Chapter 4: So It Begins!

I am going to attempt to pen…er, type this entry in record time because the 20 free minutes that I have right now are the most I’ve had since I moved into Renfrew House at Carleton University yesterday morning! So, here’s the details on my first impression of university life.

I moved into res early Sunday morning and was greeted by a bunch of super friendly second-year students, or facilitators. As soon as I unloaded my luggage from my trunk, I was swarmed by the facilitators who promptly ran it up the four flights of stairs to my room. I carried my purse. After all my stuff was moved into my room, which took all of two and a half minutes, I had the next couple hours to unpack, organize, and take stock of what is to be my home for the next year. It’s not much to look at, but I love it!

The people are great, too. I’m already pretty tight with close to half my floor, which has almost fifty people on it. We are the “Health and Wellness” floor, so a bunch of us have already coordinated workouts and runs for the rest of the week!

After moving in, my dad and I were invited to a free lunch in the dining hall for all the first years and their parents. After getting lost a couple times, we made it up to the cafeteria, which brings me to my next point, the food. It’s awesome and terrible at the same time, meaning that there’s so many opportunities to maintain a healthy diet, but… there’s so many desserts, too. I’ve eaten in the cafeteria only a handful of times but so far it seems like pretty decent grub, so I’ve got no complaints.

Sunday night, all the frosh events started. And they’ve barely stopped to let me sleep, since! It’s been awesome, though. That night, we went to a pep rally, a Ravens varsity soccer game, and then a Much Music video dance where everyone mingled and forgot about the “OMG I’m in university and have no idea what I’m doing” feeling for a while.

Following about five hours of sleep, we went for a floor breakfast in the caf and then were whisked off to “Carleton Complete”, which was a number of presentations outlining the various student services available to us. After a few hours of that, the whole frosh group headed across the Rideau Canal for “Canal Games”. The theme for Frosh this year is CU At The Circus, and the entire Frosh group is divided into different groups according to residence. Renfrew’s group name was the “Contortionists”, and we spent the afternoon playing Tug of War, dunking our floor-mates in the Dunk Tank, and beaking at the other teams with creative cheers and chants.

And now here I am! About to head to Alumni Park to see a Master Hypnotist, and then off to another dance. So far, I’m loving the university life!

Twenty minutes on the dot. Until next time!!