell you, our room is a hit!! People are always jealous of our sweet setup, and even as we speak, its midnight and there are 5 guests in our room watching a movie with us.  It's prettyyyy great.  What's even better is that Megan and I get along GREAT!!  I was so incredibly worried that getting a random roommate would be a bad idea, but it's been awesome so far.  I'm so incredibly lucky.

Me and Megan!

Our sweet set-up!

My fancy bed.

Kourt and I.

After moving in, Brooke and her family and my family and I went to Triple XXX Burger, a pretty famous place close to campus.  They're famous for their Duane Purvis burger, a regular burger with peanut butter on it, as well as their home brewed root beer, which was spectacular if you ask me.  I wasn't brave enough to try the peanut butter one.  That'll be for another time.

We had a floor meeting that first night too, so we met all the girls that had moved in so far.  We played some random name game things where we say our name, where we're from, what our major is, and an interesting fact about ourselves.  Wanna take a guess as to how many times I've divulged that information since then?  At least 100.  If not more.  

After some awkward introductions, we caught word of a party on this giant hill called Slayter Hill.  This party was our integration into college life.  We went to this Boiler Bash with some of the girls on the floor and got to know several of them while there.  This party was cray cray!  Almost all of the incoming freshman that had moved in on Saturday were there.  There were people milling about all over...some just mingling on the hill, some jumping in some inflatables, and many, myself included, were dancing and having the time of our lives.  It was only slightly awkward not knowing anyone there, but what better way to get to know people than to dance the night away??

Day 2: Boiler Gold Rush Opening Day

Since I went to bed so late last night, I decided I was going to wake up late.  My parents and Kourtney stayed the night at a hotel near campus so that they could take me to Wal-Mart on Sunday to pick up anything I forgot to bring (extra Command hooks) and food (peanut butter, bread, milk, fruit snacks, granola bars, fruit cups, juice boxes, etc) to keep in my room.  After that, they brought me back to my room and helped me organize my stuff.  And then, before I knew it, it was the dreaded time of my family leaving.  And boy, was it hard.  Suddenly all the females in the room were crying, and we were all hugging each other and it was rough.  Even thinking about it now makes me sad.  I probably gave all of them 3 hugs each before they actually left.  Then I waved to them out of the window and watched as they drove away.  I was crying, but then I decided to distract myself and started hanging some of my pictures and posters up on the wall, which really seemed to help.  After that, I felt much better.

Later that night, we met our BGR groups and group leaders.  We were going to be with those groups for the next 3 days.  That's where the non-fun of college began.  Okay, that was a bit dramatic.  It was still fun.  But not as good as I thought.

My group leader's name was Andrea.  She was pretty nice.  There were about 15 kids in our group, all from Shreve.  Unfortunately, that first night was pretty rough because everyone in my group was incredibly shy and quiet.  Which is the exact opposite of me.  We were playing some ice-breaker/get to know you games, and I would have loved to get into my usual crazy and energetic self.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do so because people would have labeled me as the crazy psycho kid on my first day of college.  Not cool.  So instead I had to subject myself to the silence and play along like I didn't really care either.  Sure, you may say, "Well Kasey, don't give in to peer pressure.  Be yourself!"  And yes, I can understand why you'd feel that way.  But there is a time and a place to go along with the crowd, whether you want to believe it or not.  And this was just one of those times.  

After meeting, all the BGR participants made our way to Elliot Hall to a hugeeee auditorium with a hugeee stage for Boiler Gold Rush Opening Ceremonies.  We started off the night with something called roll call.  All the residences were grouped together to form teams for the duration of BGR.  Shreve Hall was grouped with our neighbors at Earhart, forming the team Shrevehart.  HOT was comprised of Hilltop, Owen, and Tarkington, Dub-C-Dub was Wiley, Windsor, and Cary Quad.  OH-M-T was made up of off-campus housing, Meredith, and First Street Towers.  And McHarrison was Mccutchen and Harrison.  For roll call, each team had a little chant or skit they had to read off as a collective group, followed by a cheer.  Whoever did the best each day won the competition for the day, which boosted their standings in the overall competition.  Shrevehart actually got first on our first roll call!  Some of our cheers we did throughout BGR included:

1.  Someone yells, "SHREVEHART!"
     Everyone else yells, "FREEDOM!" (Take-off of the movie Braveheart, which I've never seen)

2. Boys: "S-H-R, E-V-E!"
    Girls: "H-A-R-T!"

3. Boys: "Hold up, wait a minute!"
    Girls: (hold up a heart with their hands) "Put a little Shrevehart in it!"

4. (To the tune of Apache Jump On It) "S, H, R, E, V, E, Go Shrevehart, Go Shrevehart, Go Shrevehart, Go Shrevehart!"

