Can I tell you...

how excited I am for starting school in the fall?

After coming back from orientation, I have crimson blood pumping through my veins. I cannot really explain to you how excited I am... so i'm going to ramble on.

Well, I was one of the few who stayed the extra night before orientation actually started. There was no way I was going to wake up at 1am to then go driving so I could make it to orientation. I can't tell you how glad I am I did that. I got to meet a lot of the avantis and they are all really cool. So they provide extra laughs which was good. Another plus was that night I met Brian Dye (born in Germantown, TN, raised in Atlanta) and Amy Wallace (from MD). They were pretty much the main people I hung out with during orientation. They are both a lot of fun and we all hit it off pretty well. So next morning, while people are introducing each other, we were already having a blast. We end up getting split up in the chaos of it all, so I went and made my Action Card... bahahaha I look completely high in my picture. I'll eventually get it changed, but if I ever need a good laugh I can whip that out.
So Next I had the first Avanti group meeting. My leaders were Stephen Speihler and Marybeth Everett. Our leaders were fun and our group seemed really cool so I was pretty happy.
Ok so the meetings in general were pretty boring and at the time I was listening they were stressing. They were stressing because they just made me thinking about something that I hadn't yet thought of.
At the Ferg"uson Center Food Court", the lunch was amazing. Let me tell you all who are jealous, yes, our eating place is much better than yours. :) I had pizza and it was great, amazing, if you will. We have a Chik-fil-a in there and several other places that are good.
Soon after I met the fourth member of our team, Jaci Moltz (from Tuscaloosa area). She's really cool and after several other meetings I went to, she took us around Tuscaloosa and we ate at McCalisters. We made it back in time to get to the next activity.
Ah, the next activity, fun and yet def. brought some awkwardness towards me. So to the Rec Center's outdoor pool we went. So the other three went to the pool, while I mingled with some of the Avantis and peers. I met some of the people I was told I had to meet because they were involved with BCM; like Michael Mabry, Andrew Hester, and Kaylie Patrick. I met Tyler Keenum who'll be an RA at P-A which is where I'm staying. I met Maria Franco- no relation. I could name them all but you'd get bored, just check my Facebook friends. Talked to a lot of my peers while eating some snow cones; some of them nice, some of them not so nice. But whatever, I'll have time to talk to them later.
That night, Amy, Brian, and I got hungry, so we found two other girls to split some Jimmy John's subs with us. We ordered a #2, #5, #8. ... and we didnt know what we were ordering... just random numbers... the #5 was really good though... and so we ended the night by watching Family Guy/Futurama.

Next day, things went by really quickly. With watching the Avanti's do skits, like Tony's impression of Napoleon Dynamite to planning my fall schedule, things were just going by fast.
Things were getting kinda sad. I knew I would see these people when Fall starts, but I mean, I dont know, I got attatched pretty quickly. I love the place what can I say.
So the day was wrapping up and the four of us knew it'd be a while till we saw each other again...
so we sent a note to Brian and the four of us met in the Lounge room in Blount one last time. But heck we're excited, we've already got a sushi night planned and we just plain rock. But I got to meet another avanti while in there, and probably by far one of the coolest/nicest, Jacob Summers. He's a cool guy, so don't miss out, you should meet him.

well that concluded my orientation, and like I hope to have to established - I can't wait for this to begin.

JP