OH MY GOD

[bedlamsbard]

Forecasters downgrade Fay to a tropical depression, but apparently still preparing in New Orleans for the city to, like, self-destruct or something. (Hello, my AFROTC orientation got postponed because of Fay. I go to a school with a hurricane evacuation plan. I will take ice storms approximately NOW.)

SHOULD HAVE GONE TO WELLESLEY. What the hell was I thinking? Have I met myself? There are actual used bookstores in Boston, as compared to New Orleans, where I have seen ONE. In the French Quarter!

(Why, yes, I am filling out my transfer application in my head RIGHT NOW, even though I haven't actually gone to school yet. Don't judge me; should have taken the goddamn financial aid and gone to Wellesley, where I could, I don't know, PAY FOR COLLEGE. And also BE SAFE. I live in an all-girls dorm, for God's sake. I don't talk to boys! Not everyone is talking about going drinking when they HAVEN'T EVEN OFFICIALLY STARTED COLLEGE! Well. I don't know that one for a fact.)

Obviously I am giving Tulane a chance, but I would like to live somewhere safe, thank you very much. We shall see how this whole "city living" thing goes. IN THE HURRICANE-RIDDEN SOUTH. I would say "shoot me", but New Orleans is the city of crime! It may very well do so! I would like to rewind back to April, please. Also, it would give me a chance to see Prince Caspian again.

(Seriously. Cities make no sense on their own. Adding in the hurricanes-slash-tropical storms-slash-tropical depressions -- I'm not depressed, I'm just paranoid like a paranoid thing! -- doesn't help.)

Yes, I know I'm, a, panicking, and, b, flailing.

Comments

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Not everyone is talking about going drinking when they HAVEN'T EVEN OFFICIALLY STARTED COLLEGE! Well. I don't know that one for a fact.

FACT. ABSOLUTE FACT.

It's just that said non-alcoholic types are cowering in corners and hiding from the morons.

Hang in there. Things pick up once the actual business of college-attending gets going, promise.

Although as for the tropical storms, yeah, you're mad :P. At least you guys've got rain, and a functional city water supply?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I mean, they seemed like normal sensible people! I just, well, I suppose I should have expected it in New Orleans, of all places (why do I have the feeling that excuse is going to get old fast?), but I didn't expect it so...okay, I didn't expect it period.

I'm not worried about the school so much as I am about the city. And the fact that one of my classes is a twenty-minute walk off campus. In a residential neighborhood, but a twenty-minute walk off campus in CRIME-RIDDEN NEW ORLEANS. Totally should have taken the option of the forty minute drive to Cambridge from Wellesley, which was my other option if I'd gone to Wellesley.

Sure, a functional city water supply in the form of the water running down the streets. (If New Orleans floods and it makes the news, think of me.)

(Sorry, my sarcasm is showing.)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I mean, they seemed like normal sensible people!

Lesson One of College Living: no one is a normal, sensible person.

My first night at college, just turned 17 (legal drinking age is 18 here), I tried to ask the O-week leaders if there was anything for underage people to do and they set about finding me fake ID. Gnerg.

I'm not worried about the school so much as I am about the city. And the fact that one of my classes is a twenty-minute walk off campus. In a residential neighborhood, but a twenty-minute walk off campus in CRIME-RIDDEN NEW ORLEANS. Totally should have taken the option of the forty minute drive to Cambridge from Wellesley, which was my other option if I'd gone to Wellesley.

Well, first up, is it a night class? And secondly, can you find out if anyone else in your dorm is taking it? Safety in numbers and all that. Thirdly, surely if they've scheduled an off-campus class there must be safe routes between the two?

If New Orleans floods and it makes the news, I will indeed think of you.

(No, really? I couldn't tell!)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I almost envy my friends who are going to the nice safe religious university with the dress code, of all things. On the other hand, not Mormon. (I know four people going to BYU.)

It's not a night class, but it is my AFROTC class(es), and the orientation is at night. And I wouldn't mind walking up with my parents, since the original orientation was for parents and students (but the original orientation was also at ten in the morning), but my parents are worried about their flight out the next day or something, so they don't want to come, and there are shuttles, but I don't know if they're running yet, and there're only a handful of people on the Tulane campus that are taking the class, and I don't know anything. God, why can't Air Force be on the uptown campus like everyone else, instead of off on the uptown square campus? This is severely making me less and less certain I actually want to do ROTC. The forty-minute drive I would have had to take to get to AFROTC if I'd gone to Wellesley is looking more and more attractive with every passing minute.

(I'm sorry about the panicking. It's just that there's no one else to flail at.)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Heh, I wanted to go to a religious college. Fortunately for me, the college technically affiliated with my church rejected me- they turned out to be the roughest party college of the lot, so that was a good thing.

Ah, I see... lack of information and schedule changes in a new place = bad and freaky.
All your acronyms have gone right over my head, I must say. What's AFROTC? Something extra special?

Flail away :) The Internet kept me functioning through the first month or so of uni. Also, you flailing is more interesting than translating Beowulf.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

United States Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. It trains officers for the USAF, in other words, while they're also going to college. I'm just not certain I want to do it, especially since it's off-campus, and (wait for it) one of the reasons I chose Tulane was because I thought their Det (detachment) was on-ccampus, as compared to Wellesley, where I'd have to drive to MIT to do AFROTC.