5. (With hand motions) 
  "Boom snap clap, ba-boom snap Shreve.
    Boom snap clap, ba-boom snap Earhart.
    Boom snap clap, ba-boom snap Shrevehart.
    Boom snap clap, ba-boom snap shhhh."

At Opening Ceremonies, we had several speakers and also an inspirational speaker of sorts.  It was pretty interesting, but little did I know I'd be in for one of the most exhausting 3 days of my life!

Day 3: BGR Day 1

The day began with breakfast...early.  I decided I had better get used to not having sleep while in college.  We had to meet in the lobby of Shreve at 7:20.  Yeah, yeah, I know, high school started at 7:15, you should be used to it by now, blah blah.  But I'm just not!  And I went to bed super late!  So cut me some slack :)  After breakfast, all the BGR participants made our way to Mackey Arena, the basketball arena.  We were supposed to be in Ross Ade stadium, but unfortunately it was slightly rainy.  We got to learn some of the basketball and football cheers while there, and we also listened to future Purdue president and Indiana governor, Mitch Daniels, speak.  Plus, the football coach and the volleyball coach spoke, and we got introduced to the volleyball team.  What's better than all of that?  Free t-shirt!  Holla!

Later that afternoon we got to choose which interest sessions we wanted to go to, so I chose the Honors College one to learn more about the honors program I'm in.  Not gonna lie, it was prettyyyyy boring.  We were also supposed to have some presentations at the Rec center, but unfortunately it was too rainy to do anything.  Most of us were pretty happy about that though, considering we had been walking around all day and just wanted some time to relax.  Let me tell you, if you've never been to college or haven't been there in awhile, it is A LOT of walking.  I mean a lot a lot.  

After a small bit of rest time, which included a huge 15+ person game of Apples to Apples in the Shreve lounge, we boarded a bus to go to a Meijer party!  Meijer was giving away all sorts of free stuff, especially food.  I understand that it was a ploy so students would be enticed to buy  Meijer products, but me?  I was just there for the free stuff.  Let's be honest, I'm in college now.  I'm poor.  There was a DJ there too, so naturally, some of my new-found friends and I started a dance circle.  Best trip to Meijer EVER.

We went to bed super late again, only to find out that...

Day 4: BGR Day 2

...Breakfast was at 6:30 in the morning!  Arghhhh!!  It was such a struggle trying to wake up then, especially because it was still dark.  And let me tell you, it is no fun trying to get out of a lofted bed in pitch black, no siree.  (I've half-fallen out of the bed a couple times while trying to get out gracefully...nothing serious, just slightly embarrassing).  Only 5 people from our group made it to breakfast, but boy was it delicious!!  Eggs, sausage, coffee cake...mm mm mmmmm.  We had various activities after that, all of which included walking everywhere.  This included a trip to the armory where several organizations had tables set up so we could learn more about them or find out when their callouts were.  One of the problems of going to a school with almost 40,000 people?  It's crowded everywhere.  The armory was so packed with students that it was near impossible to walk down the rows of tables where student representatives shoved papers in your hand and tried to bribe you with free candy to join their club. 

Later that day, my group and I walked down to Chauncy Hill, which is slightly off campus, where there are several stores and restaurants.  Which meant...you guessed it...more walking!!  There's a store there called the Discount Den, or just The Den to us students. (Oh my gosh, I'm part of the 'us students'!  I'm a college kid! Ahh!).  It's famous for its Den Pops, which are basically just cheap sodas in styrofoam cups.  But they have almost every flavor of soda imaginable, so there are soda mixtures that students have created, and there are posters on the wall that advertise the different flavors.  Den Pops were a hot commodity that day, because we waited in line for almost an hour, just for a soda.  Apparently it's a BGR tradition.  I decided to get the Den Pop flavor 'BGR', because it was just so fitting.  BGR was 1/3 Blue Powerade, 1/3 Mountain Dew, and 1/3 Red Cream Soda.  It was really good!  In case none of you have had Red Cream Soda before, it's absolutely delicious!  It's made by the Barq's company, and I've never seen it anywhere until I came to Purdue.  It's oh so good though.  But it was a lot of soda, and boy did I have to go to the bathroom!

