Late August. A time where the entire city is hushed. There were slightly fewer people on the subway and on the streets. More taxi cabs than regular cars, and less customers in restaurants. Most were probably enjoying their final summer vacations or getting ready for school. Summer camps and summer jobs were near ending, or probably already have. It was the time of the month where couples said goodbye to their summer fling partner, and a time where leaves progressively turned orange and red.
And here I am in my new dorm. The unfortunate part is the fact that it is located off-campus and because I don't have a car the only way to go to the main campus is to take the bus like everyone else. And yes, it's always crowded. The schedule is confusing. The map is confusing. The times are confusing. Hope I can get to class on time, I pray for that. Now it's not the city. No delis and stores on every block, and no yellow cabs on the streets. Frat houses, trees, and more trees is what I'm dealing with here. The nearest market is a few miles away. And even if there was, the people who worked there literally lived right upstairs in the same building. I'm so used to the urban environment that this is undoubtedly a huge culture shock to me. This dorm is right smack in the middle of the student ghetto, Phil, one of the first people I met after we both got lost trying to find where the dining hall was, said.
This dorm can pretty much be called the we-don't-have-enough-room-for-you-on-campus-so-you-gotta-stay-here dorm. We've been pushed aside and isolated from the main campus. It has three stories, I live on the third. Once again, no elevators and no AC so moving in was a huge pain. The halls are like a maze; took me a good hour trying to find where everything was, and I'm still not one hundred percent sure yet. As far as I know, there isn't a water fountain nor a rubbish room in this dormitory, which kind of sucks. I'm left to just drink out of the tap. At least we got a fridge. Even if you got sexiled or just wanted to go out and sit outside somewhere there would be literally nowhere to go. The first time I set foot on this place I thought to myself how am I going to manage living here for the year?
I set up my alarm radio and tuned into the local stations from home but I got nothing but white noise. It was then that I thought I was actually pretty far.
It took me a few hours to get here from home, much longer than my previous university. Mom helped me pack my stuff and then my friend drove me away with the SUV. Mom stood there by the house, waving until she lost sight of the car. I shed a tear.
It was raining that time but it stopped shortly after. Rain of tears.
It's been a couple of days and I can already say that this university is massive. So when you are alone, you would feel really alone. It was all about you. You and your body working as a team.
The odds of bumping into someone you know are close to nil.
And that's pretty much how I made friends last year in my previous university. It pretty much began when I saw someone in my class wandering around on campus and chatted with them, and vice versa. I just don't think that will happen here, at least not as often.
Roommate moved in two days later. An international student, from northern China. Communicating with him is hard. Gotta really slow down in order for him to decipher everything. Along with that he knows little no information about the campus. Didn't even have a student ID card yet. If it weren't for me telling him about the basic stuff on this campus and managing everything he would've gotten lost no doubt.
Thus I escorted him to the dining hall (yeah I finally am getting the hang of knowing how to get there) and we had breakfast. Because he didn't have his student ID yet, I had to cover for him. Not even a thank you.
I had a waffle and some cereal and an apple while he was wandering around the dining hall as if he was still lost in his own world. Finally he decided a slice of raw toast.
"What are you majoring in?" I asked to get a conversation going.
He was undecided. Said he's going to take english classes to improve on his english.
"How old are you?"
He was a year my junior.
"Excited for college?"
He nodded.
We fell into quietness. A pretty long one. Even if I would've said something he would only nod, reply in monosyllables, or just not get it. Around us were other students munching their food away. Clattering of dishes and silverware, chatter.
"Sorry for making you wait," I was halfway through my waffle and on his plate were nothing but crumbs.
"What?"
"Sorry for taking too long."
He seemed confused.
I gestured eating and took a glance at my watch. Resort to charades when uncommunicable.
"Oh," he said, flat.
This is going to be a long year, I thought.
In fact there is a significant number of international students here. I met a guy from Fukuoka during the campus tour. English is definitely one of the many languages that is spoken here.
I knew beforehand that one of my classmates from high school went to this university, but never knew that she would get placed in the same hall as me. We exchanged hellos, and talked about what was new.
Classes begin tomorrow. Summer vacation winds its way down. Sophomore year here we go.
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