Oh, my life....!

Welcome to my life. Fourteen days ago, I moved into a new room in a new building in a new city in a new phase of my life. And fourteen days later, I must say, I love it here. This is the story of how it has gone down.

On Sunday, September 6th, half of my immediate family prepped to help me move into room 902A in the Colonial Building at 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA. When I say they helped, I mean they watched- we all did. The Emerson College Orientation Team is serious about move-in day, so they ambush your car and put all your junk in carts and take it to your room for you. All this stuff was put in my room without me even having to lift a finger. Awesome. It was a completely blank, utterly silent suite, my room being the first on the right. Mine is the only double in this suite, followed by three singles.

Everything is new (halleluyer!) and therefore, no cleaning is required. Good, I tend to be lazy. There’s plenty of work to be done in the unpacking- which actually ends up taking me a full six days to complete. There is stuff everywhere and I feel overwhelmed and distracted. Why make a dent in it tonight?

My family leaves more quickly than I thought. I suppose the thought of missing me was just too much to bear. That, and I’m pretty sure they were jealous of my rocking college environment. [So thank you to Debbie and Kathy, who rocked the Aunt car and took off work to make this extremely long voyage. Also, thank you to my mother, who was obligated to come and shed a few tears, and to Joe who I’m sure had to deal with that hott mess the whole way back to Tennessee.]

I immediately began my new life, which initially was lonely and desolate. The first people I met were in my orientation group, but I didn’t really click with any of them and I haven’t talked to them since about three days into this adventure. The first 24 hours on campus left me with that “what in the world am I doing here?” feeling that is so typical of change. My sole suitemate for the week, Ash {read more about him below} was helpful and supportive, not to mention very entertaining. He convinced me that it was alright.

Alright then. So that was my intro to college. Since this is no novel, let’s talk about the format for this blog. You will get a taste of the highlights of my days here at dear old Emerson and of the interesting people I meet. I want to keep a record of the places, people, and events that make this college experience so unique to Beantown. I will divide it all in to two sections: Cool Things Dan Did This Week and People I Met.

Cool Things Dan Did This Week:
1. The Date Doctor- Everyone remember that movie “Hitch” starring Will Smith? Well, the real guy that the movie is based on, named David Coleman, came to one of our Orientation events and gave us all of his advice, both good and bad. It was highly entertaining, and mostly true life. I appreciated it.
2. Gleek Out- Oh, Glee, the wonderful new show on FOX about a high school Glee club. Every week, in every common room of every building, masses of students gather to “gleek out” on Glee. It’s great. I laugh. I cry. I live. I sing. Awesome.
3. Set, Action!- Right in front of my dorm building lays the Boston Common, Beantown’s version of Central Park. It’s naturally pretty and relaxing. But this week, there has been much ado about something as the upcoming movie “The Zookeeper” has been filming in the park. It just so happened (and I made it happen) so I “stumbled” upon the set. You must understand, this movie stars Rosaurio Dawson (of “RENT” for all of you uninformed peeps) and Kevin James (aka “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” who I don’t care about a whole lot). Well, I found the set. Luck has it, of course, that there is no Ms. Dawson, but rather that plump old fart Kevin James. Still kind of cool. In other news, one of my suitemates shot a scene in the city with Ben Affleck this week. That’s pretty cool.
4. All Work and a Play- I made friends with a girl whose major is set design. All theatre majors apparently get e-mails about free rehearsals for productions. They had their first one a few days ago and I went with this friend of mine, Kelly. It was called The Savannah Disputation and it was set in Savannah, Georgia. How ironic. The story centers around two sisters who are Catholics (yes! Catholic love!) and then a Protestant missionary who comes to their house in an attempt to convert them. This, of course, directly parallels my own life. Perfect.
5. Free the Weed!- This morning, on the Common, there was Hempfest, a celebration of all druggy things, it would appear. One of my suitemates wanted to check it out, and I did too. Duh. So we went. And I laughed. Basically it was every addict in Boston who wasn’t so stoned that they couldn’t get out of bed. There was some terrible music, multiple booths of hemp jewelry, and some old guy calling for legalization of marijuana screaming “Free the weed!” Lols.
6. Running With Brooms- if you haven’t figured this out yet, Emerson is a weird- I mean, unique- school. So, in the spirit of such, there is a Quidditch team. Like the game from Harry Potter. This involves people running around with brooms betwixt their legs throwing volleyballs through hoops and dodgeballs at each other. Interesting. My favorite part is that they do all of this on the Common… which means it’s in public. Epic.

