Before I begin, have you RSVPed for Sneak Preview? It’s in a few weeks! April 16th. I expect to see every one of you there! Not much academic-related news this time because we had spring break (finally) last week. Let me answer a few frequently asked questions first:
1) Do you get to pick your dorm/classes? No you don’t, they’re randomly chosen unless you’re in Honors (then you end up in 5th floor Adams)..although some people claim there’s a way around it. I’ll leave that for you to figure out, because I don’t know exactly how that works.
2) What’s it like being a female on campus? Pretty nice, I’d say. Some people say that you see more squirrels than girls around campus (which has happened to me), but we get a lot of perks.
3) How are the parties on campus? Honest answer: they don’t happen on campus (in the dorms like you see in the movies). Our Campus Safety personnel is strict when it comes to underage drinking/loud noises…so I would recommend if that’s what you’re coming here for, then Riddle isn’t right for you. Besides, you’re spending so much money already, right? Parties do happen..you just have to know where to look (the Greeks are a good source).
Now that that’s taken care of, let’s get to the good stuff! Spring break was a lot of fun (at least for me). My roommate, who stayed on campus, said it was very quiet around. She also told me how every food place was closed at 7!! That’s just crazy if you ask me…Dining Services needs to do something about that.
I myself went back home to California with Jim. Sad to say, however, it was raining like crazy the whole time we were there. And now that I’m back on campus it’s raining here too! People say I brought it back with me, but trust me I’ve had to pay with the flu…
Because all my classes got cancelled on Friday (yay me!), I didn’t have to skip any to get to my flight from MCO—PHX—OAK that afternoon. It was a very long flight, like always, but it was nice to have some company on the way there. My parents had plans to go visit Yosemite National Park that weekend, but of course, it had to snow, which blocked the roads. I was a little upset, because having never seen snow, I didn’t realize how bad the roads could get. We decided to go see the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, CA instead. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, that was the carrier ship that rescued both Apollo 11 and 12 (and 13th? I may be wrong) from the ocean after their return from the moon. Because of that, inside the ship, they had a mockup of the Apollo capsule as well as the original trailer in which the astronauts were quarantined. I also saw lot of airplanes, along with the helicopter used to pull the capsule from the water (I’m not sure if that was the original one…but still pretty neat). We toured the bunk rooms, the dining halls, the bridge, and even got to see where the seamen assembled torpedoes!
Sunday we went to Chinatown—my personal favorite—and went to see my aunt Jenny who had had an accident the day before. Monday we went to Old Town Sacramento, where we got to visit the Railroad Museum. We even discovered a huge candy store where we could sample everything in the store! I have a newfound love for saltwater taffy as a result…
My brother had to go to school, and my dad had to work for the rest of the week, but we still managed to enjoy our stay. Jim and I ended up taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit—our public transportation system) to San Francisco, where we went around the famed Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, as well as rode on the cable cars. The sea lions were around! They come every year and just lay on the pier. They were very loud…and very smelly, to say the least. Jim also got to visit his uncle, who lives in the nearby town of Emeryville (where the Pixar Animation Studios are). He gave me a very nice necklace he made himself, since he’s an artist. Friday, I took Jim to the San Jose flea market and a supermarket called Mi Pueblo (Hispanic food)…that was something, but at least I bought a neat phone case, guavas (SO good! Haven’t had them in years), and bought some awesome food to take back to my room.
We headed back to campus on Saturday night. Red eye flight…it was horrible! We didn’t get back to campus until 1:30 PM the NEXT day! We had a long delay in Charlotte because our pilot over-fueled the plane (therefore putting it over the maximum landing weight), which delayed us for an hour because the extra fuel had to be taken out, and the tanks balanced…and then bad weather hit us, delaying our plane another 30 minutes. Not complaining too much, because I know some people got stuck in Atlanta anywhere from 4 hours to 2 DAYS! I feel like this is getting too lengthy, and there’s a whole lot coming up in the next blog! An airshow, a hot air balloon show ( I’ll be volunteering there to help the chase crew!). Can’t wait
