UChicago Firsts

Today was the day that we were finally going to move into our dorms at the University of Chicago (UChicago).  This also happened to be the night that I got a full 8 hours and 30 minutes of sleep. I feel like that alone was a sign that my day was going to be a good day, and it was. After sleeping in, we walked down to a restaurant by the Omni hotel to have brunch before we were to drive to UChicago. It was pouring rain when we were walking to the restaurant but at the same time it was about 70 or 80 degrees Fahrenheit and it took me a while to orient myself because I didn't know how to deal with the weather. We ate our brunch, went back to our hotel, got our stuff, and made our way to UChicago.

University of Chicago

The car ride here lasted about 20 minutes and we arrived at the school quickly. Our rooms weren't ready at first when we came there so we checked in, got an information folder and dropped our stuff into another room while we waited. We had some time before our orientation so we made our way to the campus bookstore to get ourselves some UChicago gear. It only seemed right since we will be living here for the next three weeks. I got both a sweatshirt and a t-shirt but I feel like before this three weeks are up, I’ll end up with at least 3 more UChcago shirts and sweatpants. Once we were done at the bookstore, we went to the orientation. The orientation was basically an introduction of our RA’s and a quick overview of the rules. We then split up and went with our RA’s for a tour of the campus while parents stayed back to get their questions answered. Since my parents aren't here, my chaperon Alie acted as my parent.

My RA’s name is Helen and she is a rising senior. She is going to help plan some activities for us to do while we are here in UChicago and I pretty much have to check in with her when I plan on doing anything. I like her because she is really energetic and to make things better, she loves to bake so every night for our study break, she says she’ll have some sugary sweets for us. She’s the RA for about 20-25 kids and all of us are living on the fourth floor together except for poor Jake who gets a room on the fifth floor away from us. It also seems like we are roommates with each other too. My roommate’s name is Lulu and she was born in Singapore but then she moved to Beijing. She came here by herself all the way from Beijing and I find that really impressive. I can barely cross the street by myself, I couldn't imagine going to a whole new country by myself.

My Dorm Room

One of my favorite things about my being here is most likely the dorm room. For some strange reason, dorm life really interests me and I was really excited to move in. I share my room with Lulu and we both have our own beds, desk, chairs, closet, and drawers. The only thing that I don’t like about it is that the bathroom isn't that close to my room. When I first got here I had to go on a hunt to find the bathrooms and it took me a while but I finally found them. I was shocked at first because that bathroom had only one shower and I was wondering how that could work out because there were about 10-15 girls on my floor. Doing some more investigating, I found out that there are more showers just down the hall from the elevator.

My other favorite thing about this trip is most definitely the people here that I’m meeting. I've met people from New Jersey, Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and many more places. It’s really fun and interesting to just talk to them and get to know them all better. Personally, I like to see if there are any differences in the way that we live or talk. I haven’t noticed that big of a difference but some of the other kids talk in a different style that I’m not used to and I’m trying my best to really learn it. I made some new friends today which I am really excited about. It was a lot easier than I made it out to be because we all have the same RA and we basically got to know each other better when we grabbed our snacks for the study break. We sat down at a table and we just started talking. We talked for almost two hours about all sorts of things like Harry Potter, our hometowns, Forest Gump, our families, and lots more.

UChicago Gear

My first day here at UChicago went a lot better than I thought it was going to be like. I thought I wouldn't like my roommate but that isn't the case because Lulu is awesome. I thought that I wouldn't make any new friends and that I would just be standing there all awkward and alone but I made at least 6 new friends today and I feel like giving myself a pat on the back. I thought that I would hate the food and that it would be horrible but in my opinion, it isn't that bad. I also thought that I would be like a lost puppy. This sort of happened because I got lost at least twice today but I worked out a system so that that would never happen again and I’m glad that it is sorted out. Tomorrow we are going to be going over a bunch of stuff together about where we are allowed to go around here and where we are and aren't allowed to go. Class doesn't start until Monday for us which isn't too far away. I’m really excited to see how everything plays out and how I will be different by the end of all of this. As of now, I’m just going to be taking everything one day at a time and I will do everything that I can to make sure I make the most of my time here in UChicago.