My group leader also took us to Red Mango, a frozen yogurt shop in Chauncy.  For those of you reading from back home, it's similar to Chill Out in Uptown Normal, but it tasted better!  I got a mixture of lemonade and mango yogurt, and topped it with strawberries, pineapple, coconut, graham crackers, and those little balls filled with fruit flavored juice.  Yumm!  (For those of you wondering, it won't be hard at all to gain the infamous Freshman 15 here at Purdue.  The sad thing is, the new Rec Center won't be open until the end of September at the earliest, but we at least have the T-Rec, or Temporary Rec Center, to ward off the weight.)

At our meeting in Elliot Hall that night, we learned about a campus-wide initiative called FreeZONE.  Basically, FreeZONE is a mindset that you don't judge anyone for any differences they may have, and you correct yourself every time you have judgmental thoughts.  It's a good idea, but so far everyone on campus takes it as sort of a joke.  They'll say something like, "I'm going to get 2 cookies instead of 1...don't judge me.  FreeZONE!"  It's kind of funny though. 

Tuesday night was dance party number 2...or I guess 3 if you count the Meijer one.  We had something called Union Fest, because it was at the Union building.  Clever, I know.  While there you could make wax hands, play games, and of course, dance!  They had a DJ in the big ballroom and everyone was jamming out.  It was sort of funny because a couple days later there was a wedding reception being set up in the same room where just nights before a bunch of sweaty teens were jumping around like psychos.  I learned the dance to the song Cotton Eyed Joe while there, even though I totally didn't know there was a dance to that song outside of tininkling in Mr. Kinley's PE class at Prairieland.  There was also an improv show, which was so incredibly funny.  It was a troupe called Mission Improvable and it consisted of 4 guys who wore secret agent outfits the whole night.  There was a lot of audience participation, and it was hilarious!  It's things like that that make me love college!

That night we had a Target run, just like the Meijer run the night before.  But beings that nobody on campus knows what Meijer is and practically everyone knows what Target is, everyone wanted to go to Target!  By the time some of my friends and I got outside to get in line for one of the buses, the line had stretched all the way down the street and around the corner.  We almost decided not to go, but then we were like, mehh, why not?  We're in college, we have nothing else to do, and we love free stuff!  So, dedicated us, we waited in line for 2, count it, TWO hours for a bus!  We played some games with one of the BGR groups behind us, and we met some interesting fellows that we hung out with the rest of the night.  And by interesting I meant slightly sketchy.  I've yet to see them again since that night, and you know what?  I'm okay with that.  We got tons of free stuff again, including gum, hand sanitizer, food, and much more.  

The back of the bus Target crew

And then when we finally got back from Target, there were two girls who got off the same bus as us, arms full of Target goods.  They had bags upon bags, along with a couple sets of plastic drawers. (One of the girls' stash amounted to over $150!!)  Needless to say, they couldn't carry it all back to their rooms, so my friends and I decided we'd help them out even though they didn't live in the same residence hall as us...and it was 1 in the morning. So we helped them out and they were the sweetest things ever and super happy we helped them out.  Just being good citizens, you know?  After that, we finally went to bed!

Day 5: End of BGR.

Finally, the long awaited-day arrived...the end of BGR!  It wasn't that I hated it; it was just that I just wanted some time to relax and figure out a routine for myself.  I was so exhausted by this point!  I didn't even make it down to breakfast because I was so tired! 

That Wednesday, we got the final results of the competition between the residence halls, based on roll calls, dance offs, etc.  Shrevehart got 3rd!   Not too shabby if you ask me!  I really want to be a team leader next year though, so I can help bring my team to victory :) 

Some of the exciting events of the day included the traditional "jumping over the train tracks" that run across one of the main walkways on campus.  All the freshmen got to do it with their BGR groups.  Basically what you do is link arms with the rest of the members of your group and on the count of three, 1, 2, 3, you jump over the tracks at the same time.  This signifies your future relationship with Purdue.  Then, after you graduate, you jump back over the tracks.  It's a pretty cool concept, and I'm all about tradition.  (Speaking of tradition, here are a couple fun superstitions regarding Purdue: 1. The giant bell tower on campus has an archway underneath so you can walk under it.  Apparently, if you walk under that bell tower, you won't graduate in only 4 years.  I'm not taking any chances.  2.  If you kiss someone under that bell tower, you supposedly get married to that person.  My group decided you had better graduate before you kiss anyone under the bell tower!)