The Internet keeps me functioning through life.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I *see*... But of a rude shock on arrival, was it?
What kind of air officer you intending to train for?

Amen to that!
(Normal people just don't seem to understand this phenomenon...)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Not a pilot! My eyesight's too bad. The general officer training is all the same, but I was planning intelligence or metereology if I'd stuck with my physics major which, hello, have you met me?, I'm not doing. (Also, I lost my AFROTC scholarship, so there's another mark against it.)

And now my roommate and I are both on our computers in complete silence. At eight in the morning. Wow, we can pick 'em, can't we? (It was a mutual choice via Tulane's online service.)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Huh, i can see why you might be thinking twice about it...
Will it make you jealous if I tell you that the Australian defence forces put their officer cadets through uni and pay them a starting wage the whole while? (I think they have to go to the defence uni, mind, but it's integrated with a pretty decent public uni and the whole deal is all-round sweet.)

NICE CHOICE.

What's the betting in four weeks time you'll be sitting there on your computers in complete silence- and messaging each other questions like 'tea?'

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd applied to (and gotten into) the Air Force Academy (or West Point, the United States Military Academy, or Annapolis, the United States Naval Academy), it'd be free tuition and a stipend. When/If I contract at the end of sophomore year/beginning of junior year, then I'd get paid a stipend of a couple hundred dollars a month too, but...

Probably pretty good!

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

Isn't there a shuttle or some such thing to Cambridge from Wellesley? 'Cos isn't it part of that college consortium up there, and is all chummy with Harvard or something. I know some awesome people who went to Wellesley. Keeping in mind that I am a faceless internet random who's 'known' you for all of two months, I think you'd do very well in Wellesley if you do decide to transfer there (and don't be afraid to decide to transfer somewhere if it comes to it). On the other hand, I hear Tulane is also really fun and that it's one of the biggest party-schools in the nation. But intellectually, it seems less lively and focused than Wellesley.

Hey, at least the shuttles will run soon. And as someone who grew up in a hurricane-prone city, gotta say, it's not as bad as it sounds. Then again, I also lived in the kind of city where schools got days off for political rioting. Panicking and flailing about college is only to be expected at first, and second thoughts doubly so! When confused/overwhelmed, ask questions! It's a good way to reach out. And remember what I said about the nature of the first-year friendmaking orgy!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

There is...but it doesn't run before seven a.m., and ROTC PT starts at, like, six, so it would have to be a five a.m. non-existent shuttle; I'd have to rent a car or bring one. (Hey, at least I can more or less drive straight from the 'Burg to Boston on I-90! Except my car isn't actually, uh, my car.)

I am less panicky today, but I'm still considering the transfer option. (Hello, that much water should not fall from the sky at once. I am from Central Washington. It is VERY DRY there. It's not to be confused with Western Washington, a.k.a. Seattle, Olympia, and (gods help us) Forks.)

We shall see.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I read this too quickly and saw "hiding from the mormons". *snorts*

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

that DOES change the sense a bit :P

[swift-tales.livejournal.com]

You had very good reasons to go to Tulane, remember? And they obviously trumped the ones for going to Boston, I think.

There are actual used bookstores in Boston, as compared to New Orleans, where I have seen ONE. In the French Quarter!

Yeah, okay... that really sucks and all the rest sounds worrisome too. But maybe you'll feel better when you can actually start everything.... and when your AFROTC orientation starts

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

On paper, yeah. In reality...I'm not so sure. And, God, the money issue. I would like to not be terrified I won't have a way to pay for school and books and other necessities of life, like food that is not cafeteria food! (Bruff is pretty good, apparently, but there's only so much you can take.)

It would also be nice if I was sure I wanted to do AFROTC.

[swift-tales.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a lot of things are different in reality then they seem to be in theory. And you're still having some doubts about AFROTC? Did you have any other choices lined up?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

On the bright side, I talked to some of the AFROTC people today! But orientation is still on Tuesday.

My other choice is (a), not doing anything at all, which is a nice option, or, (b), trying for hardcore band, which is what I did all through high school.

[almostinstinct.livejournal.com]

*hugs*? Stow a banana boat and a kevlar vest under your bed. I mean, the vest might sink the boat in the event of a flood, but, by gum, you won't be shot to death. *nods* /silly

*hugs* Give it time, I'm sure you'll be fine. And if not, there's always transfers. :D

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

There's something very comforting about knowing I have options. (I'm still accepted to Embry-Riddle for another year! Although I'd have to reapply to Wellesley.)

[katakokk.livejournal.com]

Hug?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

*Can* you still transfer, if you decide you want to, and get the financial aid? All of the other problems seem solvable or at least dealable, but the debt load...that'll follow you for a LONG time. *worries*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Um, I think I have to reapply as a transfer student, since I'm fairly certain Wellesley either already started or is starting within the next week. And financial aid considerations are the same for freshmen and transfers, I think.

I don't actually have any loans to go to Tulane, but the money I'm getting from my grandparents is still cutting it close, and I'm getting more from my parents than I like. *worries*

[(Anonymous)]

honestly? and i know anon advice from random internet people is less then helpful but *breathe*. first weeks of uni/college sucks for everyone. it gets better. i promise.
J.