Today was the first day of complete and unstructured fun here at UPenn. I got to sleep in a little bit, but not as much as my roommate (who slept till 11) because we met with Mario at 9:30 at our favorite breakfast diner. We ate a nice meal and then worked out the logistics of when we would be meeting with admissions counselors and taking tours of the surrounding colleges.
After that, we were free to go. I finished my lab surveys for the week and then went on a K-mart run with Brian and Alex's floor. I bought some much needed colorful pens and stickers to decorate letters, as well as a set of a tambourine, a triangle and two bell shakers so we can have some musical jam sessions in the lounge.
Later in the day, we checked out the gym. They have a really nice facility. There's a room full of all sorts of aerobic equipment: treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, etc. Brian is now a master of the stairs. They also had TVs and music playing which made it much easier to exercise without getting bored. Upstairs, they also have a fairly extensive weight room, which I am sorry to say, I did not fully appreciated (bench pressing is not my area of expertise).
Once we worked up an appetite, a group of 7 of us, 5 from Brian and Alex's floor, me, and Alison from my floor went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant (taking a break from the dorm food for an evening). We all split some very delicious dishes and finished the night off with some fortune cookies (they reminded me of our telescope lab).
After dinner we watched the Japanese film Battle Royale on a lap top in Brian's room. It was pretty ridiculous and very entertaining. The plot line is quite dark and fairly twisted, but it was fun watching it with the group.
Overall, today was a good end to the weekend. I was able to relax for the entire day and recharge for another week of exciting lectures and engaging labs. I am also getting to be much closer with the friends I have made here and it is very exciting.
I can't believe it has already been a week. I am really thankful that ours is the longest program and I have three more to take everything in, because I feel like there is always so much more to do!
Julia,
ReplyDeleteSo Brian has become a master of the stair step machine. He understands, doesn't he, that he just has to keep pretending he's climbing up the stairs? It's not as though he also has to master going down the stairs.