> Hello. I haven't posted in quite a long time, so I thought that now that I actually have something to write about, I should. This is most likely very boring (especially compared to unipeg's summer vacation... wow!) so read it your own risk.

Believe it or not, I *want* to hear about your university experience. Since I'm still in college myself, I like to hear about the adventures of other students. (And I'm generally a nosy busybody who wants to know everything about everyone. Okay, not ALL the time...)

> One of the neatest things here is that practically everyone gets the use of a new laptop included in their tuition. From almost any building on campus you can register courses, get an automatic booklist, and access many of a class' notes, or at least overviews of them, as PowerPoint presentations, so there's less to go through if you're sick and miss a class. It's quite convenient.

I've heard of schools that do the laptop thing. I am so envious! That would make life a lot easier. We also don't have online registration yet. We are given a certain time that we can register over the phone, and that is based on our class status. (The more units you have, the sooner you can register. However, if you're a graduating Senior, an athlete, or a Freshman, you go first.) It usually takes me about 30 minutes to get through because they let a bunch of students all start calling at the same time. The sound of a ringing phone, rather than a busy tone, is music to the ear when it does finally happen.

> The university is small, but the students still practically double the population of the town. However, it's far larger than any place I've lived for a while. I think they can tell you're from the boondocks when they run across the crosswalk even if the nearest car they see is:
>
> a) a block away.
> b) parked.
> or
> c) non-existent.

This sounds a lot like my college experience! I went from a high school of 200 students to a university (I started at the University of California, Davis) of about 16,000 undergraduate students. Counting graduate students, staff and faculty brought that total to somewhere around 24,000. The city of Davis has roughly 50,000 people, so the university is approximately half of the population. I'm now at a school about the same size (maybe a bit bigger) and the city of Sacramento has around 390,000 people, with another 600,000 people (give or take a couple hundred thousand) in the outlying areas. I'm in my fourth year, and I'm still amazed by the differences between a small town and a city.

> I'm in a pretty quiet residence, which is good, and have a nice roommate, which is even better. I don't think I would have been very happy with a roommate who liked to drink a lot, or have parties in our room. I went through frosh week, which was really only five days, and was basically cut down to two for us because our frosh leaders got too tired/hung over to put much into it after awhile. It wasn't too bad, anyway. Mostly cheering, marching, doing silly stuff. We rubbed petroleum jelly and toothpaste in our hair, kept "Socko" on our hand, got up at 3:00 AM to do aerobics and bake muffins for the frosh leaders, rolled in mud, etc. I've heard of worse. Anyway, it officially ended yesterday. I wonder if they should have thought twice about stuffing all of those people into the small hall they had for closing ceremonies, then starting a cheering war. Loud!

Having a roommate who doesn't party is a huge plus. Not only will you get more homework done, but you'll also get to know him better. How well can you get to know someone who is drunk half the time? It's hard enough to try to have a simple conversation with a drunk. Come to think of it, I that's impossible.

> The best experience by far here, though, has been the chapel. It was wonderful experience. I haven't been to church in years, but I think I'll be attending regularly now. I really can't describe the feeling very well, but it was *good*!

Yes, definitely go back if you liked it. My guess is that you'll find some really nice friends there. They'll be the type of people that you don't just hang out with sometimes and nod at when you pass each other on campus. They'll become friends that give you that indescribable *good* feeling. :)

> Well, you can wake up now. That's pretty much it. I hope that wasn't too boring, but it was very exciting for me.
>
> Burger"Rambling, rambling, rambling"King

Ell"Continuing the rambling"myruh