Fire update...

Apparently, the early Monday morning fire drill really was intended to kick off the week. It's the "learn not to burn and graduate alive"-Fire-awarness week.
And no, I didn't make up that term.
And yes, I was really worried about not making it all the way to graduating because somebody set of the fire the building on fire with a hair straightener.

Showers...

To those of you reading this who know me from back in the day when I was young and off to sea, "three minute showers" probably brings back memories. For everyone else, a quick explanation.

Ships have tanks for fresh water so in order to keep the amount of water used as small as possible we had the so called "three-minute-shower-rule". Which works pretty much like you think it does: The water was only allowed to run for three minutes during our shower. Hop in the shower, water on, water off, soap up, water on, wash of water off... aaaaaaaaaaaaaand finished. Yes, for those of you who were wondering, this is one of the reasons why when somebody says, "Shannon, you coming? We're leaving in 10 minutes!" And I say, "Yeah, sure. I gotta take a quick shower", I will actually be there in 10 minutes.

Anyway, I noticed that during long voyages when we were running low on water (or if there was no appropriate fresh water available for a while) all of the sudden the showers turned cold. Very cold. And suddenly, everyone found it much easier to take three minute showers. Hop in the shower, water on, shiver and think ?!@x#!?!, water off, soap up, hesitate a moment knowing it's going to be REALLY cold, hold you breath, water on, wash off, water off - go drink a hot cup of tea.

I think my dorm has a similar system, though admittedly it doesn't involve cold water. And yet there is a limit to the length of my showers. The drain appears to be the limiting factor: The longer you shower the more the water level rises, past your toes, ankles,...

We asked about getting it fixed and were told it wasn't an emergency... Ha. I'll show them an emergency!

What a way to start the week...

Monday morning at 7:30 am I had just finished making my tea and adding appropriate amounts of cereal and fruits to my yoghurt, when the most obnoxious sound I have heard in a long time reached my tender ears. A screeching, flashing fire alarm. Of all things - on a Monday morning in a student dorm?!
Being the well trained-fire-alarm-person that I am (two years of Wednesday morning drill will do that to you) I marched downstairs mug in one and cereal bowl in the other hand. And spent the next 15 minutes being highly entertained by everyone else crawling out of the building - none of them thought to bring breakfast.
For the most part, everyone did bring something to cover up (a towel can be helpful for more things than drying off), quite a few people just brought their blanket with them and leaned against the next best wall and simply continued their morning slumber.
I now know everything there is to no about what my fellow inhabitants do and do not know wear to bed...
What a way to kick off the week!

It makes me laugh everytime

After already having established that Long Islanders are a class to their own when it comes to traffic it came as a bit of a surprise when I came across several backed up cars on campus and discovered why all these people who usually don't even stop at red lights where standing around.
Geese.
Lots of them.
The sort of migrate around campus creating havoc because they never use the crosswalks (Stop at crosswalks IT'S STATELAW) and like to cross streets on a regular basis.
One by one.
With just enough distance in between them that nobody can cross the road. At least not the cars. It's just as funny as it sounds. All these ducks waddling across the street and no honking, no yelling, no squacking - no nothing to make them go faster (or slower).
What joy, what fun!

The end of summer

So everyone told me that Labor Day is the end of summer. I figured that meant that the humidity would go, the temperature would begin dropping, the days would get shorter, the color of the leaves would change - you know a gradual process.
I certainly did not expect to wake up to a cloudy, mucky Tuesday, a rainy-ish Wednesday and torrential downpour lasting the rest of the week. I did not expect to get soaked four to five times a day (usually just as I was approaching wherever I as going). And I didn't expect it to get that windy.
I was kind of surprised to get home late Thursday night to find all the sprinklers still on (in general, I find there are way to many sprinklers on at the wrong times, I suppose they're all on timers). Not only were they on the night of a fairly "wet" day, they were on on the eve on an extremely windy night. In the end, they were watering the sidewalks not the grass. And so, though I had managed to stay dry all day, I had to use all my awesome sprinkler-hopping, side-stepping, swerving and other techniques and still got wet in the process.
And so... summer really did end.
Fortunately, the sun came peeking out again today.

I was just thinking...

about Americans and cash. Or the none-usage of cash. Possibly just the fact that nobody seems to carry cash on them on a regular basis. Actually, more about people being quite offended when a place "only takes cash". And the fact that those around me seem surprised at my cash-carrying habits. I keep telling people: "I'm European. We use cash on a regular basis".
It just so happens that I have a theory on why this glorious nation has forsaken its bills and coins - to replace them with plastic in various formats. I'm pretty sure that the United States is the only country I've ever been to where all the bills have the same color. I have mentioned this before, but really it does make life so much easier when you can tell how much cash is in your wallet by just glancing inside and viewing the rainbow of bills (or lake thereof) as opposed to leaving through.
Put that on the list of things that really need to be reformed in this country: The presidential election system, the color of bills,... though not necessarily in that sequence.

Labor Day weekend

I have always wondered why it's called Labor Day if nobody is actually working. On the other hand, I lucked out because this year I got two Labor Days.
Just as I had gotten used to there being so many people on campus (I might be developing another case of bike path rage because nobody seems to think there is a problem walking 4 people wide across the bike path... actually it wouldn't be if one could get them to move over) everyone left. I'm not sure where everyone went (because everyone just got here) but from what I understand most people studying here are from New York and went home. Or to the beach.
Apparently, one is to go to the beach on Labor Day and "celebrate" the end of summer. Interestingly enough, in a way summer really did end. After weeks of sunshine, sadly, the sun does not seem willing to come out today. While I did briefly set foot on the beach yesterday (I even got my feet wet) I spent my weekend in the more non-traditional way of playing rugby all weekend in various forms and formations.
I have had to trade in my 7s jersey (i.e. in Germany I played in a league where we played seven players a side) for a 15s (that is 15 people a side, the "original" way to play rugby) one. Unfortunately, this means I have to re-learn some things - it's very confusing at first to have more than twice the amount of people running around on the field, especially since my eyesight isn't getting any better!

But doesn't this look like fun?!

I almost ran over the Greek alphabet

The other day I needed to print some of my reading material for the week and decided to zip over to the main campus. The moment several Greek letters stepped out onto the path in front of me I probably should have realized that something was going on.
I recieved a definite second clue when I came up to the Student Activities center. The plaza in front of it was fuller than I had ever seen it - and there were even more (different) Greek letters running around. That, and on a small stage three people were standing yelling out various combinations of Greek letters (had I not known better at this point I probably would have assumed they were going through physical equations!) to which from somewhere on the quad several people would start yelling at the top of their voices...
Suddenly, it made sense why Fraternities and Sororities are called the Greek system :-D

Yaaay...

Apparently, Friday was Freshman move-in day. Of course, I didn't know - which is why I was surprised to find a) a LOT of cars lines up and down all the roads around the dorm areas and b) -
well, b) pretty much fullfilled any American stereotype that had remained standing up until that point.
b) there were cheerleaders on the curbs cheering the incoming cars.
Yaaaaaay.
But they had quit by the time I was cycling back on campus. Probably because it had started raining and continued doing so for most of the weekend.
So, how was my weekend? Well, mostly wet.
The sun did come out on Sunday afternoon. Which is why I went out - and went on a bike ride which seemed to cover most of the island, but in reality I just discovered a bunch of roads that end. Somewhere.
Aaaaaaaanyway, on special request from my Dad, here's pictures of my new "wheels".

Pretty cool, huh?