My First two weeks on Campus!

Campus is amazing. I have been on campus for two weeks now. As I mentioned in previous entries, I was scheduled for the Rock Climbing pre-orientation trip, so I was scheduled to arrive on August 19th, which was about 5 days before everyone else was to arrive (August 23rd). Two weeks might not seem long to most people but I already feel like I have been here for much longer than that (in a good way!) My first two weeks have been certainly eventful!

August 18: I arrived in Watertown, New York on the 18th. Watertown is an hour and a half southwest of Canton. My aunt, who grew up with my mom in Potsdam, New York, lives in Watertown. She’s a psychology professor at Jefferson County Community College. Anyways, I stayed at her house overnight, which was a lot of fun. We had a nice dinner and it was a great time.

August 19: On the morning of the 19th, we departed for Canton! I feel indifferent towards an hour and a half drive, especially after having driven 4 hours from Buffalo to Watertown. Honestly, it doesn’t seem that far even though most Buffalonians would call an hour and a half drive a far drive (if I remember correctly, that’s the approximate length of time it takes to get to Rochester). I guess perhaps that’s the difference between urbanized Buffalo and the North Country. In the Buffalo-Niagara area, everything is about half an hour away, maybe 45 minutes tops. In the North Country, everything might be an hour or two hours away.

We arrived in Canton at 10am. Once we got to campus, it was time for me to pick up my packet of information containing my student ID, room combination and other helpful stuff. I wasn’t sure where to pick it up so I asked a couple of people moving in on campus and they pointed me in the right direction!

So, when I got my packet, I knew it was time. It was time to move in. I felt absolutely excited (partially because I wanted to put my boxes down!) When I opened the door, I froze. I thought to myself, “I live here.” It is a fairly large room with off-white light grayish-bluish walls and brand new windows with white trim. My dorm, Reiff, had been renovated last year, so the rooms are in exceptional condition.

Nothing too significant happened between the time I moved in and the ice cream social. We just set up my room and ran trips back and forth between the Wal-mart in Potsdam and campus (the first time we went to Walmart, we drove 8 miles in the opposite direction… oops!)

Each student and their parents filtered into the Student Center at 6:30 for the ice cream social. The line was absolutely long. Luckily, I left my dorm 10 minutes before 6:30 so I wasn’t stuck in line. Everyone mingled at that point and then we were herded into the Winston Room for an overview of the pre-orientation trips. Our pre-orientation trip leaders introduced themselves and informed us that we should meet in Dana Dining Center at 7:00am the next morning. After the meeting, we split off into our pre-orientation groups and met our leaders and our trip-mates face-to-face. Interestingly, the rock climbing trip consisted of all girls!

August 20: The next morning, we met in Dana at 7 and ate breakfast together. This gave us a chance to get to know each other before leaving. I was relieved to know that I wasn’t the only beginner rock climber! In fact, all of us were beginners! After breakfast, we had to stop by the equipment room in the athletic center and pick up climbing shoes and then depart. We rode in a 15 passenger van to the climbing site that day, so there was no worry about a lack of room!

The rest of August 20-22: I’m not going to provide details just because I want to leave the trip a surprise to anyone who may consider choosing the Rock Climbing trip as a pre-orientation option. However, I will say that our experiences on the trip were valuable and I don’t think that I would be as optimistic about my first few weeks here without them. All of the obstacles we experienced on the trip just reinstated the fact that, in college, we must be flexible (no pun intended) and ready to experience hardships that mean we need to either work harder or think on our feet (again, no pun intended). Our trip leaders, Izzy, Dante and Corey, were absolutely phenomenal. Hopefully they will stay involved with the trip next year.

August 23: Official move-in day! Reiff finally filled up with people (was quite empty when I arrived on the 18th). I had a chance to meet my awesome roommate, Jennifer, and my neighbors, Joe, Maria, Abdullah, David, Logan, Carla and Tyler (Tyler’s room is the only other single on our floor).

August 23-26: We had a pretty extensive orientation. The orientation itself spanned over 3 days. We had so much to cover that we were running from activity to activity ‘round the clock. There was no time to catch a breath. We had to formalize our classes, listen to lectures on campus safety, participate in get-to-know-each-other activities and so much more. Luckily, I was able to run to the Brewer Bookstore to get my books ahead of time AND stop by the Johnson Hall of Science to pick up a laboratory assistant application (!!!!!) On that note, I did apply for First Responder with SLU EMS before the Fall semester began but was rejected (understandable, I would've had to arrive on August 21 for training and that would’ve conflicted with my pre-orientation trip). The next best thing was working with the Biology Dept as a laboratory assistant. I am proud to say that I am working with the Biology Department!!!!!! Anyways, I believe I wouldn’t have the job if I wasn’t on the ball with obtaining an application early.

August 26: Present: Classes begin! Boy, my schedule is absolutely packed. Here’s a summary of my schedule (I hope it’s easy to understand):

General Chemistry 103B                     MWF   9:40am – 10:40am
General Biology 101A                         MWF 10:50am – 11:50am
Intro to Economics 100B                     MW   12:00pm – 1:30pm
FYP Having an Impact 187N                T Th 10:10am – 11:40am
Reiff: Seminar 001N                           T     12:40pm – 2:10pm
Biology Peer Pod                               W      7:30pm – 8:30pm
Biology Lab 101I                               Th     1:15pm – 4:15pm
Chemistry Peer Workshop                  Th     5:30pm – 6:30pm
Chemistry Lab                                  Th      7:00pm – 10:00pm

Also, along with that, my Having an Impact FYP requires participating in Community-Based-Learning (CBL). CBL is the cross between volunteer work and an internship. Its objective is just what the name states – learning from the community around St. Lawrence University. You must complete two hours per week at your CBL site during the duration of your FYP to fulfill the requisite. I intend to complete my CBL requirement at the Canton United Methodist Church from 3:45 to 6:00pm on Wednesday nights. Ironically, I was baptized Methodist and my mom’s side of the family is Methodist (though her family attended the Potsdam Methodist Church if I am correct). And, as for my work with the Biology Department, I intend to distribute my hours among Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Today, I worked from 2pm to 6pm moving equipment to another lab room and sorting through herbarium specimens. I had to separate the good herbarium specimens from the bad herbarium specimens. The bad herbarium specimens were specimens that were either crumbling or just plain unrecognizable. I was absolutely amazed at how far back some of the specimens date. Some specimens dated back to 1909, just ten years before the birth of my grandparents. Others were from 2005.

Okay, I must look over a few pages of Chemistry and head to sleep!