The World of Stuff: The College Years

I'm in college. It's all so weird. I always knew this day would come, but now that it's here, it's really surreal. My sister and I moved into our dorms on Saturday. That's when I met my roommate, Adam, in person (we'd talked online before). I managed to find almost everything I packed, so that's good. Kristen's rooming with one of her best friends, so she's lucky. We spent Saturday night at our aunt's house outside of town, along with our parents. Yesterday, we bought a few more things that we needed, and my family wanted to see our dorms again. When we came back, my roommate had hung up posters of scantily clad women. Real nice to show the family. It was actually pretty funny in retrospect. But anyway, then we said our goodbyes. It was pretty emotional, but we'll definitely be in touch with our parents. We'll also be in touch with each other because we hardly know anyone and it's hard to make friends.

In fact, I'm here in the food court in the student union with my sister. I'm here for the WiFi. I can't get connected in my dorm because the instruction booklet says to call the Internet connection people if you want to know how to connect using Linux. They're swamped right now because everyone is trying to connect, so they're going to call me (maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after that, maybe the day after that...) to schedule an appointment so they can go to my dorm and help me out. Did I mention that the University of Florida is one of the largest in America? Anyway, I have to thank my friend Luke, whom I called, asking for help with connecting to the Internet. After nothing worked, he suggested I try the WiFi in the public areas. He isn't even going here, and he thought of that before me. Way to go, Luke.

Even though there are so many people here, it's been hard to meet people, and it's been stressing out both my sister and me. There are supposed to be

We just saw Amanda, a girl from school, here in the food court. Apparently she's staying in the dorm across the street from me, so we'll have to hang out with her. We're planning to go to the mall tomorrow, so maybe we should invite her. It should be fun. Anyway...

all kinds of events for getting to meet people, but I think they're spread out over the first few weeks of the semester, so none of them have happened yet. So I haven't really had an opportunity for a "Hello, My Name Is..." type of gathering. In fact, my sister and I have pretty much been walking back and forth between our dorms and stopping here at the student union, which is in between. Actually, we did meet a few people at a bus stop outside my dorm, and my sister (who can connect to the Internet in her room) found them on Facebook, so that's good.

I guess that's all I have to say for now. I have more to say, but I can't stay in the food court forever. I've got other things to do... 'cause I'm in college.

In 1947, Life Magazine asked some comic strip artists to draw their characters blindfolded. The results are amusing.