People I Met:
1. Ash- my first encounter with an Emersonian was Ash, who lives in my suite and had moved in early to work the front desks in the residence halls. He’s pretty much a baller. I call him “Little Curry Nugget” because he stands at 5’4” and is an Indian. Like from India. He officially calls me by my last name Jones. I’m not sure if that is a fair trade, but whatevs. He likes to make jokes about the South and threaten to give me violations for tapping my own ID when I enter the building. Bring it on, Nugget.
2. Christine- my first and best friend still on campus is this stylish blonde. We met at our RA meeting and clicked. The first day we spent over six hours together which included dinner, some orientation event, and eating cake. I love cake. She lives directly across from my window so I can see in to her suite if the shades are up, and vice versa. Creeps maximus. But it’s fun. And now, when we get up in the mornings, we pull up the shade to signal to the other person that we are awake and open for business.
3. Joe- hailing from New Jersey, “Jersey Joe,” as I feel he should be called, is actually Ash’s friend but we get along, in a sense. Most of our conversation is him yelling “Jones!” at me in a gruff, Northern accent and me yelling “Joe!” back at him. How very productive.
4. Emma- this lovely little specimen can often be seen around campus with a camera in her hands filming for the school’s TV station, the Emerson Channel. She is good friends with Ash, Joe, and my suitemate Ian (below). She was the first Jew I ever met. Ever. I’m so glad to be out of Knoxville. Accordingly, I call her “The Good Jew” and she plays along with it. I love people who aren’t offended by my derogatory remarks.
5. Mercedes- when I first talked to Mercedes, I already knew who she was because she was friends with me on Facebook. Kind of creepy. Anywho, we are pretty good friends now, and we like to bake together and watch The Office. Also, it appears that we are going to be concert buddies. We just bought tickets the other day for A Fine Frenzy (yay!!!) and it looks like I’m going to Paramore with her as well. Great!
6. Ryan- my roommate, from just outside Boston. He’s interesting and a little intense. Most of my worries were not necessary, as I thought they would truly end up being. He is very serious about the Bible and Christianity and we have a few doctrinal disagreements but get along just fine so far. It could be worse. Much worse.
7. Ian- another suitemate of mine with an acting major. He’s very suave and girls seem to flock to him. I find him a bit intriguing. He was in a movie this summer with Adam Sandler and Selma Hayek (holla!) and just filmed a bit with Mr. Affleck, as mentioned above. Ian likes to listen to medieval music and we may be going to a Renaissance fair in a few weeks. I can’t wait! I’ve nicknamed him “Jacket” for this ridiculous jacket he bought the other day at H&M and hasn’t taken it off since.
8. Mike- the most quiet member of our suite. What is says is usually worthwhile and pretty funny. Mike is in to sound production and has a DJ station set up in his room, which I find highly intriguing. He loves bright colors, which I find interesting to be paired with his calm personality. I have yet to get a nickname for him. I need to work on that….
9. Sarah- a fellow WLP (writing, literature, and publishing) major who is also an international student born in Germany, which means she can speak German. She is super nice and introduced me to some of her friends from other places as well. She has lived in like five or so countries. Really cool. No nickname.
10. Rebecca- Sarah’s roommate who is in several of my classes. She’s Jewish but blonde and blue-eyed. Interesting. She dates a guy who lives in Israel, where she spent a gap year between high school and college. She now speaks Hebrew almost fluently. She’s my ally in the honors program. Although we’ve known each other for almost 10 days, she still refers to me as “New Friend Daniel.” This distinguishing name has carried over to her friends.
11. Tau- this crazy boy is considered an international student since he was born and lived in Bangladesh and can speak Bengali. Yet, he spent most of his life in Rhode Island. I don’t get it. In any case, he’s dramatic and crazy enough to be a political communications major. More power to ya.
12. Kelly- this sweet little thing from New York the state is a scenic design major. She’s my connection to the free theatre world. She’s really cool and laid back, which I totally need in this crazy world.
13. Monica- the little ball of energy from down the hall. Monica is part of Emerson Comedy Workshop and she’s always trying to recruit people- even me. She’s short and lively and hysterical. She tends to be in my suite a lot because she’s friends with Ian. Cool.
14. Amanda- although there is a first name here, we actually call this one by her last name Cuoco (pronounced coco). Either that or I call her the Coconut cause she is, in fact, nutty. We share a love of the Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift so that makes us friends, obviously. She used to date Ash’s old roommate Taylor who was tall and from Tennessee so she refers to me as Taylor 2.0 because I’m the new and improved version. Sounds nice.
I have met many other people, but for the sake of your time and mine, I will save them for another blog.

In conclusion- I love this city. I love these people. I love this school. I’m so glad I’m here and I plan on learning a lot. The classes are great so far, although it looks like it’s going to be a lot of work. I think I will address them in my next blog, along with some other issues. I hope this satisfies many of your questions about how my life is going and how I like school. If you want more specifics, do ask. Sorry to be so long. I miss you guys back in Tennessee (and other schools in the country)! I hope to see you all soon.

-Daniel