I've reached a new level of Elitism

Yesterday afternoon was my first day at Simmons, unofficially of course. The trip into the city wasn't too bad: 30 minute commuter rail ride into South Station, and about another 20 on the Red and Green lines. I was surprised at how close the school was to the last T stop -- just two blocks away. There exists such an exciting environment in that part of the city because there's about a million schools located around the Fenway. Simmons, Emmanuel, Harvard Med, Wentworth are just a few to name.

We arrived SO early yesterday because I couldn't remember what time the orientation started exactly. Oops. hehe. But that was okay, because it gave us a little bit of time to explore the Main Campus building, which houses the classrooms and the administrative offices. We found the bookstore after walking around in circles for a bit and I managed to find all but one of my books. I still can't believe that I had to buy 5 books for two classes. A bit more than what I'm use to having to buy for a class (ehh?? sorta) but I have to remind myself that Simmons is on the semester system and that while it may be a little slower paces, I'm sure there will be more reading materials.

After a little while we saw that the Graduate student orientation table had been set up, so we checked in, and got a very nice leather notebook/planner thingy mabob. They told us the name tags weren't ready so if we wanted to explore and come back later for it. We did.

Before going into the city, I figured I would only have time to get maybe one or two things done before my informal cocktail hour with my advisor and fellow students. I forgot that Simmons is nothing like UCLA. Brian accompanied me upstairs and waited patiently while I made line for my ID. I'm glad the picture didn't come out too bad. Not like my UCLA one where on in the middle of a hot July afternoon I had to trek up to the dorm area to take my photo. I looked HORRIBLE. At least I only had to suffer with that ID for two years. teehee. After grabbing my ID I went across the hall to the Student Finances office to make sure my finances with the school were all settled.

I couldn't help but to notice that the girl in front of me was with her mum. What caught my attention about her was the fact that when an employee of the office asked her how she could help her, the girl looked at her mom and the mum had to say, "go on, tell her whats wrong." The girl replied, "but you know what the problem is. Tell her." I also noticed that on her name tag, she was a incoming student to the MAT program. WOW. She must of been at least my age, and she still had her mom around to fight her battles? That's pretty bad. I hope she learns some good classroom management skills because otherwise she will be in trouble.

I'll be happy to say that my school finances are all in order. I was offered a book voucher, but dummy me a) didn't know what it was (obviously to buy books, but where's it come from? Who gets one? Why do you get one?) and b) had already bought my books.

After the finaid office, Brian and I sort of walked around. We still had nearly an hour to kill and had knocked three of my tasks out of way. We grabbed a bite to eat on the basement level of the building and then walked to the suite where my informal cocktail hour was to be held. When I walked by, I saw my advisor pacing about. I couldn't believe how quickly my tummy started jumping about. Instead of confidently walking into the office, I crouched on a step and plastered myself against the wall. It took a few minutes before we decided to walk in. She was in the middle of bringing some chairs into the sitting area and I offered to help, but she refused my help. Instead she offered us drinks and snacks from the fruit platters they had set up. I couldn't believe that they had wine!!! My sister told me to get use to grown up school events because they always have some booze.

The best part of the schmoozing hour was realizing that my advisor wasn't nearly as scary as I had painted her to be. She was very sweet and welcoming. It made me feel like even if everything else sucked, at least school (so far) has seemed like the right choice. And that is always always a good feeling.

I was the first of the new graduate students to arrive in our suite. When the other girls entered, I quickly realized that I was the only Latina in the bunch. I don't know if any of the current students are Latinos or not, but this could be interesting, both on a academic and social level. I hope there doesn't exist this weird insider/outsider dynamic in the group. I am also the only one from the west coast. And the youngest of the new bunch. There's actually only 4 or 5 new graduate students to the program, which is scary and a really nice change of pace. I'm looking forward to stepping up and making contributions to the department and academic field. I really can't wait to research and write amazing papers. It's a bit odd for me..I remember as an undergrad thinking that the graduate students were so wise, mature and really ppl to admire. Now I'm one of those graduate students!

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when I'm actually in class and getting into the thick of things. I've always been fond of being a student and I couldn't be more excited that I've been lucky enough to return to my passion. Hooray!

*I'll take some pictures tomorrow around campus and the area and post when I get back from class. :D