We Walk Among You....

👽👽👽

Hello fellow aliens!

Welcome baaaack! I'm pleased to say that our PSEO student association has some dazzling new square artwork on the Washington Bridge! Because you know, we are definitely the aliens among these poor earthlings (lol).

So. What is up? Well, as you really can't respond to that question right now, I'm gonna go ahead and answer that. There has been a lot of random things on my mind lately, so we'll see if I can jam them all into this blog post. Buckle down, you are in for one heck of a ride.

First off, this weekend is homecoming (for my high school). More precisely, the game is going on like right now and the dance is tomorrow. Guess who's sitting at home in pajamas instead of out in the cold pretending to watch burly teenage guys kill each other? Also, guess who's ducking out of  major parts of the dance traditions tomorrow? That's right, this girl. It's not that I have a thing against dances, just that I have a thing against high school...lol. Most PSEO kids I've met fall into 2 groups:

• I hate high school and I left for a reason. These are the kids who, despite maybe not starting out that way, now hates going back to the high school and is completely ready to be and is immersed in the college experience.
• I may take college classes but my heart and soul still belongs back in that high school. These are the people who visit their high schools periodically and still have lots of connections to their high school life.

I am 110% in category one. I don't hate my high school per se, but I find it tedious and limiting. There is just so much more to the world than what is contained in that small town and in that old school building. I also don't have much in common with my old classmates anymore - we have taken different paths in "celebrating" our senior year shall we say. I will have to admit that there are not a lot of people in category two that I know of. Usually, we all start out in category two, but over time, college starts moulding you in discrete ways and suddenly, you are in category one. But hey, if you are in category two, good for you. I envy you sometimes if we're being honest. It's weird to think that you are growing apart from all your old friends, but I just want to tell you all that there is nothing to be ashamed of in that. You are growing up faster than your friends at the high school and that is okay. One day we will (hopefully) all end up at the same place.

So I also have this thing I gotta get done in the next weeks or so...COLLEGE APPLICATIONS. Well, okay, here's the deal. I will admit, in full confidence mind you, that I have been sneaking looks at the U of M dorms and have been (discretely) asking about them. It's okay to be curious right? Here is my conclusion about this whole dorming thing:

• Middlebrook: A bunch of weirdos. We've got the language living, honors living, and theater/arts living all in one place. Also apparently there's a thing called "Middlebrook Hot"? It is rumored that the girls living in Middlebrook are one standard deviation less attractive than the average on campus. I'm just gonna go on a limb here and say that's probably wrong for multiple reasons. One, I am willing to bet money that a guy came up with it and let's be honest, which guy will actually do the math to figure out standard deviations? Two, the prominent reason they think that is because of the "nerd" girls that live in the honors housing. Who says smart means ugly???
• Frontier: The science dorm, also famous for housing nerds. Only, this is more CBS and CSE nerds. The dominant CSE housing is here (Taylor House, aka 4th floor), with CBS in the lower levels. As far as I can tell, the only reason Frontier gets better street cred than Middlebrook is because Frontier is superblock, so they get the party bonus apparently. I also heard people say that in the beginning of the semester, someone put up a sign that said "Virgin Village" in Taylor House so everyone thought that was the name of the floor.
• 17th: Best food??? This dorm houses a lot of the Greek life people and student athletes. Also is one of the newest dorms and so is sought after. It is right by the frat houses...
• Territorial: THE party dorm of the superblock, known as T-Hall. I heard that their fire alarms have gone off three times already this semester and that is not unusual.
• Bailey: It's in St. Paul. Need I say more? They have good ice cream though...
• Sanford: By Dinkytown and also has excellent food.

I always find it fun to ask about where people have lived and then see if they match up to the stereotypes. Some funny ones I have heard (paraphrased):

Me: Where did you live last year?

Him (sophomore): Territorial

Me: Really? I guess you are a frat guy after all. I'm just curious because I might come here and I'm wondering where I should live
Him: T-HALL
Me: ...I will murder whoever pulls the fire alarm while I'm in the shower so maybe not...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: So you lived on 6th floor Middlebrook last year?

Him (sophomore): Yeah

Me: You're not honors though?

Him: Nope

Me: How did you get on an honors floor then?

Him: Who knows? I just got assigned to it

Me: Did you like it?

Him: Yeah, the people were cool

Me: Are you in a Jewish frat now?

Him: Yep

Me: I bet you guys don't party

Him: Oh no, we party. We just had a big party the other week, but I wasn't there because I was studying.

Me: ...

Friend: Can I convert to being Jewish?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: You live in Middlebrook honors?

Her (freshman): Yeah

Me: How do you like it?

Her: (tells me about the friendly rivalry between the floors) They taped the entire script of "National Treasure" in our lounge and highlighted every time Nicholas Cage spoke

Me: ????

Her: We may have thrown pictures of Nicholas Cage everywhere a while back...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: *tries to talk to Taylor House people*

Them: *is a ball of stress*

Me: *awkwardly walks away*

(Being kind of sort of serious with this)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: Does it suck living in Bailey?

Him: I mean the commute kind of sucks but its nice over there actually

Me: I heard the wildlife and biology majors are over there

Him: Oh yeah it's like a forest!

Friend: I heard you have good ice cream

Him: The ice cream is pretty good!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: *is talking about dorms with other friends*

Him: Live in 17th

Me: ...okay

Did I ever mention that I positively just love college folks? They are all so interesting! So I think here ends my adventure of information dumping for the day! Thanks for reading if you got this far and I hope you have enjoyed it!

I would actually really love some feedback from you guys on how/what I can do to make this blog better! Do you guys like this anecdotal style? More posts on personal experiences? Hate these personal tangents? More on technical PSEO stuff? Specific questions? You gotta let us know! Either email us at pseosa@umn.edu or leave a comment! Stealing a line from my chem professor, if nobody comes to talk to me it'll feel like I'm lecturing into the void and then I'll go home and be all depressed so...

Here's a complimentary meme my friends:

*is that 81st person*

Happy weekend everybody!

~Tempest