Journal Entry

Saturday, August 19, 2000
The Inaugural Entry

Well, I am here, moved in and mostly settled. I'm in a quad--two rooms connected to a common room in the middle. My room number's 451 (for mail and admin purposes), and for all other humanly known purposes, I'm in 450.

I have 4 other roommates... Gamelin (pronounced as if there is no E), Kevin B (he's temporary for a few weeks), Kevin T (the permanent Kevin), and De-En (whose name is unpronounceable by those of us who do not speak Mandarin, but otherwise goes as "Dean"). De-En is my actual room-roommate.

Gamelin and the Kevins are in 449... they're all paying a discounted room rate until Kevin B gets moved out.

So, watch this site for digital pictures (probably will get posted Tuesday) of the campus and my room.

My Cornell e-mail is not yet active, but when it is I probably won't give it out. I have to attend this hour-long Internet class before it's activated. I think I will retain that address as a college-only address. Seeing as how I have 50 other addresses that you guys know better, I'd rather have all my at-home (now at-college) friends e-mail me where they always have. It's that "stable" environment that all college kids seem to want.

First college question of the year: Why are there no urinals in the men's bathroom? Talk about shock--WHAT?!? Did I just walk into the wrong one?? I guess they do that so the bathrooms can be determined by wing-majority. Our floor has two men's "wings" and one women's. I guess that would make our floor have 3 wings, hence the triangle shape of this building. Ahh it's all coming together now.

If you're thinking, Oh, he's just going to pull an Andrew and write an entry every day. No way!! Not only is that unoriginal, but I have better things to do. Actually, I will just write whenever I feel the urge. And, like this one, it will probably be fairly long. So, cuddle up to your computer like you would a good book, and enjoy. If you weren't thinking about Andrew at all, and you were just wondering why my font is this mysterious shade of gray (or grey if you spell it that way), then, rather than piercing myself in weird places, I'm simply exploring my creativity and attempting to form my personal identity. Apparently, that's what us college students (officially referred to as late adolescences).

Or, if you're wondering why I'm starting a new site rather than actually finishing the original, and still-defunct, zahrowski.com, then please refer to the above explanation for this gray/grey text color. Because you're either one of my parents, Andrew, Kaye or some other person who actually cared about that site and didn't tell me.

Back to college--

I'm getting around campus okay. It seems larger on the map than it does when actually walking in it. Not yet using the bus system, but probably will as the weather gets weird.

Parents are still around. Will meet up with them again tomorrow. Nice to have them around, but also can't have them around forever, you know.

Frosh Orientation

And you all were amazed that my orientation was a week long. HAH. Try fitting all this stuff into the few days you guys get. Wow. Meetings upon meetings, convocations upon convocations. Info sessions, advising appointments, you name it. At least everything isn't crammed together. Nicely spaced out between the days.

I'm registered for several classes already, based on my academic survey. I'm in an Intro to Engineering Seminar/Advising session, an Intro to Engineering course titled Engineering for the Information Age, Chem 112, and Math 191 (Calc AB is useless). I'll have to take Physics for 3 semesters (even a 5 on the B doesn't cut cheese around here). I have to take two PE courses and two first-year writing seminars. PE can be fun, depending on what you choose--anything from intro to First Aid to Scuba-Divemaster courses. FWS are writing classes-made-fun, with over 100 topics including "Intro to Buddhist Theory" and "Comparisons Between Shakespeare Literature and Movies Starring Arnold Swarzenegger."

Network access took a bit to get setup, but is pretty fast now. Cornell uses a software-based authentication system that is a little complicated, and a little annoying, but in the end is better for everyone since it prevents anyone from pretending to be me on the network. Network speed tests I ran are reporting 3.6 Mbps down and 3.9 Mbps upstream. Faster up--go figure. Will probably slow down considerably as usage increases throughout the school. The usual.

Waiting for FedEx Ground packages to come in next week! Mom? The tracking numbers please? At least UPS could look up your info without them. FedEx works a little differently. You get what you pay for.

Going to sign off for now. Tomorrow is math placement test for engineering, a reception with the local ELCA congregation, the network class, dinner with parents, and other random college activities.

Best of luck to those who have left, as well as all the other college-bound folk preparing to leave.

Aaron (not yet going by Z, but may consider it)