Blue-Eyed Dream Boat

Each day I'm here, I feel better about everything. Pretty soon I'll feel downright silly for making such a big deal out of everything, but I'm writing this blog day by day and recording exactly how I feel the moment I'm writing it.

But thanks so much for all the words of advice, words of calming, and words of encouragement. I can't tell you how helpful it's been to know that there are so many people supporting me at home.

It's warmer tonight. It rained on and off all day again, but tonight I'm only wearing one pair of socks and no long underwear! We finally got a shower curtain, although I still have no roommates :( I hope they come soon.

Today all the Saint Mary's girls met early to walk over to orientation together. It was all a lot to take in, but it was very helpful. (Not to mention that on the campus tour Elizabeth and I met a German boy named Dominik who we've deemed the "blue-eyed dream boat." We're hoping to see him again tomorrow!) At orientation they told us that we have to pick our classes, find out when they are (by looking at the website), and go to them all week, then come to registration to sign up for our classes. I had all the classes I was planning to take written down from last year when Karen Chambers (the Ireland coordinator at SMC) helped me choose them. There are only a limited number of classes we can take here and still get credit for them at Saint Mary's, so mine fit perfectly into my four year plan at SMC. HOWEVER, after looking at the lecture schedule, SEVERAL of my classes conflict with each other. And I've looked at my papers till my eyes crossed, and I just can't figure out a way to get enough classes into my schedule that I'll get credit for at Saint Mary's. I hope I can get them all in, because if I can't, then I might be coming home a semester early (I don't want to just fill my schedule with useless classes here and then end up having to take an extra semester or year of school at Saint Mary's!) I emailed Karen Chambers and I'm waiting to hear back from with her for advice. They just don't leave us much time here to figure all this out! And they only have one section of each course, so there's hardly any flexibility when it comes to scheduling. Ugh! Just one challenge after another. But I'll figure it out eventually!

It's pretty sad that we were so excited today when we got bags of free stuff and there was a Nutrigrain bar in it. Wow.

More orientation all day tomorrow, then they are having a reception for all the international students... then, I guess we're all "going out" to the pub. Wish me luck!