Finally in Carleton!

Good morning, citizens! This is Veronica Tang reporting from Carleton, Canada's Capital University!

Well I have finally arrived in the capital of our home and native land. I got here yesterday and it was so tiring. I had to get up at 6 in the a.m. and hit the road by 7. It wasn't even fully bright yet, meaning there is absolutely no reason for any living creatures to be up and at 'em. I somehow managed to scrape myself off my bed and trudge around the house doing some last minute packing. And then, with my car trunk brimming with my numerous bags of crap, I set off into the unknown...and morning traffic.

It took 4 and a half hours to get to Carleton but 2.5 more hours to get into my room. How can this be? Well, the wonderful city of Ottawa decided that of all days, September 5th (a.k.a. move-in day) was the most fabulous fantastic ultra-super-brills day to have a triathlong. All the roads were blocked, there were a hundred detours, and when I got into campus, I thought, "Alright, at least there won't be any more delays." But I was wrong. Oh so very wrong.

The triathlon runs right through the campus so all the traffic was moving in a one-way circle so if you miss your "exit" to your residence, you have to go all the way around campus and come back to try again. My mom and I are terrible with directions and we were so frazzled from the road traffic to begin with that we missed Renfrew House (my res) not once but twice. Third time really is the charm...the hot, sweaty, crowded, noisy charm.

So why was it so difficult to find? Everyone else's residence has a big driveway for you to pull up on and what do we have? A sketchy little alleyway with a big fat dumpster on the side. We had no sign with our house on it so some guy pulled a piece of cardboard out of the dumpster and wrote "RENFREW" on it. We're so resourceful.

Then there was the long process of unpacking. Partway through, while my mom and I were bustling around, we hear a knock coming from this little wooden door in the wall. It's suspended in the air so it's more like a window. So naturally, we open it and there is a hole in the wall! It's actually a creeper peep hole into the other room and I see my washroom mates grinning at me and waving. Apparently, there used to be a phone in the window for all four people to use, back in the days of yore. Riiiiiight...phone windows (a.k.a. creepy peep holes)

After all the packing was done-

I just remembered something I wanted to mention: my floor is underwater themed. It's not Greek but it's still festive! There are fish and sea horses on all the doors. I try to get into the spirit. Glub freakin' glub.

- I had to say goodbye to my mom. I am officially independent! Relying on no one! Completely an island of my very own...until I called my mom to transfer me some money to buy textbooks. There was a long boring floor meeting where the most interesting thing was that our res fellow has a candy/condom bowl so you can reach in and grab whatever you want and she won't know what it is...I wonder who's going to be knocking on her door begging for some candy at 3 in the morning.

After the formalities, our floor went to dinner together and I went on a scavenger hunt. It was awesome except that we didn't win. We had to use those old school film instant cameras. I prefer to think of them as "vintage." I can't wait to see those get developed.

Sorry, I know it's long but bear with me. I have a lot to cram into this post.

DAY 2: I had the best sleep of my life! Mostly because I was so tired from the day before, but that is besides the point. I had a rather large victorious moment. I, Veronica Tang, fixed a printer. That's right! All by my lonesome! ME! I did it! It wasn't working and then I came along and it was just simply no match for my intellectual powers! It turns out that I had plugged the cable into the wrong socket earlier. But that's not the point! I was very proud of myself when it started printing. The paper was inching out. I rejoiced and did a happy dance around the room. I turned again to look at the evidence of my brilliance being printed when...it gets sucked back in!! Later, I would realize that it was printing double-sided (a function I had forgotten) but at the time, I was terrified that my printer was eating my paper.

After my lovely success, I traipsed around Ottawa today with Kitty and her family as per her very persistent mom's request. We were checking out the sports centre and there I found my true love:

THE 50M POOL! (complete with rope to swing on. Think Tarzan.)

There was a pep rally where everyone was painted red and they had those thunder sticks that you bang together to make a ruckus. I seized the opportunity and wore my Canada hat. If you've seen it, you'll know that it can be an excellent conversation piece. I met lots of people who love my hat. Aren't I clever? Subsequent to this pep rally, everyone migrated to the gym where we watched a basketball game. Frankly it was not the most interesting game of my life but the cheering was a lot of fun! I looked like a fool but it was awesome! After an hour of that, I am completely burned out. There's supposed to be a Much Music Video Concert tonight but Kitty and I are WAY too tired to go anywhere, not to mention that it's a frigid beast out there! It's SO COLD! How I'm going to survive winter, I do not know.

So there. That is my first weekend in a nutshell. The scary part is: frosh hasn't officially started yet. It's going to be crazy. I'll keep you posted when I come up for air!