So, I’ve now been at college for a little over a month, which means a couple of things. The first is that I’ve now settled in academically and have started getting grades back, which is the more positive note. Unless everything suddenly goes way south for some reason, I am apparently not destined to have a suckish GPA – I got an A on my geography paper and a 9.5 (out of 10) on my communication journal this morning, a 10 out of 10 on my math quiz last week, and a comment on my critical reading journal by my professor that included the phrase “well done!,” so I think I’m doing pretty well so far.

The second is that I am now very, very, desperately homesick, and am generally feeling like I’ve thrown myself out of whack in every possible way. It’s hard, because school itself isn’t going badly for me, and socially I’m doing fine here. But I would be lying if I said that I was really doing OK, because I am honestly having a really hard time with being away from home. I was truly thriving at home, with my stable, stress-free, karate-filled life, and I’m having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that I have essentially forsaken that in favor of what my life is now, which I have not yet managed to construct in such a way as to have it make me even remotely as happy as I was before. Yeah, homesickness is normal, it’ll (probably) pass eventually, etc etc. It still sucks.

So, on balance, I’m doing fine, I’m getting by. Yes mom and daddy, I am eating. No, I have not just fallen apart and given up here. But for the record, I am not currently content with my life, and I am not going to be really, on-balance happy until I am.

In other news, I’m meeting up with my cousin Raina tomorrow for coffee, and headed to see Romeo and Juliet with my friend Aracely next Tuesday, as facilitated by my fabulous aunt, who works for the Shakespeare theater, both of which should be fun. I also put in a registration form today for a Global Jubilee Village, which would be pretty cool if I got to go; I’m not sure yet if I’ll get in, but it would be October 3-5 if I did.

I’m headed up to NYC for a visit with my dad and (some of) the rest of the family … leaving Thursday (the 11th) afternoon, coming back to DC on Sunday (14th) afternoon. I can taste the bagels already School is going pretty well, it’s super hot here but most of the classrooms are well air conditioned so we’re getting stuff done. Annnd that about covers everything!

It being a three-day weekend due to Labor Day, a lot of people have gone home, my roommate included. Having done most of my homework, and pretty much run out of intersting things to do in my dorm, I decided to head downtown and check out the Smithsonian this afternoon. I originally thought I’d end up going by myself, but I met another Trinity girl on our metro shuttle who was headed there as well, so we went together. It’s really a cool place, just huge, pretty buildings everywhere … I went to the National Museum of Art (gorgeous), very briefly into the Air and Space Museum (ridiculously overcrowded), and lastly to the Hirshorn (sculpture museum, very cool architecture). It’s a bit of a pain to get down there from here (shuttle, metro, Metro Center transfer, metro, and then back again), but certainly worth it, I’m sure I’ll be going back. Requisite touristy photos are below.

Yay me, I just had my first full day of college classes! My geography class is my earliest one (9 AM, oh joy), and looks like it’s going to be the most challenging to keep up with; that’s not a freshmen-level course per se, so the teacher really sort of jumped right into things (as in, we’ve got a 3-page paper due in two weeks). My other teachers are going much slower, being as we’re freshman. There was also a somewhat awkward moment in that class in which the teacher said offhandedly “hey, there’s an assignment for next week, find out what ‘desiccated’ means”. Me being me, I jumped in with “dehydrated blah blah” while he attempted to shush me. Oh, guess he meant that as an actual assignment, oops. It didn’t seem as serious next to the 3-page paper.

My second class (Communication) is taught by a really lovely professor from Dominica, who seems like she’s going to be a lot of fun. Her assignments are really varied and look like they’ll be interesting and fun as well, so I’m looking forward to that course.

My third is my Critical Reading Seminar with my advisor, who is very cool, and it seems like the coursework and whatnot is going to be very reasonable, so that should go fine.

Tomorrow I’ve got english and math (gah), and then I’ve got a 4-day weekend (with which to try and get started on all of these assignments and reading materials of course).

In mostly unrelated news, somehow all of the food people already know my name, and as soon as I show up they start pointing out which dishes are vegetarian; score one for small schools!

Apparently all of the school calendars got changed since the last time I really looked at them: I’ll be home for the summer starting May 2, not June 2. Which I’m happy about … I never thought I’d miss home the way I’m starting to. I’m of course hoping to be happy down here, but I’m starting to develop a new appreciation for where I grew up, so being at home for 4 months is fully welcome.

This week was interesting. We’ve had orientation all day, every day this week; that’s talks, meetings, field trips, practice classes, more meetings, and workshops, 8:30 AM to 4 PM or later, Monday to Thursday. We’re all pretty tired, we learned a lot and met a lot of people though.

I went on two field trips, both of which were very cool—one to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and one to Capitol Hill, both with some of the awesome TU faculty. Photos are below, more are on Flickr (link in the sidebar)!

Convocation was today, which went fine. Classes start Wednesday, so I’ve got 4 days to freak myself out over college-level work and obsessively pore over my textbooks in an attempt to not be utterly lost when I get to class. And I’ve got a call in to my sensei at home to talk about the dojo down here and what I’m going to do about my training … I really hope that can get at least somewhat resolved, I’m not prepared to not be training in some way, to lose that much of myself. If you are in NH and got the email with my cell number in it, that means that I like you, like talking to you, and would therefor like you to call me if/when you feel like it!

I went to karate at the dojo here last night. And it wasn’t good. They do almost everything differently from the way we do things at my dojo, but I maybe could have adjusted to that. But teachers make or break a school, and suffice it to say that I don’t think I can stand to work with one of their teachers. Karate is so central to my life, so essential for me to be happy and do well. I do not want to adjust to a new dojo, lose all of my techniques from my old dojo, and have to work with teachers I can’t deal with. I do not want to not do karate. I do not want to be without my senseis. I do not want to adjust to life here, to try and find other things to fill this massive space. I want to go home.

Just went to my first floor meeting. Apparently because we’re freshmen, we don’t get visitation until the beginning of October. So, I can leave campus and see people who are in town, but I can’t have people in my room til October. And I’m kinda lonely and I know nobody here, so that sucks.

So, we got to TU all right. Long drive, but it did end, and campus looks really pretty! I haven’t really been out yet (just unpacking and hanging with my roommate), so I’m just posting photos, more verbiage later. There’s more photos up on my Flickr (link in the sidebar). Love you all, call/email/randomly visit/send me mail!

I just had my last training session at my dojo with two of my senseis. My dojo has just been the best possible place for me to grow up in, and my karate family is made up of the most awesome people you could find … I am so, so lucky to have had that, and I can only hope that the other places my life takes me will have people as amazing as the ones who are currently down the street from me, but who in a few days will become unbearably far away.