Another tradition we took part in was the famous Fountain Run.  It. Was. AWESOME!  There are 2 giant fountains on campus, along with some little ones here and there.  But all you have to do is run through them!  Our group ditched our shoes and donned t-shirts and shorts and took off running through the Engineering fountain, which is basically like a water fall.  After running through that a couple times and making sure we were properly soaked, we ran all the way across campus to the Loeb fountain, which shoots water around in a circle...hard.  You can barely see anything because water is just shooting into your eyes! It's crazy, but it was so much fun, and I felt like our BGR group was so much closer after that, as cheesy as it sounds.  It was great, and we were sooooo wet afterwards.  But it was a blast, and I can officially say I did a fountain run!

After the fountain run!

Closing ceremonies at BGR included a man dubbed "The Love Doctor."  Apparently he gets people to pay him beau coup bucks to give them love advice, but lucky us, we got to see his presentation for free.  He was really funny and it was just a really interesting experience.  Plus, there is no restraint in college students, so it got a tad inappropriate at times, making it all the more funny.  I hope to see him again soon, and apparently he makes frequent visits to Purdue. 

Bed time after that, and all of a sudden...

Day 6: First Day as a College Kid

...It was my first day on my own as a Purdue student!  The freedom was exhilarating, and I started off the day right...with sleeping in!  Nothing like waking up at 11 to start off your college kid career!  I'm fitting in already!  It was incredibly disappointing to see that it was raining really bad outside, and we had a bunch of errands we needed to run around campus.  We had to stop at the Alumni Center to pick up some stuff for our PASE club, and it started pouring so bad that we had to sit and wait it out.  We met some guys who live in Shreve with us though, so that was pretty cool.  Then we took a hike over to the University Spirit store, where we got entered to win a giftcard. After that we had to trek over to the football stadium to get our Ross-Ade Brigade (the football cheering student section) t-shirts, only to find out that the rain had moved it into Mackey Arena.  Another walk through the rain, and we got our t-shirts.  We were all soaked despite our umbrellas and rain boots.  It was not too fun, but what an experience! 

That night, the Honors College was putting on an Amazing Race event for the honors students.  It included none other than food!  The professors running the event thought themselves clever and hilarious because they began calling it "The Amazing Rain" since it was cancelled because it was too wet.  We still got our dinner, but instead of the race afterward, we had trivia night.  Blech.  There were about 2 guys who dominated it.  The categories included aerospace, ninjas, pirates, and tennis.  Yeah, total nerd topics.  I knew next to none of the answers, and neither did my team.  It was a waste of time, but hey, it was an experience!

Day 7: A Friday to Remember

It was another bright and early morning for Kasey Kaisershot!  The Honors College had an honors retreat for the students, so we met out front of Shreve at about 8:30 to get on buses.  Nobody was too thrilled about that.  We drove over to the Beck Agricultural Center, which is basically just a big building in the middle of nowhere.  Once there, we had a welcome speaker and we split into groups where we got to ask current Purdue students basically anything we wanted for an hour.  Then, of course, we ate.  And we ate well.  There was pasta, salad, breadsticks, vegetables, chicken Parmesan, and CHEESECAKE!  It was absolutely delicious. (If you've been reading this blog post straight through, I suggest you take a break and get a snack or something.  All this talk about all the food I've been eating must be making your mouth water!)  I had to leave early from the retreat because the College of Education also had an event back on campus.  That consisted of traveling to different areas on campus with a small group, introducing ourselves, and learning more about the education program.  Just some more boring stuff if you ask me.  But whatever.

Afterwards, Megan and I decided to go buy our books since our math professor had emailed us saying we needed to have read sections 1.1 and 1.2 before our first class on Monday.  Oh the joys of college.  We went to Follet's bookstore for Megan first because with our PASE membership, we got 15% off books.  We got a little freaked out when we found out they were out of our math book!  So afterwards we went over to University bookstore because I had to get my books there since I had a scholarship.  (Shout out to BNGSA--thanks for my first semester of books!)  Thankfully, they had all but one of my books, but boy was it expensive!

Megan and I hustled back to our room after buying books because we were having a dock party that night!  The dock party was really just a dance party outside.  No, it wasn't by the ocean or a lake.  It actually sounds pretty sketchy when you think about it.  Shreve, and our neighboring residence hall, Earhart, back up to each other and there are loading docks at each.  Hence the name, dock party.  Ha ha.  Get it?

So Megan and I headed back up to our room to get ready.  I mean, this was our first official outing as college kids, so we had to look good!  By the time we got to the party, the music had already started and people were gettin' it and doing the Wobble.  We got in on the action immediately and went crazy, dancing up a storm.  We had an absolute blast!  It was one of those, "you had to have been there" kinda parties because it's really hard to describe how fun it was without having experienced it.

