Being stupid at Princeton.

This Saturday was my first gig with the band--the football game between Princeton and Lafayette. Princeton was supposed to lose, and badly, but apparently, our crappy players were abducted by aliens and whoever was in the orange and black uniforms handled Lafayette. Guess what that means? The marching band performs a mini concert in a fountain! It was lots of fun: getting soaked, stepping in the slimy growing stuff on the bottom of the pool, and pissing off anyone who takes things too seriously. The downside? We probably all have pneumonia now. But it's okay, because this weekend the football team is taking us to San Diego. I can't think of a better way to get over a sniffle.

In related exciting trip news, I get to go see Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera tomorrow for a ridiculously low student price. I'm anticipating a great time. But, I guess I should quit blogging and get to work to make up for all the work I won't be doing tomorrow.

As they say in my Japanese 101,

Sa yo o na ra.
(And for my elders and social superiors, "Shi tsu re shi ma su.")

Sorry it took so long.

Anyway, classes have been cool. Lots of work--lots of thinking work, as opposed to busy work. Freshmen are required to take a writing seminar, and I drew the seminar on Impressionism and Modern Art, so after this I will have taken an Art History class. That's irony if I've ever seen it. Physics is cool--hardcore, challenging, and they throw things off the roof and set things on fire in the demo lectures! Math is similar, minus the fire and the falling objects, and Japanese is just freakin' hard. The up side, though, is that I can now write a bunch of those neat looking characters. It has all just confirmed my suspicion that high school sucks, and college is way better.

Here's one for the parents--especially those living in Pennsylvania--I've become really good friends with this Asian guy in my physics lab. And when I say Asian, I don't just mean almond shaped eyes and a somewhat dark complection. I mean, "I'm from New York. Where are you from?" "Korea." I wonder if Keith will start calling him "The Caucasian"?

That's all.

More stuff.

Well, I got a bike...a Trek. It's cool, though. It's gold, so I have "bling bling," and my helmet is gold too. Even with its big ugly welds, it's a vast improvement over the crap bikes I've had in the past.

In other exciting off campus venturing, I went to a Japanese restaurant with a couple of friends today. It was cool, since I had never been to a real Japanese place...or a fake one for that matter. I guess it just adds to all the new crap I've been doing, makes it all the more cool to be away from Corry, PA.

Well, new classes start tomorrow. That should be super fantastic.

Trash pickup, prime numbers, etc.

Well, the adventures and misadventures of orientation week are coming to a close. A few of the highlights are as follows:

Jennifer (my roommate) and I did most of our unpacking and rearranging, which generated an enormous quantity of trash, and this on Labor day. Little did we know, nearly the entire janitorial staff was off for the holiday. As a result, a pile of trash that made the hall nearly impassable remained as such for about twenty-four hours. We couldn't leave the room without getting dirty looks from our hall-mates.

Many of the events this week have quickly filled up, so it has always been a good idea to show up early for stuff if you want a seat, and especially if you want a good seat. I made the mistake of visiting a professor from the physics department not long before the math lecture. The guy just wouldn't shut up! I mean, it bodes well for the undergraduate support at the university, but I just wanted to go to the damn lecture! So later, in a hurry to get to the lecture, I took a wrong turn and ended up going through an emergency exit and setting off an alarm. Needless to say, I simply walked away nonchalantly and hoped that no one noticed. Stupid freshmen.... (As a side note, there was no need to hurry. Instead of Conway and Von Neumann weren't there. It was some no name, but the subject was interesting nonetheless.)

Jennifer and I thought we'd take a bus to downtown Princeton to go to the Wal-mart there and pick up some supplies. Unfortunately for us, we waited on the wrong side of the street at the stop, and had to watch the bus drive right by us, and we didn't have time to wait for the next one, about an hour later. Mind you, this bus stop is not a short walk from our dorm. It was a real bummer.

Hope you've enjoyed these stories of my bumbling antics.

Getting to College

Let's start at the beginning.

The drive was tolerable. The conversations were typical...how bad John Kerry is, the price of gas/diesel, and of course, Keith and his future homeschooling adventures.

When we got to Princeton, everything went off without a hitch: sign in, check in, etc. However, eating at the dining hall with the folks was very amusing. The old man ate a turkey and swiss on wheat, half a grapefruit, some cantaloupe, a helping of rigatoni, and some scrambled eggs. Mom had a dinky salad, a cup of soup, and a (singular) curly fry. Jan was refreshingly normal, having a cheeseburger off the grill and (plural) curly fries.

After that, when we were walking through campus, Mom says (loudly, of course), "THERE WERE BAD WORDS ETCHED ON CINDI'S FOOD TRAY!" It felt like everyone on campus was staring directly at us. Great.

We went to the book store because Dad and Jan wanted Princeton shirts, and Mom complained that they didn't have any "Princeton Parent" shirts, declaring that she would have to make her own. That should be amusing for the town of Corry.

Later, for some reason, Dad and I went back to the book store, leaving Mom and Jan in my room. At this point, we hadn't met my roommate yet. We said jokingly that she'd probably walk in while we were gone, wondering who these two old ladies were....and she did. As a side note, upon our return, Jan had already made my bed. Good thing we came in when we did, or she would have had me all unpacked.

Soon afterward, however, they got out of our hair, and everything's been going fine so far.

"Our state fair is a great state fair..."

Another great adventure with the family.

It's always the same. Touring the fair with the old man is pretty rambling and disoriented, but the only other option is touring with Keith, which is equally rambling and disoriented, only he wants to ride expensive midway rides until he throws up. No thanks. It wouldn't be so bad if I were really interested in the difference between a holstein and a guernsey, but it's all good. My barn touring days just may be over.

But it wasn't all bad. The food was good, and since it was reasonably priced, we didn't have to endure a half-hour-long complaint from Jan. Also, I won a giant orange plastic crayon playing "I Got It," which is like bingo, only it involves bouncy balls. I was on fire--I won four times, and Keith only won once. Ha ha. So between that, the giant butter sculpture, and some cool horticulture exhibits, it was a decent trip.

Well, tomorrow's the big move. I may have to make more than one post in a day, if possible.