Back to School

So, here's the update now that I'm about to go to sleep in my dorm room once again. Last week was my last at home, and it went really fast. I had a fantastic sendoff from both my genetic and tae kwon do families, then my dad and I drove to school on Saturday. I saw my dorm friends that evening. Sunday, we did the shopping trip to Target, and I got to move in today. It was a little odd because I was out with theater friends last night and didn't get nearly enough sleep to be as energetic as I was.

My dorm has been renovated. Not the big structural stuff, but everything is now spruced up and lovely and clean and new looking. Somehow, they incorporated really modern furniture into our Hogwarts common room style lounges and it still has a wonderfully homey, old building feel. And we have cool wallpaper. My room has had some changes as well. The desk lost its shelving and has been painted a steely blue-grey. The dresser is now green. I have a new desk chair and the bedframe is different. New mattress pad. The carpeting is gone and I think it's a terrazzo floor now. The walls were painted, so no more cracks in the corners. They also removed one of the closet doors, so it only closes halfway now, but that may be on its way back.

I gave my furniture a different layout this year. My bed is still in the corner away from both the door and the bathroom, but I have a spot for my snack bin in the opposite corner next to the dresser then my purple cube grid, desk, and fridge. My three-drawer cart is shares the foot of my bed with the trunk.

The new fixtures I brought with me are a body pillow, quilt, mattress topper, and rugs, all of which I love. My decorating is a bit simpler: I have my Exploding Tardis poser above my head, then the Hunger Games poster that has lived in each of my dorm rooms, and my two China watercolors (a panda and a landscape) between the mockingjay and the mirror. The opposite wall has my Chinese shadow puppets, collage poster, Chinese calligraphy, and, to inspire good work this year, my research poster lives above my desk. My bed is super fluffy now, the rugs are a fantastic accent, and I'm just really happy with my room.

Since moving in, I've been meeting the new members of the dorm. I'm surprised by how many are transfer students, and each one I have met has been wonderful. When you meet a bunch of new people, it makes mathematical sense that some of them might give you a weird vibe that you might not get along, but I genuinely think that I can have a friendship with each of the people I have met. It's really exciting to me.

Things haven't been eventfully exciting, but I'm so happy to be back home at school with my friend-family. It is so amazingly awesome to see these friends I have been missing for three months (which felt a lot longer than three months), and I feel very positive about the way things are beginning.

Today is awesome because I am happy with my home.