Our first night "out"!

We danced until around 11 and then we came back up to our room and were joined by a couple other girls and guys, including George, another kid I went to high school with, to watch the movie Accepted.  It got to be really late, and then 2 more guys joined us from a frat party they had just been at.  Our room was pretty crowded considering that it's a dorm room, but some people started leaving.  Around 2, it got pretty bad.  I got so incredibly tired that I became incoherent and everythingggg was funny to me.  I couldn't even explain it!  But the 2 guys who came from the frat party thought it was absolutely hilarious!  They compared my tired daze to being drunk, which made it all the more funny.  It was really interesting.  Everyone finally left at 4 in the morning so we finally got to bed.  And then we slept...until 11 again :)

Day 8: My First Laundry Experience

It was our first full Saturday at Purdue.  After showering, we went to yet another organization fair to learn more about the clubs offered on campus.  Then it was time for laundry!  After only a week, I had gone through enough clothes that I needed to wash a load.  Megan and I trekked down to the depths of the basement of Shreve in order to do our laundry.  I was incredibly surprised by how many people were in there!  It seemed everyone was doing laundry.  I even met a girl who had never done her own laundry...her mom had written instructions on the back of her detergent bottle!  Well, I didn't have enough for 2 loads, so I shoved everything together.  I knew I was taking a big chance that all my whites would come out pink, but it was a risk I was willing to take.  I put in 2 color catchers as a precaution, and then proceeded to put in all my whites, colors, towels, and reds in the same washing machine.  Included in my reds were my red pants I hadn't washed before, hehe.  Yeah, I know, you can be disappointed in me all you want.  I knew better, but I did it anyway.  And you know what? Only one old t-shirt got damaged with some tiny pink spots.  But other than that, nothing was harmed in the laundry process.  So boom, all you skeptics.  Not too shabby!

There wasn't much else to note about Saturday night.  It was pretty chill.  My Catch-Phrase was a hit though, and we played with a huge group.  Some of the girls on my floor decided to go to a frat party later though.  I opted out on this one.  Another time perhaps.  Instead, Brooke and I got to Skype our friend Chloe at Oklahoma State University.

Day 9: T-minus 1 Day Until Classes Start

Another early day!  The 4th floor residents of Shreve all had the opportunity to sign up to have breakfast with the author of our Common Reading book, William Kamkwamba, that I mentioned a few posts ago.  It was pretty cool because we got to ask him any questions we wanted, and there were only about 50 of us.  It was very personal, and a very rare opportunity, so it felt awesome to go.

After breakfast, some friends and I made our way to St. Tom's church, the Catholic church on campus, for 11:00 mass.  It was run much the same way as my church at home, to I felt comfortable there.  It was kinda cool to go with friends too.

We had a convocation after church about our Common Reading book.  William came and talked to almost all the freshmen in Elliot Hall.  It was really similar to our breakfast this morning, just with 100x the people!  William signed our books afterwards too.  My new friend, Katie, and I  waited in line for an hour, just so we could get our books signed.  So totally worth it though!  When else were we going to have that opportunity??

Shreve provided dinner for us that night because all the dining courts were closed, so that was nice.  We tried going to bed early because...

Day 10: First Day of Classes

...It was time to go to class!  I started off my day with an 8:30, which isn't bad. 

First day of school!

 I didn't know anyone in my class, so I walked into my building by myself and found my classroom.  Well naturally I was pretty early because it was my first day and I didn't know how long it would take me to get everywhere.  I looked into the room and saw a man standing at the front of the room shuffling papers, and a few students in desks not doing anything.  Obviously they were just waiting for class to start, right?  WRONG!  I walked into the room and the man, who was obviously the professor, looked up, slightly startled.  
"Bonjour.  Ca va?" he asked.  I froze.
"Is this Spanish?" I questioned, knowing fully well he had just spoken French.
"No," he replied.  "It's French."
Without thinking, I blurted, "Are you lying?!", thinking, and hoping against hope, that he was just one of those professors that likes to mess with his students.
"No..." he said, pretty confused.
I about flipped out.  "I'm so sorry guys!" I said quickly, then ran out of the room.  I could feel my cheeks burning from embarrassment, but I was so freaked out.  I had heard that I should check my schedule the night before to make sure none of the room numbers got switched around, but I hadn't been able to do that because the server was down.  I quickly pulled out my phone and tried to get on the internet to figure out what room I was supposed to be in, but I had no service.  I about had a panic attack.  What was I going to do??
I finally asked a boy what class he was going to, and he said Spanish 301, like me.  Relief spilled over me.  I told him what had just happened to me, the embarrassment taking me over again.  The boy gave me sort of a look and said, "Well, the 7:30 classes haven't ended yet."
My face fell instantly.  I had just walked into the end of a class instead of the beginning of my own.  Then I had to stand outside that room in shame as all those French students filed past me at 8:20.  It was mortifying.

