Turn That Brown Upside Down

We've finally arrived! It may have taken us a little while, but we are now at Brown, and start class tomorrow morning. We had breakfast at the same cafe we had been to earlier in the week, and I kept my streak of having dessert for breakfast alive at 2, this time with a chocolate cream pie. We left Hotel Providence and drove up the supposedly daunting "hill" leading up to Brown. After hearing the alums from Friday night's dinner complain about walking up and down the hill, I was expecting a massive, Moeser-like spectacle. Instead, I barely even noticed a change in elevation as we worked our way up what can best be described as a moderate bump in comparison to the giant hills I see every day at home.

After reaching the top of the glorified pile of rubble, we were finally on campus. Brown is a great campus, that feels open yet easily accessible, and we eagerly checked in so we could see our dorms and hopefully meet our new roommates. Unfortunately, our whole cohort besides Emily was in singles, which takes away somewhat from the whole college experience. Normally Brown wants everyone to be paired up, but this year some buildings were under construction, and so a decent amount of people got stuck in dorms with only single rooms. I am already starting to see the benefit of not having a roommate, since my incessant rapping on this keyboard would have driven any normal person insane by now. (What I've written so far may not seem like enough typing to at all bother someone, but I've deleted 10 times as many words as I've kept).
Having a room to myself is also useful since I can make the most of what space I have, without having to worry about stepping on my roommate's toes.

My new favorite place

My new least favorite place

We checked into our respective rooms, and then rushed off to the campus tour. The tour was similar to the other four we've been on, since the tour guide left the major details about summer at Brown to be explained by the Resident Assistants and at the Orientation. It was interesting to hear some of the more obscure things about Brown, from the fact that it has the highest a cappella-to-student ratio to the belief that the gate leading into Brown is cursed and if you walk under it more than when you first enter Brown and then when you leave for summer, if you're a girl you won't marry and if you're a guy you won't graduate.


Our tour quickly ended and before I knew it, I was back at the main quad, this time to go to orientation.The orientation consisted of the typical don't break rules speech, as well as some encouragement to enjoy this learning experience, something I certainly plan on doing.


Then we grabbed a bite to eat at a burger place on Thayer Street, which I can't wait to explore in a more in-depth fashion, there seemed to be dozens of great restaurants. We all had a chance to unpack a little bit back at our dorms, and then it was time for the student only restaurant, meaning we had to say goodbye to Mrs. Kaplan and Mr. Crosby. While Mrs. Kaplan will be staying in Providence and meeting with us constantly, Mr. Crosby is heading home, and I'd like to thank him for being such a great driver through the maze that is Boston, as well as for all his insights regarding travel.


The student orientation was similar to the original one, and when it ended we all broke off into sections with our RAs. We did a few icebreakers, where I was shocked to learn that on my floor there are more volleyball players than baseball players, with me being the only one who plays baseball. Granted, there are only 18 guys on my floor, but I was hoping at least one of them would have played a bit of baseball.


Then our RA gave us a tour of every place we needed to be familiar with, and it was off to dinner, which wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. After an ice cream social where I got to chat with a lot of my floormates and new people, which is how I learned that out of our 18 people on the floor, one is from China, one is from Turkey, and one is from Canada (not as interesting, I know, but they still count as foreign). It was great getting to meet new people and I can't wait for the challenge that awaits.

The textbook for our course