Electronic Tumbleweeds

I didn’t know about it. But now I do.

Apparently, the mentors think it’s fun to wake everyone up around 2:30 AM and make them run through almost all the 5C’s (I say “almost” because Scripssies seem to have a gigantic rod up their asses. And not in the good way) I didn’t, mostly because I had just gotten to sleep at about 12:30 AM.

And I don’t like running.

And they made us drink the tap water here, which I believe has given me the herpes.

But oh well, it’s over now…I hope.

It took long enough, but I’m finally in college! Only four more years of education and I’m done!…I hope. Well, at least the first day was eventful enough: I got through registration, caught an improv comedy show, and successfully assasinated the president. Well, I and the rest of my Summer Institute compatriots. I wish I had gotten video. Anyway, we, and the rest of the freshman class and a random assortment of parents, know we did it, so I guess that’s good enough.

I hope all of my college career is as eventful as today was.

I just remembered how good chocolate-covered strawberries are. God they are so good. Anyway, I relearned some etiquette skills that I will probably have to call on once I go job hunting. I swear, if I had to choose between chocolate-covered strawberries and orgasms for the rest of my life, I’d choose the strawberries. Moving on from the strawberries now (yeah, right), I moved in to my dorm room about 16 hours early! It’s pretty nice having what is essentially an entire floor of a dorm all to my lonesome. I’ll have pics up soon.

OK, it’s been a day or so max, but I think I still remember everything, and I’ve got pics, so I know it happened, so lets go over my weekend:

• Went To Universal Studios
• Went on just about every “ride” and the studio tour. I had higher hopes for the Tokyo Drift event, but I had lower hopes for the movie itself, so it balances out.
• Went on the Mummy ride, which is fun - if short - and the Simpsons ride twice, which was worth the wait both times.
• Saw The Dark Knight. Well, I can’t really say “saw”, since I missed 10 minutes in the middle and like the last 40 minutes.
• Went to an Angels game. It was just like a Braves game except the home team won. Totally blew my mind.

And in about an hour I’ll be eating some Thai food, and most likely going to sleep or watching some Drawn Together.

I say I “think” because while I haven’t checked yet, I believe all my clothes were the same color coming out as they were going in.

I’ve been tired for the past few days, and I’ve had a headache to match. Of course, the tiredness could be from all the walking the SI mentors are making us do. In addition, I have this big lump in my armpit. I hope it’s from the deodorant I’m using. No wait, I don’t. I do hope, however, that I don’t have to go to the healing center. I never filled out the forms I would need to get treatment. Hopefully I can get those done before orientation.

OK, so it’s been one week since I left my home for the college life of bountiful beer, babes and math. So how do I feel?

For starters, a bit more tired. In the program I’m in, they have us waking up at about 7:15. I know, you may be thinking “But Jeremy, you’re from the East Coast! Their 7:15 is like 10:15 to you? Shouldn’t this be easy for you?” And to you 0 readers who ask that, the answer is yes, I should.

Theoretically.

Like Communism works theoretically.

I knew I would adjust to the time clock sometime soon, but I didn’t think this soon. OK, those times I stayes up to the equivalent of 2 AM didn’t help that though.

But enough about that, let’s get back to the matter at hand.

I’m meeting some nice people (whose names I don’t remember, some things don’t change), and I’m going to some “classes” tomorrow, so I’ll be able to see how greivous my error was in choosing HMC as my four-year, one-stop shop for higher education.

My bowels don’t seem to like it here, seeing as how I get the worst cramps before I take a dump, maybe they put something in the food here - California, not the 5Cs.

That’s about all for now, check back when I get back from my first set of classes and see how I feel later.

P.S. I had an ant crawl on me, and I killed it and it reminded me of The Ant Bully, and it made me a little sad.

So in order to build relationships with people I don’t know, the mentors (or Mudd itself) decided we should all go on a scavenger hunt.

Of all the Claremont Colleges.

Without using any type of transportation.

I think they knew they were going to send us all to hell, but they did it anyway. I must have walked across the 5Cs like 5 times before they decided to just tell us to come back. We were on 11 of 15, and it was horrible. It wasn’t too bad for the first hour or so, because my feet didn’t hurt then, but when we got to the fourth clue, we were stumped, and walked back and forth between the colleges at least twice before another team decided to take mercy on us and tell us where it is. It went uphill from there, but that was like going from the ninth circle to the eigth, especially since all of our feet were hurting by then.

I wish I had remembered to take pictures during the tour.

For some team-building exercises, we go sent to the Boojum Institute, which is a 3-hour drive from Claremont if you get lost, 2-2.5 hours if you don’t. Anyway, we did quite a few fun things, such as a giant swing which creeps the bejeezus out of you, and then scares the crap out of you with the little bit of free-fall at the beginning if you go up high enough. Apparently you use it to get over some mental blocks about things like heights and falling.

Following that was the Giant’s Ladder, which is appropriately named, since it is a giant ladder, and could be a ladder for giants. That one is used for team-building skills, as you must use both yourself and your partner to reach the top, and then rely on your rope team to bring you down safely.

Finally there was the Leap of Faith, which could have been the scariest one of all: you climb up to about 30-40 feet, and jump onto a trapeze swing that goes out as far as you want it to. The only problem is that the swing looks really far out when you’re up in the air, but isn’t really too far out.

OK, that’s about it for Boojum, but we had a surprise when we came back: some of the dorm rooms had been pranked, with some things stolen, with instructions on how to get them back. I was lucky not to have anything taken, but they did clean up the floor, which means we can’t really make our movie anymore.

I found my flash drive! God it’s been bugging me since I thought I lost it at the airport, but I found it! Such a relief that I don’t have to pay $30 for another one. But then I found out who the Mole was prematurely. Dammit, don’t you hate it when shit like that happens? You get all psyched up to see something, and then it gets spoiled for you. But oh well, these things happen. I’m still going to see the last show to see how the Mole fucked up niggas’ money.