It wasn't as if the day got much better either.  Spanish is going to be pretty tough I realized.  I had math after that, and that one isn't going to be fun either.  In fact, I heard that some of the students in it are taking it for the second and third times because they've failed it all the other times!  The first night of homework was not fun either.  Eeeeeks.  I had an education lecture too, and that should be interesting...

It was just a not-so-good-day.  We heard there was Zumba at a neighboring residence hall, so Brooke and I decided to go check it out because we love Zumba.  As we waited in line, they cut us off because of room capacity.  We were thoroughly disappointed, and then it started to rain.  Hard.  We decided we still needed some exercise, so we jogged over to the T-Rec to get on a tredmill or something.  No such luck. The place was packed!  There wasn't a machine open.  We could have done abs, but we got lazy and instead decided to leave.  We got a little exercise when we ran over to the dinning court for dinner at least!  We also got a free shower from the rain.  We met some friends there and sat with them.

Ready for another embarrassing moment?  I went to go get a quesadilla because it sounded oh-so delicious.  I started loading all of my ingredients into a giant tortilla, only to realize that I didn't know how they got cooked, and the chicken was cold.  Then I saw a sign that said I was supposed to put my ingredients into a small bowl and they'd cook it into a quesadilla for me.  So I tried to stealthily shove all the tortilla ingredients into a bowl.  Unfortunately, my ingredients took up 3 bowls!  I then discovered that I wasn't in the correct line, so I shoved all those ingredients onto the side of my tray and decided to start over, only to realize that I STILL didn't know what I was doing.  So I grabbed my tray and ran over to the tray return rack and shoved the tray there and turned around and left.  I got a salad instead.  Then I realized I had been making a wrap and I totally could have just eaten that.  It was so awkward, but I laughed so hard at it.  Maybe I'm just not cut out for college! Haha.

Day 11: Classes Day 2

I had my scholarship class with me and about 6 other students, and I'm really excited for that.  I also had my history lecture (and I got lost going to that too), and then I had my biology lab.  I'm really not too thrilled with any of them yet, but hopefully they'll get better.

I went to a Shreve Club meeting that night as well and might be floor senator which would be a pretty good leadership opportunity!    We shall see.

Day 12: Classes Day 3

Blah.  I'm already bored of classes.  Haha I hope they get better!!


Okay, so I'm done with describing my first week or so here, but here are a couple other little things I need to talk about:

1. There is a crosswalk next to a frat house that we walk across to get to campus every day.  One night, there were some guys outside, so my 2 new friends and I decided we should dance across the crosswalk to draw attention to ourselves.  So we danced like idiots and kinda looked like crabs or something.  So now every time we're together and cross that walk, we just dance like idiots.  It's a blast.  Who said college kids have to be mature?

2. I had several package scares.  The front desk will email you if somebody mails you a package.  One of the first days I was here, I got such an email.  I was so excited!  Somebody was already thinking about me!  I handed the front desk lady my ID and she came back with a bag.  I was so excited, but when I opened it, I was dismayed to find that the bag was filled with stuff for my parents who had signed up to be a part of the residence hall club or something.  I was so sad!  Then I thought there was a letter in my mailbox, so I was pumped!  Then I saw that it wasn't my mailbox, but the one below it. Booo.  Then I got another package email and was even more excited because I just knew that it had to be a real package.  The lady was in the back for a longgggg time and came back empty handed.  She asked me if I had picked up a bag the first couple of days, and I said yes.  She said that's what the email was; they just hadn't taken me off the email list yet.  I was crushed!  I just wanted some mail :(

3. There are some superrrrrrrrrrr attractive males at this school. But there are also some really nerdy ones.  

4.  Everywhere I turn, I see someone that reminds me of someone from back home!  It's creepy!

5.  I know almost all the girls' names on my floor, and I love them!  They're awesome!  It's made it a lot easier to live away from home.


Okay, that's all for now.  I'll try not to leave you hanging again for so long.  Hope you enjoy, and comment with any questions or anything!